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weekend warrior
June 26th, 2005, 01:02 PM
What was it in particular that pushed (or pulled) you to change to Linux?

In my case, I was pushed into the deep end of the pool with straight Unix at work about 7 years ago, but it wasn't really until the chaos caused to Windows by viruses like Blaster and Sasser a couple years back that my burn-the-ships "leaving & never coming back" moment happened.

Was just curious what other people's defining moments were. So what pushed you over the edge?

Lovechild
June 26th, 2005, 01:03 PM
I turned 18, celebrated by deleting Windows and moving 100% to Linux - I just wanted a better operating system. (which means I just celebrated my 6th year without Windows.. huzzah)

tom-ubuntu
June 26th, 2005, 01:08 PM
I read in a printmag about Linux the first time (around 10 years ago) and liked to try it out. Since then, I always had Linux at least on one machine. For private purposes I uses Linux now exclusivley since 3 years. Distributions I am using now are Ubunto (my family), Fedora, and my workstation is running Gentoo. Ubuntu is by far the most complete Desktopdistribution I saw so far. Great work!

manicka
June 26th, 2005, 01:37 PM
Played wuth Linux for 6-7 years, then about a year ago moved to Linux as my main distro. I still use windows and osx at work but at home I guess I basically just got over the whole windows thing. Linux finally got to a point where I didn't need it anymore. I still dual-boot for the rest fo my family to use as they are a little harder to convince.

Trojan1313
June 26th, 2005, 04:33 PM
Played wuth Linux for 6-7 years, then about a year ago moved to Linux as my main distro. I still use windows and osx at work but at home I guess I basically just got over the whole windows thing. Linux finally got to a point where I didn't need it anymore. I still dual-boot for the rest fo my family to use as they are a little harder to convince.
Over the edge... I wouldn't call it that 'cause I still have Windows installed and I'm not pissed at it or anything...

Well, I saw "Revolution OS", at least that's what caused my latest change. I've switched many times. :)

betrayed
June 26th, 2005, 04:36 PM
Total conversion was about a year ago. I have been using freebsd in a server form for many years though. I was never really mad at windows and made my money programming for it for years. Just decided that linux provided more of what I want so thats what I use and I have found a market here programming for companies making the switch. I still use a couple of windows apps though. Ifoedit and cce. I can find not real good linux replacement so wine will have to hang around for a bit.

picpak
June 26th, 2005, 05:32 PM
A couple months ago I didn't know how to work partitions so I overwrote Windows.

weekend warrior
June 26th, 2005, 06:05 PM
Right, I'll rephrase the "over the edge" part as it's being taken a tad too literally. How about... what was it that finally made you decide to jump in and get wet with Linux?

Ether
June 26th, 2005, 06:41 PM
a couple of months ago i relised that the only time i ever saw the default windows programs and interface was when i was browsing for files or doing the rare bit of printing with Word.
Everything else was done with a different service - Aston for the User Interface, Firefox for the web Browser, Kewlpad for notepad and even Process XP rather then the standard Ctl+Alt+Deleate panel.

i always had some knowlage of linux in the back of my mind for the last few years and finally started doing some research into it, a friend loned me a knoppix cd to try out, and before that i always thought linux was text based only.
So then i found out that Ubuntu shipped free cds - a huge discovery for someone without a credit card.
so two weeks ago i did my first linux install, a test before looking at making it the main system.

once i visit home again and have all my program cds i will make the switch to a main linux system.

crashtest
June 26th, 2005, 06:43 PM
I was working for a few years as a Windows NT admin with my shiny new MCSE in my hand, when I was approached with a job offer from an Engineering company. (This was in the good ol' days just before the dot-bomb crash, and IT jobs were kind of easy to find.)

I went to the interview and got on well with the people there. They told me they had only a handful of Windows machines, and were mostly using HPUX, and a few Linux boxes - Redhat 6.0 I think. Anyhow, they asked me if I would like to learn UNIX, and I said "Yes! That would be great" and they hired me me. My previous experience with UNIX at that point consisted of working on a single SCO box, and installing, but not really using Slackware 2.0, and then later on Redhat 5.2.

On the first day when I showed up for work, I found that the previous Sysadmin had a computer that was dual-booting Windows 98 and Linux. I decided on the spot to erase Windows from the machine and use only Linux. Sink or swim I thought, and dived in with both feet.

The first few days were very difficult, and I remember almost being in tears with frustration over not knowing how to do even very simple things - like how to eject a CD from the drive for example! LOL

Anyhow, with lots of help from the friendly engineering staff who were mostly very knowledgable about unix and linux, I caught on. I worked INSANE long hours at first because everything I did took me about 5 times as long as it should have. If it were not for working long hours, and then studying all weekend I never would have made it.

Six years later, I now work for a much larger Engineering company that is very heavily Linux and Solaris based. I still spend a lot of time reading, and playing around with Linux. At home I run a Debian Sarge server, an Ubuntu notebook, and a Mac mini with OS X 10.4. Guess which machine gets the most use? That's right, the Ubuntu notebook, with wireless networking follows me all around the house.

One of these days I gotta get a life... :grin:

CoriolisSTORM
June 26th, 2005, 06:55 PM
Hmm, mine was when my Windows Update quit working, and I could not get any updates. I tried everything tech support gave me, and pcpitstop too. In the end, Windows is still on here, but I am actively migrating to Linux except for games once I get my winmodem working.

qalimas
June 26th, 2005, 07:18 PM
I'm only 16 so I don't have all this Unix an Linux backgroudn like most members here do XD

But, about three years ago my dad's friend brought over Mandrake (Mandriva) 8. I tried it, didn't really like it much, but I feel in love with some of it's tools. Didn't install it on anthing but a test computer. He soon brought Mandrake 9.1. It was nice, I feel in love with Quanta Plus, I knew no matter what, I needed that one application. But, I didn't care that much for Mandrake 9.1. When I was introduced to SuSE, I was pulled off of Windows for good. I still brag to Windows fanatics that I don't need all those spyware apps installed in my computer O:)

-Rick-
June 26th, 2005, 07:40 PM
A bit weird perhaps:

I always was a bit interested in linux because
* I read some articles how insecure windows was
* I wanted linux bins for my project
* Curiousity

One day when I saw a linux mag(Linux Format) somewhere in a small shop in Sweden, I thought it might be interesting and so I bought it. After reading for a while I saw an article about CoLinux.
So when I was back at home I installed CoLinux...I couldn't get the network running with both debian and gentoo and got a bit fed up with it. So I thought "why not just download a distro and try to install it on my hd"(I never knew there where free linuxes(as in gratis) ;)). First I got on the debian site ... but I didn't knew what to download :) After that I visited the gentoo site, it was more clear for me back then and the size of the iso wasn't very big(had a data limit). After the download was ready I tryed to install it but couldn't get the net to work(again!), but after a bit mucking around it finally worked and so the days of compiling started :)

When I had a nice and shiney KDE desktop set up and the right apps installed I came to the conclusion that I liked linux way more than windows and so I switched for 99% to it.

carlc
June 26th, 2005, 07:44 PM
Well, it was windows... I can't remember the details but I was having problems with my hd (or so it seemed) and windows would install but would not boot. Linux installed and booted fine. I also got annoyed when I would create a fat32 partition prior to installing windows and windows would not let me install on fat32 and would convert it to ntfs.

benplaut
June 26th, 2005, 08:00 PM
mainly curiosity... and tanting from my friend that i wasn't 1337 enough (he was a gamer. i was a geek with a horrible gpu, but afraid to admit it).

i installed linux, and then, when he was away from his computer for a few minutes, LiveCD'ed him :grin:

he hated it :grin:

--

i finally became 1337, in his eyes, when i beat him at Nexuiz (i had been practicing, and he just came across it)

i really didn't care about the 1337ness, but it was another incentive, and now i'm hooked \\:D/

skirkpatrick
June 26th, 2005, 08:14 PM
I've had a Redhat server here at home for about 4 or 5 years now. Been using embedded Linux at work for almost that long. What finally convinced me to switch my desktop PC over was some information from a friend about registering XP. She owns a small computer shop and swaps out hardware quite a bit. Of course, whenever XP decides that you've made a significant change, it requires you to re-register. When she went to register and Windows told her she had reached her limit, she called tech support. When they told her that her EULA was for the machine and not the user (most software licenses are per user based) and that they considered that she now had a new machine and would have to buy a new copy of Linux, she decided to try SuSe. I had heard of Ubuntu from a friend and thought that if I was going to get the other people in my house converted and supported in the future, I wanted a distro that was easy to use yet powerful.

polo_step
June 26th, 2005, 08:16 PM
So what pushed you over the edge?

1: Crippling malware accumulating in XP faster than I could get rid of it.

2: XP bug causing problems with my video cards.

allforcarrie
June 26th, 2005, 08:23 PM
curiosity, i'm still not a full time linux user.

cajunaggie
June 26th, 2005, 09:00 PM
When I built my computer I spent between $400 to $500 on parts. I didn't have the cash to pay another couple hundred for Microsoft and nobody I knew had any Windows install CD's. So I went to my buddy and he gave me Mandrake 1.something. And then I found Ubuntu. Ah, happy day...

bk452
June 26th, 2005, 09:51 PM
What was it in particular that pushed (or pulled) you to change to Linux?

In my case, I was pushed into the deep end of the pool with straight Unix at work about 7 years ago, but it wasn't really until the chaos caused to Windows by viruses like Blaster and Sasser a couple years back that my burn-the-ships "leaving & never coming back" moment happened.

Was just curious what other people's defining moments were. So what pushed you over the edge?
What was it in particular that pushed (or pulled) you to change to Linux?***

For a year, I'd come home from work and the kids would say the pc didn't work. I got a newer pc for the kids, told them not to hook it up to the net until I got home from work because I didn't have time to put the firewall, etc.

Well they got the neighborhood geek to hook it up and when I came home the pc was an utter disaster. I told them, "Guess what kids? We're learning Linux". My kids love it.

Curlydave
June 26th, 2005, 10:09 PM
I was bored and wanted to try something new.

sapo
June 27th, 2005, 12:35 AM
virus, spywares, constant crashes, slowdowns after 1 month of a fresh installation.. i think you all know wich OS i m talking about...

And now i m happy with ubuntu...

Ubuntu rules!

poofyhairguy
June 27th, 2005, 02:00 AM
I was bored and wanted to try something new.


Same for me too.

virgule
June 27th, 2005, 02:26 AM
Its a old Macintosh. It ran only MaCOS 9. Whats a joke to call than an 'OS' in the first place. I was about to trash it when I noticed a YDL3 cd I burned about a year ago... My very first experience with Linux was with Linux/PPC 1999. so huh.. never worked properly. So I installed YDL3 and I was pleasantly surprised by *finally* IRC, the command line, the community and that much softwares available for free! It got me sky high. I even bough YellowDog t-shirts. I joyfully ran it for a couple years. It never crashed by itself!! You know what "a mac never crash.." actually mean, heh? yeah.. it just crashed. But Linux made it sooo stable and reliable that must be heaven! YellowDog eventually got old. I wanted someting more 'en vogue' and current. YellowDog4 is was dog to me. Slow and badly maintained, IMO. Ubuntu was the newest kid in town, Debian never installed, mandrake either. Things were getting lame I must say. Same old same old. Hoary released and I managed to install with not much problems. Im still running it since then. I was hopping for more actually. I want my beloved Linux speed and snappiness back. Whats up with multi-thread kernels?!?!

TristanMike
June 27th, 2005, 02:54 AM
Geeze, what out of the hundrededs do you want. Explore crashing all the time, sound goes in and out, games installing twice, toolbars (god I hate toolbars), unable to add/remove programs, have to install 15 different programs to get the things that it ships with are suppose to do, the list goes on, but the reformat once every 6 months or so, can be a bit of an anyoance, the list goes on....
TristanMike

davahmet
June 27th, 2005, 03:03 AM
Ages ago, some techy friends and I were argueing over trhe best way to get around Microsoft's new licensing scheme. This was back in the days when we wrote our own memory managers because the one in MS-DOS 2.11 was faulty. Viruses were unheard of, and the closest thing any of us had to the internet was our lists of phone numbers for bulletin boards. Microsoft up until then had been very helpful, encouraging independent developers as we added functionality. We had no problem with giving our work back to Microsoft, since that was the most efficient way to get improvements to the computing community and it helped us all. Then Microsoft did the unthinkable. They shut us out and demanded a licensing fee from developers!

We were stymied about how to get around it. Some of us even wrote letters to Microsoft and Bill Gates, sure that if Bill knew what was happening he'd correct such an obvious oversight. I and another hobbyist decided perhaps we wouldn't share our hand-crafted TCP stack with Microsoft afterall. The company we had trusted and felt good about had changed somehow, and now demanded that all developers pay for access to the APIs, which was essentially the right to develop software for them.

After we gained internet access, these friends and I argued about how to develop software underground, without Microsoft's paid approval. One of us found a reference online to Linux and curiousity got me searching for it. Although it took me nearly a year to get my hands on a set of rool-your-own vanilla Linux floppy disks, I could haedly wait to try it. It was rough, definitely user-hostile. It took me nearly a week of fiddling to get it to boot to a ready prompt, and then there was little I could do with it. X was horrible to configure...I literally set fire to my monitor by misconfiguration, and getting a serial modem to work was just this side of impossible. Despite all of these headaches, it was free, and the user community encouraged independent development. This made it well worth following.

Eventually, I found Red Hat 6.0 and never looked back. Although I have gone through many distros, I have never forgotten what sent me searching in the first place. Thanks Microsoft for giving me the incentive to endure those early, painful days of Linux.

primeirocrime
June 27th, 2005, 11:33 AM
Microsoft did. If windows worked in a proper manner I would never consider to install another OS.

My problems with microsoft and/or Windows operating systems:



their Help system, it just doesn't help. it is just one of those snakes biting their tales.
restrictive attitude from them [can't unisntall IE for example, can't make annything out of registry]
demagogic corporation
spyware, viruses, bluescreens, defrag
insufficient base system for something that is entitled OS. Why isn't there any office suite from day one I don't no.[yes the system is being operated alright but not by me]
promoting piracy and using strong arm tactics to rule out competition.
..and lots more

I guess it all builded up to me trying to find a way out of the pit, so lot's of distro testing till I found SuSE, Fedora and Ubuntu.
also I liked what I read in the GPL... it resonates in me.

timczer
June 27th, 2005, 01:07 PM
My move to linux was a slow build sort of thing. I am not a full on computer geek, but I like to tweak my machines, find better software, make it run faster, that sort of thing. I slowly moved to firefox, tried Openoffice, and other free software.

