How Old Were You When You Started Using LInux?

[kh1116]

for me, i was 15. what about you guys?

[Fixman]

Also 15.

[Andrewie]

my dad exposed me to Linux at a really young age, most likely about 10.

[Kingsley]

17.

[xpod]

I started using LInux(Ubuntu) when i was 37......last July.
But then i only began using computers four months before that:)

[a12ctic]

about 5th grade, 10-12 probably, i just used it as a counterstrike server then though hehe.

[anemptygun]

15 and my first distro was mandrake.

[anemptygun]

about 5th grade, 10-12 probably, i just used it as a counterstrike server then though hehe.

lol you must have been a pretty geeky 5th grader :P

[Martje_001]

Hmm.. I discovered it when I was 10, I fulltime used it when I was 12, so I'm using it 2 years ;)

[ynnhoj]

i was 18; the first distros i used were suse on campus, and mandrake at home.

[Mazza558]

15. I can see a trend here... :)

[DalekClock]

I started when I was 12, back in March.

[gnomeuser]

let's see.. I was 16 and I'm.. darwin be damned.. 26 now. 10 years of freedom. I suffered through more lacking functionality than you newcomers can imagine, the improvements I've seen over the course of 10 years is simply amazing - hang in there world domination is assured.

[Shin_Gouki2501]

i think i was arround 17-18 and it was Suse 6.1 kinda frustrating after install only a shell lol
;)

[Happy_Man]

14. Just a few short months for me, really. I've been using Windows since 95, though..

[Celegorm]

My first time using linux was when I started high school, and took a programming class where we used a linux server to do all our coding. Then after high school I got a laptop that had some issues and refused to boot XP after a while but I managed to get it working with SuSe, although I never really learned my way around the OS. After a while the screen flat out broke on that laptop and I didn't use linux again (well, I used it a little in a couple classes, but CLI only) until 5 months ago when I installed ubuntu over XP on my new(er), much more awesome laptop. It was then that I really started using linux, and actually learning about how to do things (ubuntu is more awesomely newbie friendly than any other distro I have ever used, and it made the transition very easy, though most of my problem with SuSe was that I didn't know where to ask for help at the time). In the past five months I have learned far, far more about linux than I learned about windows in ten years. Linux is a lot more discoverable than windows, though some of that is the fault of the community ;)

So, depending on what you count as using, I either started at 14 or 21.

[SunnyRabbiera]

I was probably 22, as its been about 3 years now I have known linux.. I had just turned 26 about two weeks ago, but my 4th year under linux wont come till February or so of next year.

[petersjm]

Um, started properly using Linux at home about two years ago, so about 28. Came to Ubuntu on the one before Dapper (god, I'm getting old! What was it called?). I dabbled here and there a few times in the past ten years with RedHat, Mandriva, Debian, but for one reason or another, I either couldn't get them to install, or once I did, I couldn't get the hang on them. Windows seemed so safe and normal back then!

[ErusGuleilmus]

I started "using" Linux when I was fifteen. I say "using" because I was simply implementing it on my modded xbox so that I could cheat at Halo 2. At that point, I didn't even know that Linux was an OS! I actually started using Linux around the age of 17.

[corney91]

Started using it at 16 (and 26 days to be precise :)). Since April this year.

[pluviosity]

Just started this past June. I am 20, btw.

[RideP2]

I started when I was about 13, used it on and off. Been using it full time since I've been 14. I'm 15 now and turn 16 in January.

[markp1989]

15 or 16

[ThinkBuntu]

I bet that for some very young people, they technically used Linux in the womb because of how many systems are dependent on some form of it.

[helliewm]

Last summer, I was 40.

[-grubby]

14, actually I'm still 14

[miggols99]

The same age I am now. 13. I started using it since February.

[Nano Geek]

I think that I started playing with it a little bit when I was 13. I started using is seriously when I was about 15.
First Distro was Red Hat 9.

