Share your Linux journey .........

[linuxyogi]

Why I started Linux ?

Back in 2003 I was visiting the local cyber cafe a lot for random surfing so I decided to assemble a PC for myself. One thing that I didn't want was to use a pirated copy of Windows. Windows in our country costs in thousands of rupees which is why most people end up using a pirated copy.

First distribution

The first distro that I tried was Fedora. I don't remember which release. The DVD came free with a tech magazine. Believe it or not at that point I used install applications from the DVD only and not from the repos. The reason was I had a limited broadband connection. I used to skip the updates even !!! Now I realize how wrong I was.

Anyways the next release of Fedora completely barred users from installing packages from the installation media so I thought lets explore some other distros.

Ubuntu Hardy

I obtained Ubuntu the same way. After installing I found that packages like mplayer, vlc are not there on the CD. So I finally called my ISP and upgraded to an unlimited plan. That was it ! All I needed was the synaptic package manager.

I used Ubuntu 8.04, 9.04, 9.10, 10.04, 10.10, then I tried some other distros like openSUSE, Debian, Arch, PCLINUXOS, PCBSD, etc.

Then I started using Ubuntu again with 12.04 and now 13.04.

Still learning

My learning process is a bit different. I dont learn about Linux because I need to not because I want to. For example, every time I face an issue I Google about it first if I dont find I solution I write here. This has beed my learning process.

But the flaw with this system of learning is that you know solution to only those problems which you have faced as an user.

Please share your story.

[Swagman]

Well, My (Linux) Journey began a long ago

[pizzalover1974]

Tried back in the 90's a distro of Redhat hat Linux back in the old days..when it was a patial desktop Gui and terminal based...Unistalled as I simply wasnt in the mood for terminal stuff, but liked the look of it.

Then used a distro of Fedora when Redhat seemed to be discontinued for normal users. Again it was for the looks.

Then switched to SUSE..Which was the first proper distro for me in a dual boot with Win XP back in 2002..I worked great for browsing with my Amd 1.2 GHz Athlon PC and my 150 KB cable connection back then.

Still stuck with SUSE and also used Knoppix as well....But even in 2008 WiFi dongle support was still in early stages.

Then a few months later I tried Ubuntu which worked straight away with WiFi dongle I had.

Finally Linux felt like it was coming of age. Not just for geeks and tech heads.

Tried the recent Ubuntu win installer with Wubi 3 months ago..but the partion was too small..Crapped it up so I tried Puppy Linux, but it was too limited for me.

I knew Steam works in Ubuntu..and thats what I had been waiting for for so long.

I finally decided that I had enough of my unstable Win 7 install (it was 2 years old and crumbling).. After a ATI Overclocking utility killed my Win 7 Gui and wouldnt boot up. I deciced enough was enough...I wiped the Win 7 partion (couldnt access my files to save them). Fresh Reinstalled Win 7 from scratch and did a Proper Dual Boot install of Ubuntu.

Splitting my HDD Partion into 1 TB Win 7 and 800GB Ubuntu. I wanted a big partion for my Ubuntu install for linux games and internet files. Wubi window installer I find, just makes far too small a max Partion size, so I did a proper install instead.

I am a casual Linux user and been waiting a long time for a real alternative to Windows that was totally reliable and also non tech head friendly. Seems that Linux has got there at last.

[germanix]

I got realy fed up with Windows in 2008. Installed Ubuntu 8.04 as sole OS and never looked back. Now running Ubuntu 13.10 at home and Xubuntu 12.04 at work. Tried and liked Mint and OpenSuse. Linux is a great OS and this is a great Forum. I am a happy linux user.

[Mark de J]

Because a mate told me about it, he told me Windows sucks, get Linux and now I have it, and I like it.

[spencer the great]

A few years back, when I was still mostly computer-illiterate beyond the fact that there WAS a CPU, RAM, Motherboard, etc., and was still using Windows 2000/Windows XP, I got fed up with the fact that when an error appeared, it was impossible to fix. In addition, I had heard a likely misleading rumor that UNIX/Linux was virus-proof. Huh.
Anyway, by that time, I started punching in random terms in Google (not knowing what a distro was: Linux. How to download Linux. that kind of stuff). Eventually, I came across Ubuntu 9.10.
I began the installation process with that. Unfortunately, I couldn't boot into the disk for whatever reason, so I ended up installing it with WUBI. Of course, that would cause it to be a bit slower on my already-slow computer, but I didn't care. Finally, surviving through several errors, I finally introduced linux to my computer (and to myself).