At the same time I was frustrated with the constant fight with spyware, mallware, what have you. I also became frustrated with how quickly the speed and performance of windows went downhill. No matter how much you cleaned up your system , defragged, etc. speed would slow down.

Eventually, cruising the net (probably slashdot) read some stuff on fc3, decided to give it a try. I screwed up the dual-boot install and couldn't get back to my XP side, ended up having to find ways to make fc3 do what I needed to get my work done.

I eventually got XP and fc3 going when I learned of Ubuntu. Loaded that on as well and found it worked great (I had probably bloated the heck out of fc3 downloading stuff trying to get it to do stuff I wanted.) I eventually was doing everything with Ubuntu, dropped fc3. I keep XP around for the few things I still can't get Ubuntu to do (work with my PDA, online poker).

garnertr
June 27th, 2005, 01:40 PM
I'm not pushed over the edge just yet, however, my laptop is 100% Ubuntu and I've convinced a co-worker to play with it for a learning experience.

Myself, the hardest issue will be the family, my children have many kids games that are ******* and my wife is used to the "format"; getting her to switch would not be an issue, its my children's games, I've got dozens of them and if they all don't work, then my world will be a living nightmare.

Maybe a nice side thread would be where to get software by name? I don't know what software is out there that works for ubuntu and if I can find childrens games that could sooze them and I could replace them, then and only then would I be pushed to switch 100%.

Also as a side note, I am finding myself more happy using linux-based products than *******, not b/c of any anti-bill gates propoganda or any such silly issues, I'm getting disheartened by the updates, upgrades, security issues (to include virus, anti-virus, issues). I am getting very very very tired of the latest/greatest ******* security issue and/or its lapse to take one seriously (there are a few cases where ppl submitted suspected holes and then where treated like criminals)...

So, I am leaning towards Linux-based products b/c the community is better, the tolerance for newbie's and oldies is wonderful I've not had an issue w/ security since I switched on my laptop. Overall, its been a great experience...

derrick1985
June 27th, 2005, 02:25 PM
Curiousity started the fire, and microsoft fueled it.

Back about 5 years ago, I was reading a magazine and it had a small article about Linux in it, and how it was a free operating system, yadayada. So, it caught my interest and I started reading up on the different distributions available at that time.

What finally made me switch, was people. I help friends and people at work who have computer problems, and 99% of the time when I repair a windows PC, it's because of spyware/malware/virus's. I finally got fed up with it and started looking into Linux again. Mandrake started taking over most of my attention, simply because of it's GUI friendliness. So, for a while I played with it, dual booted into it when my mother wasn't using the computer (tried to get her to convert, it didn't go over too well, especially when you destroy the mbr and format the hd). But, still, it was harder for me to get everything working right, RPM hell basically drew me back to windows for another 1.5 years. Then, the crashes hit. It didn't matter how many anti-virus programs I had, or how many times a week I did a spyware scan, my computer was covered in them. It would slow down randomly, programs were crashing, and I finally got fed up and formated the PC, reloaded windows (my girlfriend still needs it for what she does, i'm working on that though) and started playing around with an apt'ed system, NOT DEBIAN (i was afraid of the configuration) and found Mepis to be suitable. STarted using that. Was trying out Warty, but the LiveCD wouldn't boot up on my system so I didn't use it. Then, Hoary came out and i've been in heaven ever since.

weekend warrior
June 27th, 2005, 09:27 PM
Interesting reading all round peeps :) Lots of different reasons. Looks like a smidge more push factor than pull, but both are well represented.

poofyhairguy
June 27th, 2005, 10:09 PM
Maybe a nice side thread would be where to get software by name?

I tried here:

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=33183

If you read the whole thread you will find better lists than mine.

daageep
June 28th, 2005, 12:15 AM
Having to "buy" software for windows made me switch. I love free apt-get and free apps. =)

ssck
June 28th, 2005, 02:07 AM
didn't want to pay licensing fees for win xp pro ... that's why i switched.incidentally, hoary had just lauched at the time ... so i switched.so far so good.

allforcarrie
June 28th, 2005, 07:40 AM
Very impressive thread. I am trying to get my wife to use linux now, all she knows it that when i try messing with linux my hard drives get reformated ](*,)

allforcarrie
June 28th, 2005, 01:41 PM
http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,120795,00.asp stuff likr this.

Domhnull
June 28th, 2005, 03:34 PM
I had been interested in Linux for some time but it wasn't really until I started to understand the ideas behind GNU/Linux that I became serious. http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/philosophy.html

Then it was just a matter of learning enough to make the switch. I tried a variety of distros and decided on Ubuntu. It was trying out Breezy, though, that made me finally make the switch to 100%. I decided I wanted to wait until Breezy came out to use it so I reformatted and did a fresh install of Hoary. Bye bye Windows. You know it was also a lot of fun to cancel my McAfee Virus protection subscription. They sent a follow-up email a few weeks back talking about how my computer is unprotected. I had to laugh.

I've done some programming under Windows but now I'm going back and taking the time to learn more so that I can develop Linux apps. I want to be comfortable in C++ and Python.

sonny
June 28th, 2005, 03:47 PM
I was sick and tired of all the windows problems, I was fed up of doing virus search for friends and relatives, I just didn't want those problems anymore, the constat reboots, the constant adware telling me what to buy, etc, etc.. I've never had a big problem with windows, but I had thousands of little problems that I just couldn't live with anymore. Now, I laugh everytime a friend tells me he/she have been having problems with windows, and even more when they tell me what it does. :grin:

TristanMike
June 28th, 2005, 05:18 PM
It didn't put me over the edge as that was a couple weeks ago with explorer crashing all of the time, but it was sill annoying though.

I tried to install Adobe Creative Suite on my Windows partition and would it install...noooooo. It looked like it was installing, quick, but went through the process, but try after try, Photoshop wouldn't install, Illustrator wouldn't install, Go Live wouldn't install, I got InDesign to install every time (go figure) and eventually Acrobat 6 to install (isn't that mostly a stand alone anyway?).

Here's the kicker though...in my add/remove programs, it wouldn't list Acrobat 6, and listed InDesign as a stand alone program, not as a CS entry. So I just picked remove InDesign and it went through the processes and was taken off the list. So all good? Nope, it was still in my Start Menu, so I thought, no, just shortcuts left over....nope, full program still there, and intact and working but not in add/remove...huh? After installing/uninstalling "nothing" several times I finally got everything out of my system. I guess I'll have to get a "back-up" copy I guess....

*On a side note, this CS install was done after reinstalling my XP. Weird.

TristanMike

primeirocrime
June 28th, 2005, 05:34 PM
have you tried Adobe support?

well anyway...with synaptic you can get similar tools not so polished but with less hassle.

Seti
June 28th, 2005, 05:56 PM
I only got my first PC a bit more than a couple of years ago (still using it now) and it had XP on it. Prior to that I had only ever used WIn98, NT and Windows2000. I got my PC and thought that XP was so cool, especially as I began to learn the ins and outs of using it. It didn't take long for problems to start appearing; just little annoyances at first, but worst crap later on. I remember the first time I had a virus. I remember the time I had to run Adware and Spybot. And I remember the first time I had to format C: and reinstall because everything had taken a crap. I'd say in total, I only used WindowsXP for about 10 months until I was completely fed up.
What pushed me over the edge? I remember it was discovering that no matter how much I "thought" I was clearing IE's cache and history, WindowsExplorer was still keeping a list of every website I had ever been to. (Can't remember what the file was called; I do remember I had to log out and log in with a different admin acount to delete it :-x )
Anyway, that was the last straw. To tell you the truth, I can't even remember now where I heard about linux for the first time. The next day I had downloaded Mandrake 9.2 and had installed that. I remember being blown away by how fast it did many things compared to windows. In fact, I remember being truly amazed by it.
I kept windows around for a while longer, especially as I needed it for some applications after I went back to school. I finally deleted Windows for the last time and have been 100% linux since May.

TristanMike
June 28th, 2005, 06:32 PM
have you tried Adobe support?

well anyway...with synaptic you can get similar tools not so polished but with less hassle.
I don't think Adobe would like to support me ;-) And I've been toying with Gimp and some other things too, but Linux is really starting to overwhelm me.
TristanMike

jkndrkn
June 28th, 2005, 06:43 PM
I had always heard the boasts and claims made by the linux camp, but thought that I didn't have the time and resources to fool with it. I was exposed to Unix while taking classes for my CISE major, and this made me learn many command-line basics.

Armed with my new-gained knowlege, I started searching for a distribution aimed at beginners. I stumbled into Ubuntu, read positive reviews, and now I use Linux at hom 90% of the time.

blueturtl
June 28th, 2005, 08:17 PM
I'm not a computer newbie (though I am a newbie to Linux) and I have used all M$ systems since DOS 5.0. I do a lot of tech support duty and I used to be able to tell people they "just weren't using their computers right" or had them misconfigured. Configuration is the key. I wouldn't buy this "old computers are slow because they are old". I wouldn't buy it that the system itself would be to blame for the problems people were having with it. Lately though especially with and after Windows 98 I've been introduced to more and more problems that completely defy logic. BSOD anyone? How about an "illegal operation"? Even if you know what you are doing it might be nerve wrecking to try troubleshooting on today's Windows based PCs. The system is simply flaky. I got tired of telling people they're incompetent (and having them tell me the same thing). I also grew tired of the fact that despite my fair knowledge of the system I couldn't get my own computer to work anymore. I lost all my trust and became one of these people who fears doing anything wrong because the system might go down. There are just too many ways to break a Windows system. I still dual boot for Half-Life 2, but other than that I'm converted. My first experience with Linux was with Mandrake, and despite it's flaws I tolerated it long enough to learn some basics. Now I've been introduced to Ubuntu and I'm at loss for good words. It still takes getting used to the idea I no longer have to fear random errors or running several applications at the same time. Also my first reaction to any problem for long is going to be rebooting the computer although I know it should no longer be necessary. :grin:

Cerbz
June 28th, 2005, 08:21 PM
The day i re installed windows, visited the microsoft site for updates to get this .BIZ crap come down my connection and flood my computer with this premium rate dial up thing and loads of pr0n and toolbars.. That was it. I'm not going back, this is far better, no spyware no viruses, apart from the occasional bug, but meh, its worth it as its getting improved all the time :D

gorkhal
June 28th, 2005, 09:52 PM
Have a compaq presario 700 series laptop, an old model no doubt, regardless, windows xp always ensured it was hot, and a crash here and there, could not even run 3 apps properly (btw i ran an ultra clean system), receding hairline, due to intense hairpulling

so bye bye xp and hello ubuntu, and the world's been a much better place since then..... \\:D/

tread
June 28th, 2005, 11:10 PM
What brought me to Linux?

Much as I hate to say it, the answer is prolly geekdom :P

gabbman
June 29th, 2005, 02:55 AM
I was happily using an O/S called GeoWorks (no age jokes please :) ) and they came out with an upgrade to version 2 I think it was that required more memory and ram then what I was using at that time. So I bought a bit more powerfull box which came with win95. My first response after a day on win95 was "you've got to be kidding??". It wasn't as userfriendly or as usfull as GeoWorks.

A bbs board at the time was talking about this 'new operating system' linux, and after my failed attempts at RedHat 5 and then SuSE 6 something, I continues with GeoWorks while still looking at linux, finally, I had a sucessfull install of Mandrake 7. Tweaking and trying through the years finally got me to Lycoris, where I can say I dedicated the entire drive to linux for the first time, free of any computer at home with Microsoft.

Hence a Distro_Ho was born.

jeremy
June 29th, 2005, 10:33 AM
I wasn't pushed, I jumped!
I felt that I couldn't go on using windows, that I had a moral obligation to go open source. Now I walk tall again!

NeoChaosX
June 29th, 2005, 10:43 AM
Sheer boredom, honestly. Wanted something to experiment with, since I did all I could with Windows. It also was training for school, since I'm a CS major. It looks good on your resume that you have experience in more than one OS, you know. :-P So I've been dual booting ever since.

weekend warrior
June 29th, 2005, 07:28 PM
Well after 6 pages of replies so far here's what the push vs. pull factor numbers roughly look like:

People pushed into Linux: 26
People pulled into Linux: 19

As said, these are rough numbers from me going through and subjectively marking reasons as push or pull. If they were both, like derrick1985, I marked it in both. Only picpak's partition post didn't really fit either.

You might ask why I didn't just start a poll, well because the stories are more interesting than people just posting "pushed" "pulled". So if you haven't posted yet, what's your story?

mailophobic
June 29th, 2005, 07:46 PM
For me was for the learning factor. I wanted to see and learn how everything on my ocmputer worked, change and experiment on it, win didn't give me the field experience i wanted so i started fiddling with linux, actually i started with openbsd but fried my computer, so i changed to red hat smg, and have been taking apart my computers ever since.

supenguin
June 29th, 2005, 09:15 PM
I didn't really go over the edge, at least at first. I was a computer science major and the college bookstore was giving away Linux CD's. We had Sun servers, and I was happy to be able to run Unix for free on my PC. This was back in the RedHat 5.2 days on a Pentium 200. I've been through many OS's. In fact sometimes I said my hobby was collecting OS's. I used just about every free Unix I could get my hands on, as well as BeOS.

I like working with Unix and my wife is into graphic design. For a while this meant we needed three PC's - one for my wife to use Windows for Photoshop and browsing the web, another for me to use Linux, and one for me to mess around with whatever OS I felt like.

Then we got a Mac. I didn't use Windows for much besides gaming and my wife is much happier with the Mac. I just got sick of messing with Windows and got rid of it. I still like messing with Linux and other open source Unix-like OS's, but I must say Mac is my primary desktop at home. At work, I'm lucky enough to be able to run a Linux desktop.

poofyhairguy
June 29th, 2005, 09:48 PM
Then we got a Mac. I didn't use Windows for much besides gaming and my wife is much happier with the Mac. I just got sick of messing with Windows and got rid of it. I still like messing with Linux and other open source Unix-like OS's, but I must say Mac is my primary desktop at home. At work, I'm lucky enough to be able to run a Linux desktop.