[bonzodog]

I started 11 years ago, and I was....23.
Mind you, Linux wasn't even around until I was 19.
Yeah, i'm old enough to be the father of half the kids on here.

[Billy_McBong]

15
but i don't think i really start using it till i was 16

[PurposeOfReason]

I started when I was 16 with just a typical Ubuntu installation. I've tried Debian thought that didn't last long and Suse wouldn't install. Now I just tinker around with random *box stuff.

[fiskking]

I was 21 or 22, slackware distro. that was packaged in a linux book I had purchased. sort of the ¨wierd one¨ of the neighborhood for using something other than linux.

Love the phrase: ¨ So why do you want to use something other than windows, its perfect!¨. my response, ¨I hate it¨

[gcornett]

You all make me feel old! I toyed with Redhat maybe 4 or 5 years ago. Then Knoppix and Debian. I discovered Ubuntu last year. I'm 60.

[jpittack]

19 and ubuntu fiesty. I've probably used it for about a month now. I'm still trying to figure out installation because I have no history beyond .exe for getting a program running, or any programming for that matter.

Point and click was all I knew. Man did (and still do) feel stupid asking questions on getting anything done the right way.

I got lucky getting putty installed on my laptop so I don't need to boot into windows just to do my homework. Now I only go into Windows to play Unreal Tournament until I get it installed on ubuntu. O, and print, but I don't really need to these days.

[tater_3001]

i got interested around 13 and started messing around at about 14 and have been using it full time since i was 15

[benhagerty]

15

[fdrake]

i started when i was 19 not at school but at home when i was reading about the unix-linux development story.

[troy1of2]

I guess I was about 26 or 27. It was sometime around 1995 and I downloaded a Slackware distribution to tinker around with. I was impressed with the multi-tasking and security but back then there weren't many application available to run. Still, it sparked my interest and off and on I've checked in on Linux over the years to see how things were going. Then last July (2006) I got really ticked off at Microsoft and looked around for something else to run when I stumbled upon this Ubuntu thing. On the laptop I was running then I dual booted Ubuntu and Windows XP but this past June I bought one of the Dell laptops with Ubuntu preloaded and have run nothing but Ubuntu Linux ever since.

[Incense]

SUSE 5 years ago when I was 25. Things have come a long way since then...

[argie]

My first Linux Distro was Red Hat Linux 7, or 8. I think it was around 2001-2002. A friend gave me the discs. It was nice. I loved it. Come to think of it, that release ran so well on my old hardware.

I first heard of Linux when I was 10 or 11 though. The science magazine my dad used to get (and which I used to read, parts of which could be understood by kids) mentioned how some guy had made a parallel processing system using Slackware and the writer trotted out the "Free as in free speech, not as in free mangoes". Ah, 10 years ago, good times.

[aaaantoine]

Back in early 2002. I was 19. My first stab at Linux was on an old Packard Bell desktop running Red Hat. I used it primarily to write CLI C++ code, but even then, not so much. I eventually tossed the PC.

In 2005 I made my second attempt at using Linux, running Mandrake 10.1 on a new partition on my main PC. This was my first full taste of Linux on modern hardware, and I found it overwhelming. I stopped using the Linux partition after about a month, having been frustrated over a number of failed software installation attempts. I swore to eventually return, because at my very core I still believed in the open source philosophy.

My third and latest attempt to use Linux was over a month ago now, and I'm officially hooked. :) I haven't replaced Windows, yet, because I still need to do essential work (and play games) in Windows. But perhaps soon...

[p_quarles]

Good lord I feel old. I was 28 when I first started using Linux, and 29 now.

In other words: I'm both OLD and a N00B. And if you don't like it, you can try living in a van, down by the river.

[dondad]

Hmmmm........ Bunch of young'ns ;-) What I will say, is that I was a senior in college when the first calculators came out and at that time, PC's were still a gleam in someone's eye. Our school computer was an IBM 370 and my first programming was in binary on a PDP-8.;-)

[savemekaizer]

Just this year; 17. :P

[FuturePilot]

I first started when I turned 18. I'm 19 now and I've been using Ubuntu for over a year now and I love it. I switched and pretty much never looked back, although I still have that Windows partition sitting around, but I rarely use it.

