how did you learn about linux? and why did you choose it?

[ladymecha]

I am just curious, and no I dont want answers like "cause windows/winblows/M4 sucks" or "because mac OSX sucks"

me I have spent only four years on a computer, my first operating system was windows 98 and then Windows XP.
I only had the 98 computer for a few months until I got my current XP [now with linux] machine
now my decision to move toward linux is actually recent, as before I was quite a happy windows user... yes you heard that right.
now over the last four years or so I had little to no problems with XP, sure it was slow here and there but I liked it better then 98.
but over the last year or so I slowly moved tward the open source stuff and Linux, but mainly because of all the security flaws in XP.
My first open source program was of course mozilla as after I heard of all the crap that happened to IE I wanted to change... even though I actually hated Mozilla before hand I started to like it after it got a lot of its crap worked out.
then I lost my copy of Microsoft office after a crash, so when it went I tried the obvious alternative Open office and liked that too... though I did get another copy of microsoft office as I do think that Open office is still lacking [well with a grammar tool at least] but I am sure they will fix that someday.
now mind you that crash wasnt that bad as I only lost office, but after a more recent crash i decided to try the alternatives.
now the thing is that I did hear about Linux here and there, but never got into it until more recently... now adays I am aware of Linux though I am still learning how to work this thing
now mind you I still use windows, but that is until I learn more about linux and how to compile things from source code and junk... but after that I will definately get windows off this thing :P
but then again I dont mind switching in between windows and linux, just whenever I do most of my work now I will do it under linux except of course operate microsoft office and view my avi's as i still cant get things to work yet on that end... oh well, I am sure I will learn it someday. I took four months to learn the ins and outs of windows so I am sure it will take me almost as long to get linux to work for me.

[dylunio]

I was bored over the summer hollidays....

[andrewdodd13]

I was bored over the summer hollidays....

Same here, except it was the Easter holidays for me...

I didnt last long then though as I only had a P233 with 48mb ram... and I was, and to an extent still am, a GUI kinda guy :P

[ladymecha]

well those are creative answers, I will give you that.

[debian]

I was bored with Windows...I mean, I finished playing a nice game and wanted to do something interesting, so I chose Linux. Now, I like linux a lot, 'cause it's fun to learn new things.

[marklawford]

Hubris.

I decided I wanted a project. I'd been exposed to linux (as a web app deployment platform) at a previous job, and I use unix in my current position so I was somewhat familiar with the paradigm.

In actual fact, I installed mandrake on an old laptop to practice shell scripting prior to interviewing for my current job.

Anyway, I wanted to see how far it had come in the desktop world. I bought a low-cost PC without an OS and installed a suse 9.1 I had kicking around. It looks great and I've been so impressed with its ability to detect and use USB memory stick readers, scanners, printers etc. As for the software; there's loads. I do prefer MS Office but I'm looking to try KOffice and see how that compares. But really suse has provided me with all the basics I need.

What is still too difficult is networking. As my "three day project" thread shows, I've been trying to get my windows machine to browse my linux box with not much success.

While there is a lot of support out there, I feel it is coming from too restrictive a source. Hardware/software companies should now be looking to provide linux versions of their software/drivers, especially now where higher level languages/techniques can abstract a lot of OS dependency away.

But there you go. I was essentially tired of having a load of cables connected to my laptop. I needed a box to sit in the corner and provide internet/file/print sharing and I thought Linux might do as good a job as Windows. The jury is still out on networking but so far so good I guess.

mark

[a thing]

I had heard the word a few times here and there on forums and decided one day to Google it and try it out.

[Flo]

Hi,

quite some time ago a friend of mine talked about linux all the time and when he decided that he had enough of suse and switched to red hat I got his copy of suse (actually suse 6.whatever). Well, what happened was that I installed it and lost all the data on the family computer Bad thing and nobody seemed pleased. Wonder why ) Well, this was itfor a while until my sister wanted something virus proof as she said. She got herself a copy and so I decided that I should give it another go. Now I am quite happy, things seem to work well and it actually quite nice finding out how everything works. Well, I think I will stay with it.

[smindinvern]

A friend of mine recommended it to me, so I tried it, and never turned back. Now I've been using it for ~4 years, and I don't even run windows any more

[Flatline]

I learned about linux from my old boss. I decided to go with linux exclusively because I don't like to support companies when I am disgusted by their business practices. After a while I stopped complaining about that "other" company and I put my money where my mouth is.