Some people might not like it...but in the future I see the split happening three ways:

1. Linux for the nerds, enthusiasts and cheap businesses

2. Apple for the home user (even though my sister hates Linux, she loves her new powerbook).

3. Windows for all those people that trusted MS back in the day and can't convert over because of hotmail or a billion excel macros.

weekend warrior
June 30th, 2005, 08:08 AM
Interesting, and what reasons do you have for such clear-cut distinctions as opposed to a more varied smorgasbord? And what of other sectors - education, sciences, government, etc?

poofyhairguy
June 30th, 2005, 08:35 AM
Interesting, and what reasons do you have for such clear-cut distinctions as opposed to a more varied smorgasbord?

Because if MS taught us anything, its that there are some very comman uses for an OS. Many groups need the same thing.


And what of other sectors - education, sciences, government, etc?

Simple (I speak about US as it is all I know):

Education is a cheap business so it should use Linux. I really hope.

Sciences is a bunch of awesome nerds. They will hopefully use Linux (many at my school already do).

Government is usually not very cheap (defense budget anyone?) , and that group seems like it would fall into the " can't convert over because of hotmail or a billion excel macros." trap.

WirelessMike
June 30th, 2005, 02:48 PM
For me there are professional reasons:

First of all, there was basic "computer science" in high school. In 1986, that consisted of learning BASIC and PASCAL programming first on an IBM and later on a brand new Apple IIe.

I learned to use corporate applications in college. Namely Wordperfect and Lotus123. That wasn't much of an introduction to computers and not an introduction to the internet at all. Practically everything I've learned regarding Operating Systems, programming, the internet, hardware, software, etc., has been the result of years of personal research, self-teaching, a network of geeks I call friends and corporate training.

For the last several years I have worked for a telecom as an SS7 network engineer. Pretty much everything in telecom networks runs on Sun UNIX, including SS7 databases. I don't know MySQL yet, but I wasn't going to last long without knowing basic Unix. Unfortunately, my employer was unwilling to pay for such training (even though they had already paid for advanced Microsoft Access and Excel training). The exact words were "for what we're paying you, you are expected to know what you need. If you don't, you need to teach yourself."

That brings me to the point. I know from experience in foreign language classes that the best and fastest way to learn a new language, or a new OS, is immersion. Well, Unix ain't free... but LINUX is! Now THAT'S affordable education!

So, my database admin machine is Linux (Ubuntu, of course) and has been a tremendously powerful, dependable, and educational means of not only doing my job, but learning ways to be more efficient, as well as learning how to get the most out of my network components. Along the way, I've managed to do everything I used to do on my Windows machine on Ubuntu. What I didn't expect was to become so familiar with it in such a relatively short period of time as to become keenly aware of the problems on my Windows machines. Small problems that take me minutes, sometimes seconds to address in Linux and Unix (even those requiring recompile) take me days in Windows, and often cost money, too.

The experience has left a bitter taste in my mouth regarding Windows and, more specifically, a registry-based applications OS. At the same time, however, it has made me less dependant upon Windows and, therefore, more tolerant when the Windows machine fails or requires reboot. Windows isn't even my primary OS anymore, though the home machine is dual-boot for now. The deeper I go into Linux, the less I am inclined to use Windows at all.

In summary, I'd have to say that my professional needs attracted me to Linux, but my experience thereafter which continues today drives me away from MS. I suppose you'd consider it a "combination" of push and pull.

Stormy Eyes
June 30th, 2005, 03:01 PM
Was just curious what other people's defining moments were. So what pushed you over the edge?

I installed Windows 98 on my first PC, back in 1999. Twenty-four hours after I installed it and WordPerfect 6.0, the registry crashed and Windows 98 demanded that I re-install. I installed Red Hat 5.2 the next day and never looked back. You have to pay me to use Microsoft now.

DarkKnight
June 30th, 2005, 03:14 PM
I Jumped feet first.

I've been running windows must of my life, and it has pissed me off for everyone of those years.

The only thing that stops me converting the whole house to Ubuntu are applications such as 3dsmax and Adobe Photoshop. I hate the monopoly M$ has, I hate how I'm forced to pay for every little thing I need, I hate how I get taken through the morons install path every god damn time, I hate how It uses more page file then memory, I hate the security, or lack there of, I just generally hate windows.

hernias
June 30th, 2005, 06:59 PM
I tried Mandrake several years ago and hated it. Passionately. I'm sure now that Mandrake is probably a pretty good distro, but I didn't have time to play with it then and the machine I was running it on was horribly, horribly slow - a 266MHz Pentium II. I switched back to Windows in a flash. But I was never really satifised with Windows - it runs slow on my creaky Celeron III box (I am a student and have no money), was expensive, uncustomizable, unreliable, and full of security holes that I had to fill with things like Norton Antivirus - things that simply served to slow down the computer more. I heard about Ubuntu on many message boards, and figured "what the hell, now I have a better computer and a second hard drive, what do I have to lose?" I installed Ubuntu but tried to use Captive NTFS and couldn't. I was so hung up on that one app that I ditched Ubuntu and tried a variety of different distros in a one-week period - even a FreeBSD release (wasn't that fun). Nothing I found fit my needs. I contemplated Mandrake again, but realized that I didn't want to take three days to download all four .iso's - so I went back to Ubuntu, with 160GB 7200rpm Western Digital to replace my ancient 8.4GB 5400rpm IBM DHEA hard drive. So far Ubuntu has been wonderful. It's fast. It looks pretty. And it has more functionality than Windows. I'm in love. Thus far, the only things I have been unable to do are: get Captive NTFS read/write working (which I have realized I don't need), read my lossless .wma music collection (which has been converted into Ogg Vorbis, so no worries there) and install PyMusique, which will probably be the subject of a new thread soon on this message board. Ubuntu is truly the best, most professional Linux distro I have ever used. It did everything automatically - my networking, my hardware, graphics, monitor, sound - everything. Wonderful. It's the closest I've come to OS X on a PC - but now I'm starting to think that it surpasses OS X in terms of usability and customization. GNOME's applets have no comparison, and neither does Ubuntu.

YourSurrogateGod
June 30th, 2005, 07:44 PM
I keep windows around only for games and Visual Studio .NET. I do more development work in Ubuntu.

weekend warrior
June 30th, 2005, 09:03 PM
I don't want to derail this thread as it's going well; just a quick reply to poofyhairguy's post on the last page ;-)

You did state that view was from the American perspective and that's estimable however one country does not the world make. Education may be "cheap business" in the USA but elsewhere is as often as not privately funded. I imagine scientists aren't all cardboard cutouts of nerds. There are sciences beyond the pale of heavily computer-dependent ones. Being an anthropologist for example doesn't de facto qualify oneself for computer geekdom. Linux isn't a natural first choice for these scientists, particularly those doing much writing and document sharing. Several large regional governments in Europe are making full-scale conversions to linux and others are drawing up similar plans. Though it doesn't seem logical that many cheap businesses would make any investment in time or money to change what they already have, likely Windows. On the other hand, for home users (outside Cupertino's main sphere of influence - read USA) Apple still has gigantic logistical strides and mindset adjustments to make (reference this article (http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/archive/242/)).

It's difficult to imagine wholesale black and white scenarios such as the ones you suggest. I for one wouldn't wish that type of societal segmentation in computer usage any more than in languages, to wit:

"I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to my horse." Emperor Charles V 1500


Right, moving along with the stories :)

poofyhairguy
June 30th, 2005, 10:01 PM
You did state that view was from the American perspective and that's estimable however one country does not the world make.

Thank God.


Education may be "cheap business" in the USA but elsewhere is as often as not privately funded.

True...but even the most profitable school doesn't make the money of a place selling houses or fizzy sugar water. They are still at the low end of businesses here in the states, profit wise.


I imagine scientists aren't all cardboard cutouts of nerds. There are sciences beyond the pale of heavily computer-dependent ones.

True...but some of the best "hard" science (math, biology, physics) tools have been on *nix for a long time.


Being an anthropologist for example doesn't de facto qualify oneself for computer geekdom. Linux isn't a natural first choice for these scientists, particularly those doing much writing and document sharing.

The humanities people at every college I've been at are all Apple fans. This is because a lot of the computer tasks they need to do are basic desktop tasks.


Several large regional governments in Europe are making full-scale conversions to linux and others are drawing up similar plans.

Yeah...I've seen that. I can't comment on Europe and the so called "third world" nations.


Though it doesn't seem logical that many cheap businesses would make any investment in time or money to change what they already have, likely Windows.

Except fo the fact that support for old version of Window's eventually goes away. The MS treadmill.


It's difficult to imagine wholesale black and white scenarios such as the ones you suggest. I for one wouldn't wish that type of societal segmentation in computer usage any more than in languages, to wit:


I thought that to before three version of Windows (home, professional, and server) began to rule the desktop world. That taught me that MANY people have the EXACT same needs out of a computer.

musicman2059
June 30th, 2005, 11:30 PM
I had been occasionally toying around with it for 3 or so years, until I finally got fed up with all the insecurity and crap with Windows that I decided it was time for a better OS. Okay, so it was only last week I made the decision, but hey!

And how's this for irony? Three days after I installed Ubuntu my mom's computer got "virus-ized" that made her anti-virus crash among other problems. It took me a few hours to fix all that crap. Nevertheless my girlfriend's computer is sitting in spyware shambles.

sapo
July 1st, 2005, 02:11 AM
I had been occasionally toying around with it for 3 or so years, until I finally got fed up with all the insecurity and crap with Windows that I decided it was time for a better OS. Okay, so it was only last week I made the decision, but hey!

And how's this for irony? Three days after I installed Ubuntu my mom's computer got "virus-ized" that made her anti-virus crash among other problems. It took me a few hours to fix all that crap. Nevertheless my girlfriend's computer is sitting in spyware shambles.

so.. why dont you just install ubuntu there for them uhn?

weekend warrior
July 1st, 2005, 07:01 AM
You're a good sparring partner poofyhairguy http://freeweb.siol.net/zubi/smilies/thumbsup.gif

NeoChaosX
July 1st, 2005, 07:32 AM
And how's this for irony? Three days after I installed Ubuntu my mom's computer got "virus-ized" that made her anti-virus crash among other problems. It took me a few hours to fix all that crap. Nevertheless my girlfriend's computer is sitting in spyware shambles.
Irony is if the Ubuntu install got a virus. What you described there was coincedence or the inevitable happening.

poofyhairguy
July 1st, 2005, 08:22 AM
You're a good sparring partner poofyhairguy http://freeweb.siol.net/zubi/smilies/thumbsup.gif


Ditto.

Viva la Linux!

emmet
July 1st, 2005, 08:41 AM
I first started with PCs running a non-standard Apricot PC. Then a ZX Spectrum, then a Commodore Amiga and then into the wonderful world of Windows 3.0...

Our company is pretty-much standardised on Windows, but we make software for Unix (and now Linux). About eight years ago, I tried some version of RedHat (I don't remember which one - it was a boxed set) and didn't enjoy the experience. Too little time, too much to learn!

About four years ago, I installed a copy of Mandrake, just because I was curious. It worked OK, but didn't allow me to replace Windows completely, since there was always some application that only existed on Windows. Two years ago, I started an MBA. The week before the MBA began, my PC 'caught' a virus -despite having the latest anti-virus software. It didn't hose my system, but worried me enough that I installed a newer version of Mandrake, together with OpenOffice on a new hard drive purchased for the task (I didn't want to touch my Windows install - just in case). I'm happy to report that I completed the entire MBA using Linux instead of Windows.

After the MBA finished, I bought a new computer as a reward. I didn't even boot it up with the pre-intalled version of Windows on it, but just installed Mandrake straight away.

After lots of hassle with rpm, Mandrake download problems and general dissatissfacion with the way that Mandrake/Mandriva was heading, Ubuntu was suggested as a good alternative.

Suffice to say, I am really happy with Ubuntu. I love apt-get and most of all....the user base is so active! Great!

AntiDragon
July 1st, 2005, 01:04 PM
No one thing. It was a process of attrition coupled with curiosity. I work with Windows every day and since the moment I realised alternatives existed I've just been worn down.

Office, Exchange, IE - every day there's some new problem and every day I have a little voice in my head going "It doesn't have to be like this!". Hence I now use Ubuntu at home. I'm well on my way to introducing our clients to the odd Linux server too...Bwahahaha!

Sionide
July 1st, 2005, 10:16 PM
Hmm - I have dabbled in Linux before, but I used to be too much of a windows "power user" to want to switch fully. I had managed to get an old machine running Slackware and sure I liked it but it wasn't my actual comp so I didn't use it much, only for mucking about.

Then along came Ubuntu and I had a laptop on loan from school - doing not much, so I stuck the Ubuntu Warty disc in, just to see and was stunned! I mean, this distro just installed itself with no really difficult config or anything, it worked perfectly!! So I played with it, liked it more and more.

The real "over the edge" thing came when my parents bought me a brand new laptop for my 18th birthday :D It came from a company called Novatech (www.novatech.co.uk) and they give the option to buy the hardware with no OS pre-installed, eg. buying it blank is a LOT cheaper than buying it with windows XP - so I had a blank laptop.

I dual-boot this laptop with Win2k (2.5gig) and Ubuntu (37.5gig) but to be honest, I never use Windows for anything anymore - at first, I didn't know how to play DVDs in Ubuntu, so I'd reboot for that, but then I figured out how, also burning CDs I can do on Ubuntu - I haven't booted into Windows for ages and I'm considering taking the partition out - for the sake of completeness.

I love Ubuntu.

Lord Illidan
July 3rd, 2005, 01:17 PM
Well..I was 15 when I first tried to install Linux. Before that, I had read a lot about Linux in magazines, and I really wanted the chance to try out a free system. I then got a book explaining how to use Red Hat Linux - Fedora Core, which had a dvd of the full Fedora Core 1 operating system.

What's more, my uncle, the director of a major ISP in Malta, challenged me to learn some Linux, and I got hooked to trying to learn it. I chugged my way through many distros, all with some niggling problems, some too slow, some too out-dated, etc, some which didn't work with my hardware,especially my sound card. I am not an audiophile but I like having some music on while I work, and the total failure of every distro except Fedora Core 1 (2,3,4 didn't work), Suse 9.2, Knoppix and Xandros to detect it made me mad.

On the windows front, I kept on downloading isos (I got many also from Pc Plus and Linux Format) and I started switching to open-source software, Mozilla Firefox, Globulation, Open Office, etc.

Finally, I got my rough and sweaty hands on a copy of Ubuntu which one of the engineers at my uncle's company, Waldonet, lent to me.
I loved it. It was fast, detected everything, had the easy interface of Mandrake with the superb apt-get, buuut...it had Gnome...
So I got Kubuntu, and I have been using it for a week now, using 100% Linux...Windows is now for gaming and my sisters, though I am trying to get used to Linux games...and I am succeeding...