[p_quarles]

Hmmmm........ Bunch of young'ns ;-) What I will say, is that I was a senior in college when the first calculators came out and at that time, PC's were still a gleam in someone's eye. Our school computer was an IBM 370 and my first programming was in binary on a PDP-8.;-)
1st: Buncha young'uns indeed. Get offa my lawn.
2nd: Wrong (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculator)!!!!

[ddrplayer512]

Was about 13. My first distro was fedora core 5. Loved it!

[Atomic Dog]

I was 37. Late bloomer for sure. I can't see myself NOT using linux now.

[lisati]

Hmmmm........ Bunch of young'ns ;-) What I will say, is that I was a senior in college when the first calculators came out and at that time, PC's were still a gleam in someone's eye. Our school computer was an IBM 370 and my first programming was in binary on a PDP-8.;-)

An IBM370 at school? I had to wait until I was working in 1983 before using one........the word "abend" comes back to me with grim horror (translation: abend is IBM-speak for "abnormal end", i.e. "the program crashed") The machine I used at school in the late 1970s was a desktop by Wang which used cassette tape and had a 40 column two-colour printer.......

I didn't start using Linux earlier this year (2007) at age "forty-something" - still a lot to learn.

[metroplex]

I was 16 when I first came in contact with Linux. At that time (1994) it sure wasn't as mature as now. I've been through Slackware, Red Hat, Mandrake, Debian and now Ubuntu. Until I was 27 I used Amiga OS, Windows and Linux in parallel; now I'm 29 and since two years back I haven't even got a Windows installation on my computer. I've never felt more comfortable with computing as I do now..

[maduranga]

i was about 12, when I got to know about linux. Then i installed RedHat :) but it was very confusing. anyway thats my beginning

[bertilow]

I win. :) I was 46. That was five years ago.

[aninaiian]

Let's see I started using Linux at 17 (June 2006) as I had nothing to do during the summer. However, that was running Linux, Debian Woody via virtualization on Windows. It wasn't until July of that year when I decided to dual boot XP and Dapper on my laptop. By late August or early September, I wiped the XP partition and the Dapper partions and put Edgy (Tribe 1 or Flight 1 or whatever it was called) on my laptop.

[Warpnow]

My PC's install of Windows 95 ****** up when I was 11 and I installed redhat for a few weeks. My brother had left it behind when he went off to college. I only used it until I got a new copy of windows.

When I was 13 I found Ubuntu and my first real use of linux.

[Prothoss]

I started when I was 18, which was a few months ago. Got myself a laptop for my 18th and it came with Vista and hated it. I had always been meaning to get into Linux so seemed like a perfect time.

[A_Lyle]

It's not polite to ask a lady her age ;)

But it was back in 1999 - RedHat 5.2 - and I was over 30...

[Toontwnca]

I can't recall for sure. I think I was 53 or 54. (just not sure)
I seem to remember using Redhat first; not even sure of
version.

[s57nev]

I was 20 and now I'm 27 yrs old ... :)

[bluenova]

Dabbled with it when I was 15, Red hat and the like. Started using only Linux (Fedora Core then) 3 years ago when I was 23, been using Ubuntu for the last 2 years, on and off with other distros. I always seem to end up back to Ubuntu.

[Caffeine_Junky]

...42. ..and now I am 42 and 2 months

[Circus-Killer]

16 (currently 26)

....wow, has it really been that long!

[curuxz]

12, so just comming up for nearly 9 years of linux for me.

Started on Red hat...those were the days :)

[GSF1200S]

23.. February of this year to be exact. Im so glad I did- I feel like my OS serves me, and Ive learned so much. Linux really has taught me alot about many things; seems silly, but its true.

NEVER going back...

[wersdaluv]

17