Eventually, although Ubuntu was a lot better than Windows, I decided that it came with a lot of stuff that I didn't want (i.e. keyrings, automatic updates/notifications, etc). In spite of all the beautiful things about Ubuntu, I eventually left to try out some other distros. Mint was a disaster. Debian was... I don't know, just didn't feel right for me. I was too n00b for slackware. I then stumbled upon Arch. Arch was great in the fact that you didn't have to install a keyring if you didn't want to. I didn't even install a graphical login manager. After that, I started learning about some of the awesome tools available in GNU/Linux: awk (no, I didn't get there yet), grep, sed, tr, ... .... I took a college course in Unix/Linux during this time, but I dropped out of it when I looked at the syllabus and saw that I wouldn't be learning awk, I would be learning basic shell scripting and regexes. After that, I eventually got bored of Arch and tried to install Slack. Due to my awesomely convenient wizard-like powers, something in my computer suddenly decided to become incompatible with LILO and I decided to try to build a Linux from Scratch. That, of course, is failing, due to my n00b-ness and my awesomely convenient wizard-like powers. That would be my next goal... but for now, I turned into a spoiled lazy procrastinator and switched back to windows/archlinux dualboot to play video games. Which is the end of my linux journey in a nutshell.

[Linuxratty]

Ten years ago I was becoming more and more annoyed with Windows and started looking at Macs..By chance,I stumbled across the Microsoft VS Lindows (later to be Linspire) ******* contest and wondered what it was about...I became intrigued and started reading up on Linux...I bought the Linspire disk,ran it for three days. Fell in love with KDE 3.0 and installed it over XP..Then when Linspire got too chummy with Microsoft,I moved to the now dead Klikit..What a mess that was! I had to reinstall it nine times it was so buggy..I finally gave up and distro hopped to Fedora, then Mepis and a KDE distro a then friend created. I finally moved to feisty and then on to 10,10 and finally,where I am today.

[DuckHook]

My first exposure to Linux was early on. If I recall correctly, it was Red Hat 4.0 in 1997. It came on a CD with a book the title of which I don't even remember. I was motivated to try Linux because I had grown increasingly disenchanted by Microsoft's atrocious conduct against Netscape. Did I say disenchanted? I was outraged. I saw MS's conduct as predatory and I couldn't stand the thought of my money further padding the pockets of an amoral outfit that would systematically leverage their monopoly to strangle uppity upstarts.

Wrote a wordy piece about my early experiences on another thread about this time last year. Just looked it up and no point repeating myself. For anyone interested, it's this one.

[mips]

First time I used Linux was in 1992 when you had to download 1.44MB floppy disk images via FTP but prior to this I had an AIX UNIX account on a RS/6000 IBM box which was considered state of the art in those days.

In 2004 I went to some IT thing where mark shuttleworth was punting ubuntu and got some free cd's. Never really bothered installing them until 2005. After this I used Ubuntu for a few years, Dapper Drake 6.06 was still the best release ever but when Unity came out I shunned it like the plague. I don't think I will ever use Ubuntu in my lifetime again. I just don't buy into their philosophy. First you get Unity, then you get MIR which will only be used in Ubuntu and not in the derivatives and then you hear about Canonical's legal department sending notices to the likes of Linux Mint etc.

I'm sorry but it's come full circle for me, the distro you use to adore is now prime evil if I could put it that way. Ubuntu has a terrible reputation in the linux/oss community of late. They've become pretty arrogant if you ask me.

[frankmorris2]

My first experience with Linux was with the Ubuntu 5.04 LiveCD. I didn't like it much, it was ugly (the "brown" theme) and the LiveCD performance was not helping. I was still sold to Windows, but I kept checking back every Ubuntu version. Finally, I installed Mepis (KDE + Ubuntu 6.06) on my laptop at the time. Now I was sold.

I still install a dual boot with Windows, but its more like a backup plan, in case the software really only works on Windows.

Today, I even have a job working with Ubuntu Server

You can say I am now converted to Linux, mainly the Debian family.