\\:D/

Kimm
July 3rd, 2005, 01:26 PM
What pushed me over the edge was that every time I started windows I got some type of error or some crappy ununinstallable shareware program had installed itselfe and was running automaticly when I started windows, along with the a pulling feeling toward Linux as I got this realy funny feeling in my stomach everytime I ran it... I clearly remember the first time I tried Linux, Topology Linux 4 ^^, now I dont get that feeling no more however I still almost allways get pissed when I sit by a windows computer (even when I sit by my fathers 3,6 ghz P4 1gb ram and 128 mb ATI (something) graphics with windows XP Pro SP2).

Akir
July 5th, 2005, 04:29 AM
The thing that pushed me over is the partitioning. I was trying to repartition my linux partitions more sutably for my home/main balence (I have quite a lot of music on my computer) I used this wonder-mega-do-everything partitioner (it was a trial, I woulnd't pay 80$ for something Parted does for free). Please note that I did it mostly out of curiosity of how well partition magic works. Well, That made almost 1Gb of my hard drive go "Unusable," which is bad because I have only 6Gb](*,). So I said "screw this, Ubuntu is better suited for what I want," and then I totally installed Ubuntu.

The only thing that I'm not satisfied is the fact that I can't get this new light pen because they're too stingy to give linux drivers. It would have been nice to write on the screen for when I blend (as in use Blender), but a mouse will still suffice. Now if only I could figure out how to use this TV tuner!

weasel fierce
July 5th, 2005, 09:25 AM
My computer was in need of a reformat, due to being crawling slow. i figured, what the heck, why not try Linux ? I had some previous experience with it (Mandrake I believe) from a friend of mine, and Ubuntu seemed like a great idea for a new guy.

Burned the CD and popped it in, saw the little box asking if I wanted to petition.

Hmm

"no".
Might as well do it properly, rather than going back, and the windows part is messed up anyways.


Unfortunately, the burned CD has an error on it, as my burner is a cheapass one, so I have to reload windows on it. Well, surprise, Windows refuses to locate my internet connection OR my wireless card.

Use the wife's laptop to burn a new CD, load it up and hello mister Ubuntu. Finds my internet immediately and away I go (apart from a few glitches)

So far, Im happy.

knewbix
July 5th, 2005, 11:12 AM
For me it was when XP stopped seeing my USB thumb drive/mp3 player. I had been using the Knoppix Live CD for a week or two after my teacher told me about it so I decided to wipe the whole lot and reinstall Windows and also install Knoppix. Well, after I formatted everything, my XP install disc didn't work anymore because I had changed some hardware and I wasn't keen on removing it all just to install Windows, so I went with just Knoppix and never looked back. :)

I have since re-installed a dodgy version of Windows, but I never ever use it because I spent two days trying to get a game to work and when I finally did get it working, I realised it wasn't recognising my soundcards. I spent another two days trying to get sound working and eventually gave up. Windows has nothing to offer me at all anymore and I personally hate using it when I have to, although I realise it has it's place in the computer world.

One thing I'd like to say about my experiences though, is I'm a big fan of "going it alone" with Linux. If I had had a working version of Windows plus trying to learn Linux, I think I would have often booted into Windows when I hit a problem with Linux. I know it's a big comfort factor to have Windows there just in case, but you will learn a lot more, a lot faster if you just have Linux, in my opinion. ;-)

transactionlogfiller
August 10th, 2005, 01:16 PM
Ubuntu pushed me over the edge, or perhaps pulled me is more accurate.

Tried linux on my desktop a few times over the years but always had some issues with it, mostly as a result of buying cheap hardware like winmodems and winprinters.

Then one day I was rebuilding my machine and XP would not install on my SATA drive without 3rd party drivers on floppy disk, I don't even have a floppy drive. Ubuntu worked out of the box, confirming my belief that hardware support in linux has now overtaken Windows and MS is now eating our dust. So now I'm 100% Windows free.

agger
August 10th, 2005, 01:29 PM
Ubuntu pushed me over the edge, or perhaps pulled me is more accurate.

Tried linux on my desktop a few times over the years but always had some issues with it, mostly as a result of buying cheap hardware like winmodems and winprinters.

Then one day I was rebuilding my machine and XP would not install on my SATA drive without 3rd party drivers on floppy disk, I don't even have a floppy drive. Ubuntu worked out of the box, confirming my belief that hardware support in linux has now overtaken Windows and MS is now eating our dust. So now I'm 100% Windows free.
I'd thought a bit about trying Linux on my computer, but never really did anything about it. I'm used to Unix from work and college, so I'd always been missing a proper command line interface in Windows.

What really got me starting was Cygwin, though - maybe paradoxically: I switched to editing and working with a lot of things in Cygwin/Xterm/emacs/etc., and I found out i LIKED having a Unix-like environment on my computer.

A colleague told me about the Ubuntu Live CD, so I downloaded it and was thrilled - all normal apps preinstalled and within reach, and lots and lots of others available.

And a very friendly home page and community, too.

Plus, it was all free software. After fooling a bit around with the Live CD I ended up installing Hoary with dual boot on my laptop. This was in May, and since then Ubuntu has been my primary operating system and I think it will remain that way.

I plan on running on the latest stable release always, so when Breezy is released I get to do an "upgrade dist" (and cross my fingers!) :-)

GreyFox503
August 11th, 2005, 09:13 AM
You can count me as being pushed and pulled. I've always liked computers and am geeky enough to try new stuff, but I didn't want to give up my position as a "power-user" in Windows. I felt that in Linux I would have to start all over and be a n00b. (In retrospect, I don't know how anyone can call themselves a power-user when they've never even seen a command line). I had even read through the GNU philosophy pages and I liked what I saw.

Then, two events started the snowball rolling:

Though I'm usually good with security, I executed a file someone sent me in an email (they didn't know it was a virus) and it installed a crapload of spyware on my machine. So I had to reformat.

That's not the worst of it. During my winXP install, I was informed that I had installed it on too many computers and that I had to call MS (well duh, you have reformat every 6 months with that sh-t). Here's a transcript of my conversation with Microsoft:

After 20 minute wait on hold:

MS: Hello, thank you for calling Microsoft, how can I help you?

Me: I had to reformat my hard drive, and during Windows install it said I had activated too many times and now I have to call you.

MS: Who's yo daddy?

Me: Excuse me?

MS: C'mon, say it! Who's your daddy?

Me: Bill is.


Ok, so that's not exactly what happened, but you get the idea. I had to bend over and submit to MS in order to prove that I was not a pirate just to use my freakin' computer!

They tried to break my will, but I vowed then that by the time Longhorn was out, I would never need to buy it because I would be free of Windows.

Wow, that was fast, wasn't it! I'm well ahead of my late 2006 Longhorn goal.

About six months ago (before the above incident) I tried out Mandrake and Fedora Core on my computer, but I basically installed them and got to the desktop, and said. "Um... ok now what?" Because all my data and programs resided in Windows, I quickly went back.

However, this summer I came home from college and have had a lot of free time on my hands. I had seen someone else in my dorm using linux, I asked him about it and he showed me it. He said its a new popular distro called "Ubuntu". I kinda rolled my eyes at the name, but I decided to try it next because of him.

So in the second week in July, I really bared down and got crackin'. I installed Ubuntu Hoary and learned how to do stuff relentlessly, day and night, for about one week. (With MUCH MUCH help from everyone here at the forums) I had no phone support and no linux friends to help me. All i had was windows, a CD burner and an internet connection.

After just one week, I had found out how to do everything I needed to do, and was able to delete my windows partition about a month after that ( i kept it around just in case).

Wow, if you actually read all that, I applaud you. I usually don't ramble like that. Maybe I should get a freakin' blog or something. :)

heimo
August 11th, 2005, 09:27 AM
What pushed you over the edge? I guess I was just a little too drunk and slipped.


What was it in particular that pushed (or pulled) you to change to Linux? Oh! That one. It was curiosity and studies at university. I wanted to learn. I wanted to know. It was new, different, free of charge and exciting. Later I learned about the other aspects - about Free - and I saw the power in this great system, power of thousands of people contributing and I really, really wanted to be part of all that. Social aspects became important. Peace of mind is Good too.

Linux? "Just a great kernel."

bearbigears
August 12th, 2005, 01:17 AM
i just got tired of windows having problems all the time. so i looked around for two years trying different distro's until i read about ubuntu and i downloaded it and tried it. i have been the happiest ever since.

Josh4518
August 12th, 2005, 01:53 AM
Nothing, I wanted to use something new and Ubuntu is my favorite distro and it was the only distro I tried that detected my wirless card out of the box. So I switched!

matthew
August 12th, 2005, 02:17 AM
I got tired of having to update virus definitions every few days, spyware scanner definitions, and so on. I was a little nervous about the open source thing for a moment (mainly because it was new to me and I hadn't worked in a unix-like environment in a LONG time) but that went away when I tried Firefox under WinXP. It worked so much better and I had fewer spy/adware problems and then I found Knoppix. Played with it for a few weeks and liked it so I installed it to a disk. It worked okay, but I saw Ubuntu not long after and tried it and LOVED it. So I have stayed. I foresee that I will be in the GNU/Linux camp for a long time and probably using Ubuntu.

xequence
August 12th, 2005, 02:30 AM
Im not over the edge yet, but I hope soon :)

- I just hate the way microsoft does business.
- Windows ME kept blue screening me.
- I wanted an up to date, modern operating system.
- I like the underdog, there is alot of pride in using linux.
- Community. If I ever need help I know I can just come on here and ask a question and quickly get it answered. I had 20+ questions and they were all answered in good detail. I hope when im a linux expert I make sure I help alot of linux newbies :P People are very accepting in the linux community of newbies with an open mind willing to give linux a chance.

KingBahamut
August 12th, 2005, 02:40 AM
This is a real simple question and there are a variety of reasons, but the biggest and most significant.......Stability. When I ran RH 7.x as my personal desktop I lived with never having to reboot because of performance, never having to concern myself with erroneous malware and spyware (not that a lot of it existed back then , not nearly as much as now) and never a need to install the dreaded Anti Virus package.

=)

pmj
August 12th, 2005, 04:02 AM
DRM, phoning home, tedious and invasive copy protection schemes, commercial software nagging you to buy, every program hiding info on the HD and in the registry, putting icons on the desktop, in the quick start area and the start menu. That everyone seems to be out to make a buck out of you in any way they can.

Windows didn't feel like my friend anymore. It hasn't for years, but lately it got too much for me.

I haven't completely switched over yet, but I'll get there. Staying with Windows isn't an option.

Ubunted
August 12th, 2005, 04:13 AM
DRM, story after story about how MS is f---ing over the general public with Vista, and boredom with modern games.

Madpilot
August 12th, 2005, 04:17 AM
My XP install went south and then wouldn't re-install - I couldn't even get it to install with the code it had first installed with and of course it wasn't an actual legit copy... so I got my Linux-geek brother over, poured beer into him, and he got me set up with Ubuntu.

I wasn't too happy with XP anyway - it's powerful, but has even more invasive "let me hold your hand" cr*p than Win98. Ubuntu has all the power and none of the invasive nonsense.

I think I've been converted for life...

23meg
August 12th, 2005, 04:20 AM
the ethics of open source vs. those of the proprietary world.

jyank
August 12th, 2005, 05:49 AM
Curiosity, really plus constant nagging from a close friend who used Debian at the time. After a while, boredom kicked in and I finally installed debian on a dual boot system, screwing up my first install i didnt install the GUI packages so I had to reinstal. After that it was a learning curve, but the fact that I was using an old 4gb drive to run it slowed me down. The drive eventually died and I gave up on linux for a bit.

Then another day, I got bored and curious again and tried Ubuntu since I had already used Debian and felt i could get around with it relativly easily, the install went great and I haven't really looked back since. I'm loving every minute on Ubuntu. Sadly though I've had FPS problems with my ATI 9800 Pro with the newest drivers, which is the only thing that's keeping me from my deleting my windows partition. Gotta have my games. On windows in a certain game i get a constant 60-80fps where as cedega puts out 5-12, unacceptable. Thinking of picking up a new nvidia card, which might push me to finally take the finally step to getting rid of windows

poofyhairguy
August 12th, 2005, 06:10 AM
One big thing for me is that I hate the "normal" skin for XP (its like "Baby's first OS" to me) and the fact that in order to skin it needed to pay for a program. And then when that program was installed and I got a new skin, the whole thing would run a lot slower.

Blah.

jyank
August 12th, 2005, 06:31 AM
One big thing for me is that I hate the "normal" skin for XP (its like "Baby's first OS" to me) and the fact that in order to skin it needed to pay for a program. And then when that program was installed and I got a new skin, the whole thing would run a lot slower.

Blah.
I agree, I really hate the skin for XP

blakamin
August 12th, 2005, 08:53 AM
About 10 years ago... I think, (foggy memories), I experimented with every OS I could get my hands on... I still have to use windows coz of work and the wifes work, but I prefer to use linux for all my at-home stuff.... (except outputting my divX's to TV coz the box it runs on sux)
I have 6 (5 now one of my lappys died) boxes in my lounge room but 2 dual boot ubuntu... the others are my divx box, a game server (has to run XP, dagnammit!), my mrs work PC...
the dual boots are a HP lappy and a 1ghz celeron with 512 ram and 120gig hdd.
my dell l400 ran ubuntu solely (after fedora killed the XP partition) but a reinstall killed the graphics chip when the fan failed... it still boots to the login screen but then goes all "colourful"

GreyFox503
August 12th, 2005, 08:59 PM
One big thing for me is that I hate the "normal" skin for XP (its like "Baby's first OS" to me) and the fact that in order to skin it needed to pay for a program. And then when that program was installed and I got a new skin, the whole thing would run a lot slower.

Blah.


I forgot about that one. To get any different GUIs, you have to install third party programs that slowwww your computer down. But with Gnome, which I use now, you can apply lots of different themes without installing any more software.

mufftin
August 13th, 2005, 09:11 AM
Hi. I used Microsoft OSs up to XP. The first distribution I am really use for everything but games is Ubuntu (for human beeings like I am :) ). I want to get comfortable with Linux until Windows Vista is beeing released. It' horror to me that slow but steady "NGSCB" (http://www.microsoft.com/resources/ngscb/default.mspx) will be integrated and users won't be able to choose freely which software they want to use.

BWF89
August 13th, 2005, 01:35 PM
Everything about Windows pushes me over the edge. For example. Before I go to bed I usually download something with BitTorrent (BitTornado to be exact) before I go up so it can be done by the time I wake up in the morning.

So I go to download some games with it. And it only had 1 hour to go. Then when I wake up, go to the PC, and turn on the moniter IT'S BACK TO THE FRIKIN WINDOWS START UP SCREEN WTF?

So when I sign on under my name this thing comes up that says something like "Windows installed a critical update and a restart of the computer was required". So Windows just decided that it needed an update and then it also decided that it couldn't wait till morning to restart the computer eventhough I was running several apps.

And this is the 3rd time this summer this has happened.

wmcbrine
August 13th, 2005, 05:05 PM
What was it in particular that pushed (or pulled) you to change to Linux?
I had some experience with Unix from a shell account, and I'd been using ports of open source Unix software for a while on my own machine. I knew about the philosophy of Linux, and it sounded exciting. Plus I liked the idea of having a "real OS" to use my machine to its fullest. So, I installed it, initially in a dual-boot configuration.

But what finally pushed me over the edge, to full-time use, was the need to share my Internet connection with other computers in the house. With my old OS, I'd need to set up the connection manually each time, or else get a paid add-on program to do it. In Linux, I could automate it easily. So after a few months, the dual-boot became a single-boot Linux system.

The year was 1996, and my old operating system was OS/2.

a-nubi-s
August 20th, 2005, 03:12 PM
For me it was every new Windows version being slower than the last. That's not right! MS drives hardware sales. Just like when XP came out, Vista probaby won't run on many computers. How many will be junked and go to landfills? Not good.

The 2.6 Linux kernel is faster, more efficient than the 2.4 kernel. Gnome 2.12 will probably be faster than 2.10 just like 2.10 is faster than 2.08. That's the way it's supposed to be. You can keep using the same hardware with better software. Linux knows and cares about the 3 R's - reduce, reuse and recycle. Linux is better for the environment.

Paul Bramscher
August 21st, 2005, 04:42 AM
My first computer was an Apple //c in the mid-1980's. I wrote everything in the Appleworks word processor and got a PC in the early 90's. Ran DOS and Win 3.1. Wrote a lot of stuff in Ami Pro and Lotus Smart Suite on Win95-98.

I've since converted all my old stuff (including the Appleworks files) to straight TXT or RTF. And I've found that linux, despite its chaos, is the safest long-term bet for my data. Sure, the M$ DOC format is still around. But if you want to remain current over the past 15 years, you'll have spent a boat load of money (several hundreds). So if it's something I intend to keep for the long haul, it goes into RTF and an OS (and office package) that's not going to kill my pocketbook.

So what pushed me over the edge was a desire to get an OS that was driven forward by a desire to improve, not to deprecate for planned obsolescence. They say that Microsoft is its own top competitor. So they need to pit their newest OS against their second newest. This puts the consumer in a bad spot, I think.

xmastree
August 21st, 2005, 06:12 AM
Well, for me it's been an on/off thing.

I heard about linux a long time ago, and I was interested but that was all. Then a magazine gave away a CD containing it. Can't remember what version, in fact at that time I probably wasn't even aware of the different versions.

That was in the days of Sony/Mitsumi/Panasonic CD ROM interfaces, and you couldn't boot from them. IDE CD ROMs didn't exist back then.

So, on this CD were a few floppy disk images. Depending on your CDROM drive, you selected the appropriate one, made the floppy and booted from it, which would then install linux from the CD.

Except none of them could find my CD. :neutral: It was an Orchid, connected to an Orchid gamewave soundcard. Searching the web wasn't an option, my only net access was text only, via a BBS. email and a few newsgroups, that's all. Via a long distance phone call and a 14,400 (state of the art) modem. :-({|=
(Damn. I always wanted to use that violin smiley, and now it doesn't work.)

I just did a quick search for that Orchid drive, and it seems I wasn't the only one with problems. (http://http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/1998/02/msg01693.html)

My next venture was much later, when I saw a Red Hat7 CD for sale in a local store, and thought I'd give it a try. The CD2 was defective. :neutral: Took it back, and looked at the others in stock, they al had the same visual defect, so I took the only option left, which was Mandrake 8. I think that was actually a better distro for a newbie anyway. Having installed RH as far as I could, MDK seemed much more user friendly and I played with it for a while, but I never could get my sound working.

I recently installed that same version in my internet cafe, to control the webcam (http://www.xmastree.34sp.com/webcam/tech.html) and it's been ok.

Then I received a box of wartys, out of the blue. I didn't order them, they just turned up so I tried one and was amazed at how much things have improved since my earlier attempts. Like they say, it just works. Sound, ok. USB scroll mouse, ok. network cards, ok.

I still have XP here, but I haven't used it for a couple of days. I won'd throw it out yet, it still has its uses. I downloaded a sequence of MOV files which I'd like to join together and put on a VCD. I know I can do that in XP.

For me, that's the one area we need to improve, multimedia support. Mpegs seem to come in all sorts of flavours, as do WMVs. gxine can play some bt not others, likewise totem and vlc. I've yet to find a program which can play all my video clips, whatever the format. I usually use gxine, but if that won't play it then either totem or vlc will. but not always.

Anyway, the original question, why linux? Because I believe it's better, and I enjoy the challenges it presents. And to be honest, I like the fact that I can show off a little. Any idiot can use Windows.

Wide
August 21st, 2005, 06:46 AM
Never really liked windows.
It just never made sence to me. I do use it for MS specific programs.

Believe the open source community, it's a wonderfull thing :)

Hobbsee
August 21st, 2005, 09:12 AM
a very, very unstable system of windows XP home

I had three options:
ignore it, and get annoyed with it
reinstall windows, which would take hours to redownload and/or install all the extra programs
install ubuntu, via dualboot.

I took the third option - it's far more stable, quick, and easy...

erikpiper
August 21st, 2005, 07:24 PM
Two years ago, I didn't know what linux was. I saw mandrake in borders. Bought an ancient $10 machine, mandrake installed it. Didn't do much in it. Later I tried Suse, same. Then I installed it on my main desktop. Used it about 50%. RPM was horrible though, so I still used windows. Then I went to mepis. Apt! Sweet! Too buggy. Ubunutu!! Yes!!! 98% use!!

(In between suse and ubunutu I also tried a ton of distros like slackware)

That is the story. In a nutshell of a nutshell.



Linux is SOOOO much easier to use than windows! Everything makes sense in Linux. Installing is super easy, same for software. (Esp Deb packages and repos.) Free, choice, reliable, windows sucks at all of this! No reason not to change. That is why I switched.

I was pulled :)

EDIT: Oops, quoted a big unrelated post by accident. :roll:

blastus
August 21st, 2005, 11:29 PM
There was nothing specific that pushed me over the edge. I just don't like Microsoft. I did at one time many many years ago, but slowly I started to see their true colors.

Microsoft is an extremely arrogant, ignorant, two-faced organization that will use whatever tactics necessary including unethical and illegal means to control all aspects of computing worldwide including all mediums for data interchange and all data formats. They are hell-bent on putting a stranglehold on all types of computing and locking everyone into their business strategy in order to feed their sacred cows; MS-Windows and MS-Office. Through underhanded embrace-extend-extinguish tactics and ridiculous and obnoxious patent rampages they have sucessfully kept corporate and personal computing on a tight leash. Microsoft has a proven history of unethical and illegal behavior and mark my words, history will repeat itself. And if they move to a draconion subscription-based model (which I think they eventually will) then we will all be glad that we switched to Linux.

Switching to Linux from Windows is kinda of like the Matrix!

Totzo
August 21st, 2005, 11:38 PM
There was nothing specific that pushed me over the edge. I just don't like Microsoft. I did at one time many many years ago, but slowly I started to see their true colors.

Microsoft is an extremely arrogant, ignorant, two-faced organization that will use whatever tactics necessary including unethical and illegal means to control all aspects of computing worldwide including all mediums for data interchange and all data formats. They are hell-bent on putting a stranglehold on all types of computing and locking everyone into their business strategy in order to feed their sacred cows; MS-Windows and MS-Office. Through underhanded embrace-extend-extinguish tactics and ridiculous and obnoxious patent rampages they have sucessfully kept corporate and personal computing on a tight leash. Microsoft has a proven history of unethical and illegal behavior and mark my words, history will repeat itself. And if they move to a draconion subscription-based model (which I think they eventually will) then we will all be glad that we switched to Linux.

Switching to Linux from Windows is kinda of like the Matrix!


I concur! :-)

darkmatter
August 22nd, 2005, 12:06 AM
Nothing actually 'pushed' me over to using GNU/Linux.

Even though I never majored in CS in University (though I should have - took the wrong advice ](*,) ), most of my 'real' computing experience was based on the UNIX model, but I became stuck with Windows (not really my choice).

When the opportunity presented itself, it was only natural that I chose GNU/Linux.

ProNoblem
August 22nd, 2005, 12:26 AM
My biggest motivator (Reason #1) was the Palladium initiative from Microsoft, which in short means that you can't run unsigned software on a Microsoft OS and thus decides which software you can and cannot run on your box. I'd like to make that decision myself, although it will mean that my system could be less secure (I'm not testing all my used software as intensive as the MS people will do before certifiyng it)
I simply don't like MS acting as a Big Brother, I'm big enough to make my own choices.

Plus the fact that I was irritated by the huge effort to customize my windows box (Reason #2), everytime I installed a service pack you have to wait for a patch so that you can use your own themes, always the "teletubbie" aproach with the stupid files-and-folders searchdog, annoying helpfunctions, ugly backgrounds and the fact that it editting dll's was illegal even if it ment customizing my box for my own needs.

The fact that I was supporting a monopolist also made me feel unhappy (Reason #3), because MS licenses are sold with almost every home pc/laptop the big manufacturers make, I didn't ask for Windows on my laptop, so why sell it to me anyway for a price I myself wouldn't pay for it? I thought I was old enough to make the choice for a OS myself.

The "Robin Hood" feeling of using OSS makes me feeling warm and fuzzy inside (Reason #4), I can achieve just as much (or much more in some cases) using open source software then people using closed source software.
I can choose which distro I'd like to use, I can choose which windowmanager fits my needs, I can choose which shell I'm using, in short: I'm free to choose, while at the same time people using MS software are restricted in their choices (imho).

For these reasons I have been switching from and to Windows / GNU/Linux for the past years, starting with Mandrake 7.1 till 8.0, Gentoo 2004 and finally Ubuntu.
In the Mandrake time, I was impressed with the ways that Enlightenment made my old 300MHz box feel lightningfast, but after some time I got stranded in a dependancy hell and got back to Windows. After some time I tried Gentoo, and it worked like a charm, up until my emerge kinda broke down (I stopped it after 2 days of continous emerging, had no idea what was wrong) and made my box unworkable..: out came the MS cd again.
And now for three months: Only Ubuntu, which for me has been the most fun of all three distros used. Setting it up was a piece of cake, solving the minor problems I encountered was easy because of this forum (which is great, reps to you guys making this possible ;)) and finally I feel warm and fuzzy inside while typing this reply on my Ubuntu driven laptop..

bearbigears
August 22nd, 2005, 12:40 AM
the one and only reason i wanted to switch to a linux distro is microsoft was turning out to be a bully about all things computer. you had to buy a ms certified this, ms certified that, nothing was included. with a linux distro everything that you needed was included and if you downloaded the iso it is free. cannot beat that with a stick. by the way ubuntu is the first linux distro that worked right off the bat. i have not been happier.

\\:D/

Sheinar
August 22nd, 2005, 12:56 AM
Well, the main reason I finally switched was due to how many times Windows screwed up on me. I told myself a while ago that if I had to format again, I'd switch to Linux. I did have to format again, twice, but it wasn't until the second time that I decided to really look into it.

It's kind of silly that pretty much the main thing that stopped me from moving to Linux in the first place was KDE. I'd only tried Knoppix and I just couldn't stomach KDE at all. It looked so bloated and plasticy. Thank God for Gnome.

Paul Bramscher
August 22nd, 2005, 04:53 AM
I totally agree with the anti-IP and anti-monopolist sentiment expressed here regarding Microsoft. I feel somewhat creeped out by them, and don't know how much I trust the security of black-box closed source software.

I generally blame Microsoft for making me have to rebuild my PC to run each version of their OS reasonably well. The result has been a bunch of spare parts, and eventually a couple spare PC's. I used them to try out linux, since Windows is too slow on them. Get hooked on linux. Had Microsoft not forced me to upgrade so much, I might never have had alot of spare parts, and built spare PC's to experiment with linux.

mstlyevil
August 22nd, 2005, 05:39 AM
The day i re installed windows, visited the microsoft site for updates to get this .BIZ crap come down my connection and flood my computer with this premium rate dial up thing and loads of pr0n and toolbars.. That was it. I'm not going back, this is far better, no spyware no viruses, apart from the occasional bug, but meh, its worth it as its getting improved all the time :D

I just formatted windows to make room for Ubuntu. As I installed windows updates, (I first installed zone alarm of a cd I burned and activated it b4 connecting to the net.) I was attacked by 5 instances of spyware and adware direct from the M$ server. This is the first time I have played around with linux of any form and once I read the unofficial guide and reinstalled it a few times, I have found it to be more user friendly then XP in many ways. I will keep XP around for games and the few apps that don't work well. EEverything else will be done on linux. I'll be darned if I will ever buy Vista when it comes out, thats for sure.
](*,)

a-nubi-s
August 23rd, 2005, 01:43 PM
Replying to this thread here (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=58786) reminded me of another reason that pushed me over the edge. Point #6 in that thread. I hate the thinking "one-size-fits-all". No it doesn't.

npaladin2000
August 23rd, 2005, 02:15 PM
Windows was taking over 5 minutes to boot into a useable state and nothing I could do would shorten that time, no matter what I sliced out of the "run" areas in the registry.

Problem is, i tried Fedora 4 first. I would have stuck with it; it's a great distro with a lot of software available, but palm-synching over USB is broken because of a problem with UDEV, and they haven't fixed it yet.

Fyrzen
August 23rd, 2005, 10:46 PM
I was getting ready to move over to linux for a while, most of my regular programs had versions ported to linux and some even ported to windows(GIMP), didn't want to mess with Dual-boot, start a clean sheet. I wanted to legalize my software, where i live, the price of a copy of Win XP pro is insane, 86% of computer users here have admitted to having somesort of pirated software. Ubuntu seemed the best choice from what i'd heard.

The thing that "pushed me over the edge" was that one day windows simply crashed and i had to reboot twice. After which i discovered it had permanently created more then a dosen errors on the hdd, among which it deleted the ntfs.sys file and rendered the "C:/Windows/System32" folder inaccessible.. I had to buy a DVD-RW and burn what i could via knoppix. It took me 2 weeks to finaly get to installing Ubuntu, then i discovered that the cd image i had downloaded was also damaged by the crash and i burned it onto the cd... and formatted the hdd... -_-' Compared to all the things i tryed to stop windows from taking all my files down with it, installing and troubleshooting all the problems i've encountered with ubuntu is like a walk in the park. And I'm enjoying every step of the way.

tseliot
August 23rd, 2005, 11:31 PM
What pushed me over the edge? Definitely Windows (and its very annoying problems). And the discovery of (K)Ubuntu. I didn't know someone could be proud of his/her operative system until I tried Ubuntu. Everything just worked out of the box on my laptop. Bye bye Windows...

its_jon
August 24th, 2005, 12:15 AM
Thats a lot or replys......

Im knackered now.

Well, Ubuntu has been installed on my machine for a week.
I had tried Mandrake out but could not understand RPM. and in general it was very clunky...... Ubuntu is as described.... its nice isn't it!...... Like the logo, splash screen and the carming sounds/colour scheme..... a warm luvly place to be.

I was sick of XP's bloat, spyware, lack of ethics blar blar etc etc need I go on. I had always known of the existence of Linux and always felt sorry that just as Linux appeared to haver the better hand Microsoft would recursively wipe it out with a freshly marketed 'presumably superior' package in the eyes of the unknowing public.
With the stregnth of GNU and Major Linux crossover software such as Firefox and OOo I thought the time was right for me to switch os and probably everyone else out there as the Linux learning curve today could be smaller than that of XP with the launch of Ubuntu.

GeekWar
September 16th, 2005, 01:23 AM
Multiple reasons

A: I've worked as an Network Admin for a whole saler in Naples, Florida for 2 years now. I've dealt with enough security scares, virus alerts and spyware pains to last me the rest of my life

B: I'm 21...how many average working class 21 year olds can afford to drop $200+ just on the software to USE the machine much less extra programs to do what you want to do with it

C: I've been toying with Linux distro's since I was 16 always getting so excited when I finally got them installed and configured with my system. When a fellow employee at Best Buy's Geek Squad (My current occupation) gave me an Ubuntu CD he had I raced home to install it. Seeing how well it played with my Radeon 9800 XT I fell in love instantly

D: I have a deep seeded hatred for companies that abuse the supply & demand charts. I'm all about free/open source and all that jazz; I can understand wanting to get payed for the hard work and long nights you invest too. But I don't agree with trying to squeeze the value of my hard earned dollars out of the tightest ******* of them all...Point being I don't support Microsoft

E: I love bragging to people that I don't worry about spyware/viruses and getting people hooked on the Linux bug.



... Now if only I could convince my girlfriend to let me install it on her laptop so I can quit disinfecting her windows liscense of all the **** that loads itself on there.

bob_c_b
September 16th, 2005, 01:40 AM
What was it in particular that pushed (or pulled) you to change to Linux?

In my case, I was pushed into the deep end of the pool with straight Unix at work about 7 years ago, but it wasn't really until the chaos caused to Windows by viruses like Blaster and Sasser a couple years back that my burn-the-ships "leaving & never coming back" moment happened.

Was just curious what other people's defining moments were. So what pushed you over the edge?

Very similair for me and a similair time frame, was supporting Windows, got exposed to Unix, started to toy with Linux and have been involved on some level ever since. I have never kicked Windows completely as I have made a living that way, but if my current contract gets extended to a real/full time job one of my first assignments will be to move many of our file shares from some old Windows and Unix servers to more modern hardware with the Linux flavor of my choice. The first discussion today was very positive, so I may finally be able to kick Windows at home and at work. Fingers crossed...

Ubunted
September 16th, 2005, 06:07 AM
One too many articles on DRM, patents and Trusted Computing, I suppose. I gave my games the boot roughly a month and a half ago now, booted up my Ubuntu partition and barely went back to Windows at all. My XP partition finally "bit the 'nix" a couple weeks ago when I decided to try a Breezy install that went awry and ate Hoary's entry in GRUB.

One nuke, pave and restoration of my files later, my tower's hard drive is 100% Ubuntu.

Unfortunately I had to sacrifice my laptop back to Windows after my wireless card came and Ubuntu refused to even acknowledge its existence. Oh well, someday.

geekchic9
September 16th, 2005, 06:29 AM
First time I switched over: Because it was the cool thing to do.
Why I went back to proprietary software: Convenience. Windows took less time to configure and update.

Second time I switched over: Because it was the right thing for me to do.
Why I went back to proprietary software: Because I was impressed by a pretty, functional GUI (Mac OS X).

Third (and final time) I switched over: Because it was the Right Thing to do.
And now that Ubuntu is convenient to configure and install and with a pretty, functional GUI, I'm not going back to using proprietary software. Free Software (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/) is free as in freedom!

Morgan

BoyOfDestiny
September 16th, 2005, 06:47 AM
For me I'd have to say it was primary due to emulators. I'd given up on shareware (around 1995ish), and was using primarily freeware...

Through certain projects I learned about the GPL, and sourceforge (which has plenty of win32 either ports or multiplatform open source software).

From here I began replacing all my apps with open source counter-parts. The most fun was zsnes which eventually became gpl'ed (and still going strong!)

Years go by, I was actually happy to XP, win98SE was horrible, even with the amount of ram I had, the gdi ( or whatever) would always run out. My uptime was usually around 2 weeks at best. It seemed finally the end user wasn't being cheated with XP...

However, phone home product activation. For me copyprotection had died around 1996. MS basically revitalized it single handedly. So with DRM, and the coinage of "intellectual property"...

Well for me having a propetairy OS with all open source on top, was no longer good enough.

I played with gentoo a little (like 3 days, but had acpi troubles on laptop). Dual-booted debian, Kanotix, and then luckily Ubuntu was born.

I knew it'd be the one I stick with. I place my trust in the intelligenstia and in the open philosophy. If you made it down this far, thanks for reading my long rant.

Adder
September 16th, 2005, 03:46 PM
First time I ever tried Linux was in 1998, when a friend of mine gave me a copy of RedHat 7.3 (I don't actually remember what version it was. It might have been 7.1). I have used different distributions on my home server from then on. Ubuntu became my primary desktop just month ago. I have tried Fedora, Suse and Mandrake along the years, but Ubuntu was the first distribution good enough to become my desktop os.

There weren't any single reason why I switched. I just felt frustated on windows, viruses, trojans and so on. I only use windows on games bacause I didn't get Wine/Cedega to work.

LadyDoor
November 21st, 2005, 06:22 AM
Lol. I needed to get various papers written a couple of months ago, and windows kept on crashing, as usual; I was also having a lot of problems with spyware and adware and all of that fun stuff. Then, all of a sudden, I figured out (thanks to an explanation by someone I know who works on the college computer system of a set of particularly obscure error messages) that the reason I couldn't access the internet to do the research I needed to (without walking all the way to the library) was that the school's internet thought that I was trying to infect the whole system with spyware--and this was in spite of having various virus scanners and Ad-Aware and all kinds of fun stuff like that. So since all of that came together in the same evening, I switched over (a friend of mine had downloaded the Ubuntu disc). Then I actually finished three papers in the next two days, all without my computer crashing once! Yay.

towsonu2003
November 25th, 2005, 06:54 AM
was sick of supporting big corporation for no obvious reason...

I was already trying to learn linux in an old computer with slackware... one day, the web update did not work in my new computer due to security tweaks I did... and I noticed that there is no way I could connect to internet without autoupdate. So it was a loop:

tweak system to increase security=>no updating=>no internet ||
^ ||
|| security gap <=enable all services so update will work<=

and I started thinking: why am i using a system that is impossible to secure?? screw that... after 6 months of tweaking and configuring and more tweaking & ~10 distros, I'm here... almost happy (yep, almost: u can never be completely happy with something, bad for sanity) with my new system...

mrpixels0
November 25th, 2005, 02:08 PM
I have always been a windows user up until 2001 when i came across in chat room (yahoo, of all places) a heated debate about somthing called "KDE" i thought it was some kind of windows program that was used to replace the standard windows desktop.
boy was i wrong :), after googling for a while and making like a sponge trying to get all the Info i could on it and Linux i decided that windows was kinda pale in comparison but being on Dial up i had no choice but to order a Distro Via money order and snail mail.
my original order was for Ice Pak Linux version 1.75 what i got was Debian "woody" and was kinda of upset (did not know that there was no diffrence Linux is Linux).

anyways i like the Debian Distro and had setup a Dual Boot with windows 98SE, and still have windows to this day although it is XP mainly for my wife and the sims 2 but that is the only thing windows is used for.

as soon as the book i order comes in i hope to learn a great deal more on the bash shell and how Linux is structured so i can really take advantage of the power it provides instead of being a point and click user.

frozen chosen
June 21st, 2006, 10:27 PM
1. When I installed xp I had to activate it .
2. I had been doing clean installs for a while when my computer started crashing due to a hardware probelm ,It took a few installs to fine the problem,
then xp told me I had exceded the number of installs, I had to call microsoft
and they gave me a number letter combow to get it up.
3. I noticed that when I did up dates MS checked to see if I had a bonifed xp
before they would allow a update.
4.(this is the one that pushed me over the edge) I had auto update on my wifes computer and a update wanted to install,I looked at it first and its purpose was to check to see if I had a legal copy and if I didnt it would help me get one.
5. My firewall stoped advanage from calling out every time I start my computer or reboot, I guess it tells MS that I am using my copy and I think it checks to see if my copy is running on more than one computer.
6. Just hit the install wall agin.
I now have a duel boot 2000pro & ubuntu fawn. At least I don't have too a activate 2000, only use it for a few programs.
Thats all for now folks

acht
June 22nd, 2006, 12:05 AM
A couple months ago I didn't know how to work partitions so I overwrote Windows.
lol, best reason ever

weekend warrior
June 24th, 2006, 02:46 PM
Heh... this thread's back from the dead. Yeah that's a good enough reason, isn't it? Here's one I heard the other day from a friend when his Windows conked out - "well I couldn't get the stooopid service pack without getting a virus after just being two minutes online so... bye-bye Windows"

priceless

Needless to say he had an Ubuntu disk handy supplied by yours truly ;) lucky that eh?

Keep handing out those disks to anyone and everyone, you never know...

lapsey
June 24th, 2006, 03:17 PM
it just accumulated:

registry; updater breaking; having to run everything as administrator; unconfigurability; crappy drivers (specifically background hiss in sound card); backup issues; NTFS; external disk unmounting

too much.

Skye
June 24th, 2006, 06:57 PM
For me, it got to the point where most of the stuff I was doing from day-to-day in windows (using xchat for IRC, using gaim for AIM, using firefox for a browser, etc) was being done on open-source software. So, I tried a Hoary live disk, and I haven't looked back since. My laptop is now an exclusive Ubuntu machine, and my desktop is dual-booted so I can play video games, but I almost never use windows anymore, except if I'm at work fixing something that has broken in Windows.

AndyCooll
June 24th, 2006, 08:32 PM
For me it was firstly my conscience, and later the quality of Linux distros that initially pushed me over the edge and then pulled me towards Linux.

I'd been using pirated copies of various M$ OS's and products for years. As time went on I was feeling less and less happy about using pirated stuff but simply couldn't afford to buy legal versions. About a year ago I started looking around for free alternatives. And at about the same time also needed to buy a new computer. My conscience got the better of me and I bought a legal copy of XP. I quickly built a legal system where the only software I'd purchased was the XP OS. The trouble was that even though I had a legal XP disk, had more than one box!

By this stage I'd also come across Firefox and OpenOffice.org and then the open source philosophy. And from that I remember reading about Linux. So I installed a copy (FC3 I think it was) and when I saw how good it was I was hooked!
Within days I had dual-boot boxes. For awhile with XP as default and then as I was using Linux more and more I changed it round. I also switched to Ubuntu. And dual-booting meant the missus made the change too. Since she just wanted music and the Internet I set everything up for her and she quickly settled in to Linux rather than XP too.

And finally 2006 has seen Linux only boxes in this house. I've added a server (re-using cast off stuff) and a laptop to my collection.
My XP licence is now used for my VMware image for the couple of things I have to use XP for (an IE only website, Football Manager, and to download to a Sony MP3 player)

I still have to use M$ stuff at work, but even here I use my portable open-source apps whenever I can. I've got Firefox, OpenOffice and GIMP on my USB stick. And I find that I'm happier and more comfortable using my Linux and open-source software. It's become as simple as that :p

:cool:

Sam Lars
June 24th, 2006, 08:53 PM
Linux? It looks awesome! Beautiful! FREE!!!
Windows? Geez, that's ugly... now how do I install Linux?
And so it has been.

Cjattwood
June 24th, 2006, 08:54 PM
I got fed up of spyware and viruses on Windows, and I love the open source philosophy.

Qwertyman66
June 25th, 2006, 04:03 PM
Wow, lots of posts. For me it was a combination of things.
First was all the Malware windows suffers from. I haven't had anything for over 18 months, but I still dislike the excess junk I need to run.
Second was a weird bug with CD burning. No matter which cd drive I used or what brand of CD's I used, I couldn't burn a cd without first restarting a certain process via services.msc. A reboot wouldn't fix it, it had to be done after the PC had booted. This needed to be done every 2-3 cd's.
Finaly is this whole WGA buisiness. I paid for Windows fair and square, I have no pirate software on here. I believe that Microsoft doesn't have any right to know what hardware I have in my machine, or that I have changed the hardware since I installed Windows. If any other company did that it would be classed as spyware and be removed by most of the major anti spyware programs out there. WGA gets away with it more than anything else because it is from M$. So I am voting with my feet/wallet/fingers.

FurryNemesis
June 26th, 2006, 12:15 AM
It got to the point where I was performing my 3rd windows re-install in 3 months. That and it started hanging like crazy, even with all the cleanups I could think of.

Enough was enough.

GuitarHero
June 26th, 2006, 12:29 AM
Games are the only thing keeping me on the edge. And video card support. Getting ATI cards to work with ubuntu is a pain, and thats why my main powerhouse computer is XP and my older computer is ubuntu. Id like to go all ubuntu or dual boot but i dont feel like fighting with ubuntu to get my radeon x1900xt working.

Koori23
June 26th, 2006, 01:11 AM
Mine wasn't intentional. I had to get a new HD and re-install XP. I got done with that, realized I didn't have my comcast cable setup CD (On A Sunday, no support calls). Since I couldn't get online, I went down to Borders and bought an Ubuntu Book w/ Breezy CD. Loaded it up, it grabbed my cable modem settings right on setup.. Been using it ever since. Windows couldn't grab my network settings and Ubuntu could, so Ubuntu won.

Then, I stuck with it simply because I didn't have to run Anit-Virus or AdAware and no defragging or disk cleanup tasks. It's much simpler now, just log in and go.

michael1977
June 26th, 2006, 09:00 AM
What pushed me?

Well about a year ago, in the middle of writing my thesis, I began to have issues with XP and service pack 2. Basicall what happened was that my auto update kept updating to service pack 2 but service pack 2 and my laptop hated one another, everytime that update installed I got (and I have been yelled at before that this does not happen on XP) that terrible blue screen and nothing else! Now I am a smart guy and backed up the thesis and what not. So I started researching linux distros. My friend and her man had just switched to Linspire and I thought it looked kewl but I was ready for something beyond windows something different. My friend had a copy of ubuntu at the time. I tried the live cd and thought it was kewl. I then mistakenly installed to the entire hardrive. I put XP back and had it for four months or so as a dual boot with ubuntu breezy. All the while I began tinkering with ubuntu and learned quite alot.
When Dapper came out I wiped the HD and installed it. No more windows. Now I have ubuntu with xgl-compiz and everything works and I have no more service pack update this and that, or spyware, viruses, or having to deal with terrible programs like windows blinds to change the look of my desktop.

Buy the way, I did discover the service pack 2 issue was caused by corruption in the copy from the manufacurer and there was no way to obtain a replacement. I found this quite hilarious.

Footissimo
June 26th, 2006, 09:41 AM
Couple of years ago I was still using Win 98SE and it started getting reeeally choppy (as opposed to moderately choppy, as it usually is) and I was finally going to upgrade to XP when I thought I'd at least try the alternatives. Looked around and was surprised (yes..) to see Mandrake 10 had an OK GUI. I asked a few people on my own forums and the few that had any experience of linux were very discouraging...so I stated that if it cost me more to get my computer running on linux than it would to buy an OEM copy of XP then I wouldn't bother.

Ironically, Mandrake detected my hardware better than 98SE (and XP), so I gave the £60 to the Mandrake club :) Was toying with Ubuntu from Warty, but didn't switch until the not particularly impressive Mandriva 2006 came out.

AngryKidJoe
June 26th, 2006, 06:51 PM
Well, Currently I'm running 100% Kubuntu Dapper but I will be dual booting with XP shortly because I need Photoshop. GIMP is good, very good. Especially for open source, but when one needs the power of photoshop there's just no comparison. I'm actually a bit irritated that there's no linux port yet.

What pushed me over the edge was performance over all. I takes about 1-2 hours to get everything fully installed on Linux. Windows takes about 3-4 and as soon as a person connects to the net you get malicious software/spyware. It's irritating.

I also do a lot of gaming so there's quite a few games that I had to drop that 'just don't work' with Linux. So now I'm just playing Neverwinter Nights (which I've been addicted to for years) and DooM 3.

Iandefor
June 26th, 2006, 06:55 PM
I had a computer that needed an operating system, Windows was borked and I didn't have the install disk. I was tired of Windows at that point and had been playing with Linux for a while. I decided to make the jump and go Linux. Haven't looked back since.

Iandefor
June 26th, 2006, 06:57 PM
Well, Currently I'm running 100% Kubuntu Dapper but I will be dual booting with XP shortly because I need Photoshop. GIMP is good, very good. Especially for open source, but when one needs the power of photoshop there's just no comparison. I'm actually a bit irritated that there's no linux port yet.

What pushed me over the edge was performance over all. I takes about 1-2 hours to get everything fully installed on Linux. Windows takes about 3-4 and as soon as a person connects to the net you get malicious software/spyware. It's irritating.

I also do a lot of gaming so there's quite a few games that I had to drop that 'just don't work' with Linux. So now I'm just playing Neverwinter Nights (which I've been addicted to for years) and DooM 3. I wonder how the Alky (http://www.alkyproject.com/) project'll influence people who have that "one killer app" they need and can't get under Linux.

joe_lace
June 26th, 2006, 06:59 PM
Some friends of mine have really been getting into linux. We have been covering some open source stuff like PHP and MySQL at school so I decided to try it. Plus I was tired of having to make the choice between pirating software or not having it.

bruce89
June 26th, 2006, 07:01 PM
We have been covering some open source stuff like PHP and MySQL at school so I decided to try it.
Yikes, where is this, we have to do blooming visual basic v6 stuff, and that is Advanced Higher.

joe_lace
June 26th, 2006, 07:39 PM
It is a private college here in Alaska. And it isn't really a PHP course, just a scripting course where we covered PHP and MySQL lightly. We are lobbying for there to be a PHP course added though. Mostly the program covers networking so I don't learn that much programming. I did have a required VB6 course and a required .NET course.

bruce89
June 26th, 2006, 07:44 PM
Well at least .NET works on mono.

chadk
June 26th, 2006, 07:44 PM
"You may be the victim of software piracy"
.. uh.. no, I was trying to circumvent paying tons of cash for a crappy OS.
Now I don't have to! :-k

joe_lace
June 26th, 2006, 07:49 PM
"You may be the victim of software piracy"
.. uh.. no, I was trying to circumvent paying tons of cash for a crappy OS.
Now I don't have to! :-k
This was a big one for me. I got sick of having to pay a ton of money just to find out that I can't activate the software on both my home PCs :evil:

bruce89
June 26th, 2006, 07:50 PM
"You may be the victim of software piracy"
.. uh.. no, I was trying to circumvent paying tons of cash for a crappy OS.
Now I don't have to! :-k
That is another reason to switch to free software, reminds me of OO.o's campaign - why: Get Legal - Get OpenOffice.org (http://why.openoffice.org/)

G Morgan
June 26th, 2006, 08:01 PM
Yikes, where is this, we have to do blooming visual basic v6 stuff, and that is Advanced Higher.

My Computing course at A-Level had Access, VB and Pascal. To be honest having seen C/C++ since there is very little difference between it (at least C) and Pascal at the level we were using them and we may as well have learned a useful language.

The best part about it was all the Pascal was done via an archaic ncurses based IDE which had no syntax highlighting, no auto indentation, no multiple source files, no code completion etc. Imagine a school A-Level project with 190 pages of code without a single indent anywhere and you come close to the frustration it gave me. At the very least there were functions however so some sanity prevailed.

I mean the school could have run Kdevelop quite easily for free and they'd have nearly every non MS encumbered language in existence.

bruce89
June 26th, 2006, 08:03 PM
I mean the school could have run Kdevelop quite easily for free and they'd have nearly every non MS encumbered language in existence.
Or MonoDevelop for the GNOME people. It's very nice indeed, even compatible (somewhat) with Windows.

Advanced Higher is much the same as A Level, but slightly different method of teaching.

nursegirl
June 26th, 2006, 08:14 PM
I actually started my journey to Linux by getting a Mac Mini with OS X Panther on it last year. After using Windows for decades, I was thrilled to have a low-maintenance box that was still configurable. I had gotten out of the mindset that using a computer could be enjoyable.

But, when I tried computers with OS9 on them, they were crap. So, I figured it must have been the Unix base that made OS X both easy to use and highly configurable (once you are willing to get into the command line).

Then I installed Ubuntu on an old computer, and the rest is history.

basketcase
June 27th, 2006, 06:16 AM
When I was 12, I started getting into computers more and more. My uncle told me that I needed to learn everything from DOS to the latest version of windows at the time, and also learn Linux.

At that point in my life it was Mandrake 7.2. I couldn't do anything with it (or didn't know what to do with it)...so I dind't pull it back out until I was 16. Been playing with it ever since. I just love what I could do. Between Mandrake 8.0 and 8.1, I edited about everything I could to get it to work. Finally dual booted two separate drives (Win2k and Mandrake)...and then just blew the box out and didn't play with it much after that. A couple years back a friend was thinking about Linux and he had tried FC3, so I downloaded it and gave it a whack. Had it on the box for over 2 years w/o any issues. Faded out again, and now I'm back (started at Ubuntu 5.10 and various live CD's)

My main box is still XP. 6.06 is a great distro, but I can't leave things alone, so I couldn't use it in a production environment. I'm always wanting to play with things. My Windows XP box has been up for over a year w/o issue, so I've gotten older and look at it as 'if it ain't broke -- don't fix it'
.

GuitarHero
June 27th, 2006, 07:16 AM
Well my windows install randomyl says i have chaned my hardware since the first install and need to reactivate it. I called to activate it and they tell me ive used up all my available activations(ive used 1). Since they're screwing me over, ill probably screw them back and just steal and activation code. But Im pretty fed up with windows. I think ill dual boot for now on with my main computer, using the windows install just for gaming and audio recording.

m23
June 28th, 2006, 12:21 AM
I was at the bar trying to close out my tab when one of the sales terminals BSoD'd. OK, I had already been using *nix when that happened...

The open source mindset/community was the motivating factor. I like free stuff. Being able to audit source is great.
If something is broken, you can fix it. If something doesn't work the way you want it to, you can change it. If you want to add a feature, you can.

Shay Stephens
June 28th, 2006, 12:35 AM
I was happily using windows and mocking the users of linux up until news of windows XP activation scheme. That signaled my first "aha" moment. Over the following years I kept trying out linux and always walked away from it running back to windows having not found an easy answer. When I got wind of what they planned to do with Vista (DRM, Trusted Computing, WGA, etc) I knew I had to act without delay and without fail.

I must have tried a dozen distros trying to find one that would work with my hardware. I finally came across Ubuntu Breezy which worked 100% on my laptop. Eureka!!!

That was around December of last year (2005) since then I have managed to install Dapper on my desktop and I am slowly learning and migrating my business software over to linux. My goal is to be 100% converted by the end of the year.

It basically came done to, I had to do it, so no matter what problems I run up against, there is no running away from them this time. I have to tough it out until I get it working. The ring at the end is going to be freedom, and that is a really satisfying goal.

joe_lace
June 28th, 2006, 12:54 AM
I was happily using windows and mocking the users of linux up until news of windows XP activation scheme. That signaled my first "aha" moment. Over the following years I kept trying out linux and always walked away from it running back to windows having not found an easy answer. When I got wind of what they planned to do with Vista (DRM, Trusted Computing, WGA, etc) I knew I had to act without delay and without fail.

I must have tried a dozen distros trying to find one that would work with my hardware. I finally came across Ubuntu Breezy which worked 100% on my laptop. Eureka!!!

That was around December of last year (2005) since then I have managed to install Dapper on my desktop and I am slowly learning and migrating my business software over to linux. My goal is to be 100% converted by the end of the year.

It basically came done to, I had to do it, so no matter what problems I run up against, there is no running away from them this time. I have to tough it out until I get it working. The ring at the end is going to be freedom, and that is a really satisfying goal.
I feel the same in many ways. Microsoft's activation scheme pissed me off to no end. Mostly because I couldn't afford to buy 3 of everything. I will be soon kicking off my web mastering business and I hope to go start to finish with Linux for the most part, but I'm sure I will need to have windows for testing purposes. Or I could just use VMware, I already own two copies of XP Pro. And when Vista comes out I will buy one copy. But I will only have to install it on one PC thanks to Linux on the others.

Shay Stephens
June 28th, 2006, 12:57 AM
I'm sure I will need to have windows for testing purposes.
I have windows 2000 running via vmware and windows xp running via qemu. I also have IE running via crossover office. So you should be able to do all the testing you need without dual booting ;)

graigsmith
June 28th, 2006, 01:34 AM
it happened once when i tried ubuntu. I never really or trusted microsoft, plus i thought their os could use major improvements. And when i tried ubuntu, it was the perfect os. so much free software, and most importantly, it was good. and it looked nice. it was impresive, and i *wanted* to use it.

parts of my hardware didn't work though. my wacom tablet would not work in the gimp.. but once i figured out how to get it working. it was like, suddenly, i was no longer tied to microsoft. And i decided that i was going to use it from now on. and i would stop playing so many videogames, and start drawing more. so i backed up as much data as possible on a second hard drive. and formatted my main computer drive, and installed ubuntu. the only time i regret it, is when i want to play more games. but sometimes it's better that i don't have as much games. it gets me playing the games for gamecube that i still havent beat. and i get more excersize, and i draw way more, and i have learned so much about linux.

rai4shu2
June 28th, 2006, 02:36 AM
I play with every type of OS on every type of machine, so it's only natural that I would gravitate toward Linux. Ubuntu, in particular, does just about every little thing right. Going back and using Windows is like riding a bike with a rusty chain, now.

G Morgan
June 28th, 2006, 02:57 AM
Advanced Higher is much the same as A Level, but slightly different method of teaching.

Yeah heard you had a different system in Scotland. There's constant talk about getting a different system for Wales especially with the government in Westminister being afraid to fix the GCSE/A-level system. Now people are starting to realise an academic system fiddled to include vocational and other generic qualifications doesn't work prehaps we will see change.

Of course start streaming and people will start crying 'my childs book binding qualification isn't worth the same as that kids astrophysics qualification, it isn't fair' again. So either a crap system that doesn't discriminate based on intelligence (because it should form no part of education of course) or a good system that puts people in the best place to learn their chosen field but leads to employers discriminating between fields.

Unfortunately if Wales had their own system the socialists would ensure that it is worthless and drives the Welsh economy futher down the pan making the poor even poorer (how the on Earth does one of if not the richest country in Europe manage to have the poorest area in Europe, at least before expansion) to pay lip service to an ideal.

Anyway this is so far off topic, I'll leave it at that.

Raistlin355
June 28th, 2006, 04:53 PM
I have been experiemnting with Linux for the past 5 years. I just got tired of using *******. The speed decreases, crashes, virii, spyware, malware, blue screen, my family calling me to fix their problems with *******, things just messing up, and the suspicion that M$ was doing something like logging my info had nothing to do with me wanting to switch.

BTW I still am not full on Linux I have ******* on my laptop because of work.

pravuil
June 28th, 2006, 10:10 PM
Actually haven't converted completely over. (Development reasons) Used windows since 3.1, linux since redhat 6.2. Latest irritant with Windows is in dealing with automatic updates. Their lack of documentation concerning some of their updates along with downloading an update that comes every month that checks to see if your system is legit really gets on my nerves. It seems that their update system will bring them down quite a bit. I like the way updates are handled in Linux but the only thing holding me back from complete conversion is how Linux handles hardware support. I don't want to recompile the kernel in order to make sure all my components are working properly. Most of the time I have to reinstall all the drivers for my components (ie ATI, nVidia, printers, wacom) in order to make them work with the latest kernel. If there was a buffer between the kernel and the hardware drivers so compatibility issues wouldn't insue, Linux would be a perfect OS. Last thing that irks me about windows is dealing with their registry. Going through the registry I realized that by default windows is one of the most insecure pieces of crap I've ever seen. I have to implement a registry file with more than a hundred changes just to make a default installation restrict unauthorized access and prevent certain unwanted attacks. Vista really isn't that much better. (Seems as though most of the changes in Vista are cloned from Linux) Over the edge? Almost. Mono, monodevelop, mplayer and Ruby helps the transition quite a bit.

Ubunted
June 29th, 2006, 12:52 AM
This (http://www.vanwensveen.nl/rants/microsoft/IhateMS.html) article.

Aviatrixie
June 29th, 2006, 01:33 AM
For me it was strictly security issues. I started with computers back in 82 when I bought a TI-99/4a. Remember the TI commercials with Bill Cosby on TV? LOL Went from that to the C-64, then the Apple Macintosh. Even back then there was the occasional blurb in the media and on Usenet about computer viruses but it all just seemed too abstract. We finally made the move to Windows when 3.1 came out (but I still liked to use my Mac more.) Eventually my husband convinced me we needed to start using an antivirus so we installed Norton AV. All the definition downloads and scans were a pain, but we did them religiously. Then one day a few years ago... BAM... it found a virus. So we cleaned it up. So what do you know... viruses really DO exist!

Soon after that I got home from work and found that my PC had aquired a coolwebsearch browser hijack. It seems my son, who was home from college for the holiday, had been doing some mp3 sharing and managed to also download something he hadn't asked for. It took me the whole weekend to fix that problem.

A bit later we were visiting my father for Thanksgiving and he told me his computer was acting strangely, so I checked it out. Sure enough, he had no antivirus software. I downloaded and installed AVG and ZoneAlarm and found he had the Sasser virus. Cleaned that up and taught him about safe computing.

Of course during all of this I was spending more time updating software and definitions to keep my own computer clean than I was just using my PC.

Then a couple years ago my son (who had since graduated from college and was out on his own)) called me to tell me his PC was barely usable. I told him to bring it over and I'd take a look at it. Sure enough, he was STILL file-sharing ( I thought he would have learned his lesson!) and had aquired another CWS hijack. This one was unrepairable and the only fix was shelling out $200 for a full install boxset of XP. I also installed Firefox and told him to stay the hell away from Explorer.

This was all really starting to bother me. Windows was obviously inherently insecure by design. I guess in Microsoft's effort to make the OS as easy to use as possible they left it wide open to attack. I considered going back to Apple, but decided to seriously explore what was going on with all of this. A lot of Googling led me to understand Windows vulerabilities and the strength of Unix based systems. Around that time Verizon started pushing DSL for $15/mo. Since downloading huge Linux ISO's was impractical on dial-up I had been putting off exploring Linux. That's all it took for me. I signed up and started downloading ISO's like crazy, finally settling on Ubuntu Breezy. My install worked perfectly and I've used it exclusively ever since. Well... I did have to pull my Breezy drive and stick my Windows drive back in 3 times... once to install DSL, once to do an active x scan of my PC for a Powerleap CPU upgrade scan, and again to upgrade my DSL to FiOS (now I'm REALLY smoking!!!)

Anyway... I just backed up my data and did a clean install upgrade to Dapper today. It went perfectly. :)

Now I have to figure out how to use the new Dapper Automatix. It looks a lot more complicated than the last time I used it! (last november)

It's all good. ;)

Erika

rai4shu2
June 29th, 2006, 05:29 AM
There's a lot of mystery surrounding Windows. Nobody really knows what Windows is doing. Since the code is closed source, some disgruntled programmer could easily be inserting exploits and back doors all over the place. The NSA could order Microsoft to insert exploits and then later claim that it was for "national security" purposes.

People who speculate about these things are routinely ridiculed by well paid (and a few unpaid) Microsoft shills. Pointing out things that should be obvious can make you a Linux martyr, which only helps Linux in the long run.

Meanwhile, Microsoft continues to expose their own vulnerability to patent thieves (the real pirates) and their own inability/unwillingness to properly police their licenses. To compensate for their incompetence, they make the terms of their EULA more and more draconian.

Windows has the security of a thin slice of swiss cheese, mainly because people who use Windows don't really care about making sure that their computer is not part of a spamming/phishishing/internet-destroying botnet. Microsoft isn't really equipped to make people care about security, and their attempts to push security in Vista will most likely be thwarted by apathy.

It's not surprising to me that I have no desire to be a part of that unthinking mob of content consumers. Linux is a good step in the right direction.

bk452
June 29th, 2006, 05:39 AM
When the last windows update said I had an illegal copy of windows. I've had the same setup for 2 years.

fabertawe
June 29th, 2006, 06:04 PM
Hi folks...

Well I'd never tried Linux before about a week ago and I'm smitten with Ubuntu! Maybe I shouldn't have jumped straight in with the AMD K8 kernel as configuring a few things has been tricky but I digress ;)

I've used computers for many years, since the C64 in fact and recently I realised that the fun of "using" the computer, for me, had diminished greatly. I'm not talking about using specific software or your favourite game but about using the OS in general... tinkering, configuring the desktop, etc. I moved from full time RISCOS to part time and then switched to winXP fully as I thought I was missing out on mainstream software (and hardware) and worried about getting left behind.

So I went exclusively winXP for about the last year and it gradually wore me down to the point where I'd had enough! Security issues are such a time consumer and this is just prevention, never mind cure! It pays to be paranoid where Windows is concerned and rightly so. I've not caught anything as yet but then I'm not an "average" user in that regard... I recently set up a friend's laptop (winXP), installed a firewall, anti-virus, anti-malware, Windows updates and she still got infected through carelessness and apathy about insecurities. She followed a malware pop up (telling her her computer was infected) to a website where she paid for a bogus download... all that time I spent trying to secure her laptop #-o . Yes, I could have secured it better but I don't have the time for that and I thought she had more sense, especially after stressing safer browsing. Anyway, upshot is we had to do a destructive reinstall of the OS (I certainly didn't have the time or patience to try and purge it via VNC and maybe she will learn from it!). Invariably I find myself sorting out friend's and family's Windows security problems more and more...

Oh, and then there's "Windows Genuine Advantage". It's MY computer and little by little it's being remotely controlled by Microsoft!!! And the Windows registry, what a stupid idea and complete mess. I could go on. I enjoyed my rant :D

I can't remember where I saw the recommendation for Ubuntu but I'm so glad I tried the LiveCD. The driver compatibility and slickness has come as a very pleasant surprise to someone with only the perceived impression of Linux as some sort of terminal/command-line geek domain! I "dual booted" my computer almost immediately and have have hardly booted XP since! Having used a number of operating systems I can honestly say Windows (any incarnation) has been the least pleasurable and discovering Ubuntu has come as a breath of fresh air. Ok, I have to keep XP for Cubase and the odd game but the fact I'm about to copy my Thunderbird profile over to Dapper speaks volumes ;)

I'd also like to say what a wonderfully friendly and helpful community this is and long may it continue!

bruce89
June 29th, 2006, 08:24 PM
Sorry about the off-topicness.

Yeah heard you had a different system in Scotland. There's constant talk about getting a different system for Wales especially with the government in Westminister being afraid to fix the GCSE/A-level system. Now people are starting to realise an academic system fiddled to include vocational and other generic qualifications doesn't work prehaps we will see change.
I think the way it is done in England is daft (typical layout):

England
12 pretty easy GCSE's, 3 pretty difficult A-levels.

Scotland
8 (slightly harder than GCSE) Standard Grades, 5 (harder still) Highers, then 3 (even harder, slightly more so than A-level) Advanced Highers.

Even here, there are people who think that Standard Grades should be replaced with something else (Intermediate 1 and 2's).

At least this isn't the USA, they don't teach seperate subjects until the last year of school.

Raavea
June 30th, 2006, 01:57 PM
To sum it up: Boredom, and impatience.

I was reared on Windows, and I clearly remember using 3.1 and before that something where the screen was green, and text was bright green... And I played Rogue lots...
I know 98 like the back of my hand, and when I upgraded after several years of frustration at games not running for my old 98 box, I was dissapointed in XP. However I stuck with it, merely because I wasn't ready to give up on the games. I'd been reading the Ubuntu website for a few months, drooling over the thought of not having Windows anymore..
Then I went to visit friends at the other end of the country with my partner. We ran out of cash, and ended up homeless for four months. After a while, we were put into a council place here in Edinburgh, and several months after that, we managed to scrape the money together to drive back to Ramsgate to collect the rats (our pets) and my computer.

Since I had no money for new games anyway, I finally decided to leap onto Ubuntu. (Breezy) So I liveCD'd for a day, and then stayed up all night installing and playing with it. It was amazing! And I was quite surprised at how I felt, being free from Windows.. It was like living in a tiny box room your whole life, and then realising you own a mansion.

Anyhow: Boredom and impatience with crappy Windows XP.

PS: I was quite pleased with the brown theme, too. I dislike the whole blue-silver desktop thing you generally see...

Lary Grant
June 30th, 2006, 03:13 PM
My ancient Adaptec external CD/ROM burner on my ancient Windows 2K (upgraded from NT 4.0!) machine died. Since I was going to need to somehow actually spend money :shock: on my machine I decided to just go in for a new rock-bottom website-special Dell. Since it was a brand new machine, I just decided to stick Ubuntu Breezy on it (which had just been released). I kept my old Win2K machine around for a while, until I eventually made the crucial decision to start reading my email on the new Linux machine. Once I did that, I was motivated to get the last few crucial apps running on the Linux machine (most notably, JPilot, for my Palm synching) and then there was no looking back. A few months later, I had to boot into the XP partition which came installed on my new machine (even though I didn't want it) to test out a website in Internet Explorer and it took so long to boot, with 10 million pop-ups coming up trying to sell me a subscription to some anti-spyware, anti-virus, firewall, whatever, that it it hit me how I had gotten used to the "quiet boot" of Linux.

petervk
June 30th, 2006, 03:51 PM
Windows Activation / Toshiba bundled restore disks

I was dual-booting ubuntu for quite a while, and not really using the windows partition much anymore. Just for a few choice applications I was using for school. (AutoCAD) But I really didn't need those much anymore as I was just starting to use a school computer for that.

What really pushed me over the edge was that I wanted to reinstall windows. (it was getting full of crap, and a base XP upgraded to SP2 install is huge and full of lots of extra crap) Using the toshiba system restore disks was not an option as they delete all partitions, and then copy a pre SP2 image over to the computer that is full of extra toshiba supplied crap. So I borrowed my friends XP SP2 disk and reinstalled the OS, I was going to use my CD key (on that horrible windows sticker on the bottom of my laptop) but guess what? I have a special toshiba key and it will only work on a toshiba cd. So I had an unactivated version of windows. That coupled with the fact that toshiba changes something in their Geforce 420 Go video cards so that they don't work with the official Nvidia drivers. (just toshiba's 3 years out of date drivers) and I couldn't get any of the http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/ drivers to work properly. (The ubuntu supplied nvidia drivers worked great) This convinced me to delete the 15 gb waste of space fat32 partition off my computer and scrape the "Built for windows XP" sticker off the laptop.

I upgraded to dapper during the beta testing stage, and I've been really enjoying it. Ubuntu works great and no stupid licences or activation crap.

P.S. Toshiba makes good laptops, I've had this one for three years now and no problems, but they do screw with somethings to lock you in to their parts and other crap. (only toshiba cd/dvd drives & internal wireless cards will work)

ubuntoy
June 30th, 2006, 04:10 PM
also when windows implemented the windows update validation tool and unlicensed windows user is denied of having windows xp updates... funny windows now allows them to get updates (except sp2) and only notifies unlicensed users that they are not using authentic windows. and if i can remember it that was last year where linux just sparked like a big bang... boom everyone is using it and they hate windows.

M1GEO
June 30th, 2006, 04:36 PM
Been using Linux for about 4 years now, since I was 13, on my own computer. I started using linux, as i was recommended it by a friend. I wanted to use the system to save all my GCSE coursework when at Secondary School. This worked really well, as I could HTTP/FTP/SSH data to my box. I still use Linux now for absolutly everything. I am a keen programmer, and can do everything on Linux. I still do need a ******* box, for programming PIC microcontrollers (as I havent found a compiler quite like CCS C compiler for Windows).

However. After using it for a few years, you certainly do, or I have, got used to using it, and the advanced/extended features it offers over windows.

Im convinced. And more people are moving over now, especially with Windows Genunie Advantage (which appears more of a disadvantage to everyone!)

George Smart, M1GEO
Ubuntu Linux
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the_guy1
July 1st, 2006, 01:32 AM
The very simple truth is that I have been using knoppix cd's for years but I finaly got so sick of using windows and having to keep the thing running virus free I switched to this little distro that I heard of called ubuntu and never looked back

maily b/c of the power the speed the smootness and the open source I love the open source part =D>

CGW
July 1st, 2006, 01:44 AM
I purchased a laptop brand new. WinXP crashed and I had to reformat. When I went to 're-register' my copy of ******* and it said my copy was 'in use (or something like that). I called Microsoft and they were supposed to get it resolved. They never did. So I switched to a a few Linux distros and finally ended up using Ubuntu. I'm actually glad all of this happened--I love and Lunux and I love Ubuntu!

Omnios
July 1st, 2006, 01:45 AM
Basicly I wanted to try Linux for almost a decade but anyways I was a safe windows user with Computer associates anti virus, Spyware blaster and Sybot search and destroy, I also had a2 malware remover. Anyways I always disliked spending all the time needed to update all thse and run them. But what realy pushed me over the edge was all the the MS B$ I was reading, And mostly the Vista news with a base watered down os starting at like huge amounts of money etc. So I was seriosly thinking about giving Linux a try. The thing that finaly pushed me over the edge when I was using MSN and when't to check for what used to be free custom smileys listed for $3 to $4 for a couple smileys. That was the last straw. Like get real like im going to pay microsoft $3 for two smileys. It got me thinking that Windows was turning like the greedy convience store in the middle of no where selling chocklate bars fpr $5. After years of denial I finaly saw Microsoft for what it realy is.