how It all got started

[xdenizen]

For me it began in 1985 when my brother and I got an Apple IIc for christmas. 128kb RAM, built in 5.25 single sided 140k floppy drive with the 9 inch green screen monitor. Three operating systems (DOS 3.3, ProDOS and of course Pascal). I loved that dinky little thing though looking back a IIe probably would have been better.

I moved from that to a Mac IIcx in about 1990 and eventually wound up in the x86 world using first a 486SX-33, then a Pentium S-100Mhz for a while. I used MS-DOS with 4DOS for ages and eventually ended up using Win XP Pro on a P4 1.3Ghz.

I took to Linux in 1999 with SusE 6.1 or 6.2 - I can't remember which. I moved onto RH8, FC2 and FC3. Dual booting with Windows all the while. When I got my latest box (Athlon 64 3500+) I didn't even consider installing XP on it. FC4 so this is the first pure Linux machine I've had. I'll never go back.

Still I remember that Apple IIc with great affection. It was such a cool little machine though today it seems like little more than a toy. AppleWorks, Copy II+, Zork, Trinity, Transylvania, DazzleDraw, MultiScribe were only a few of the proggies I loved. I recall copy protection too. Nibbles Away always took care of that problem.

Matty the Damned

[ExpertBeginner]

Well it started when I was kid back in about ’85, when my dad bought home a BBC B. It had a 16 colour VDU, 64kb RAM, 5 ¼” Floppy Drive, and loads of classic games. So for about 5 years or so I played around with it, learnt BASIC, and became known as the local computer whizz kid!

In 1992 we got a PC, of ancient spec, 486 sx/25, 4mb RAM, 100mb Hard disk, DOS 5.0, and Windows 3.1. And a mouse. Wow, GUI’s! Amazing! So through the progression of windows and new computers, I stayed well away from Linux and Mac, and became quite obsessed with Windows, and became what you might call an advanced user, (or technician), right up until I’d had had enough of crashes, fatal errors, slowing performance, messy hard disks, viruses, spy ware, expensive upgrades, lack of productivity, reinstalls, and supporting the corrupt global computer dictators that are Microsoft.

So here I am, a few months later, slowly switching to Linux, and hopefully will find myself helping others as I become less of a newbie and more of a techie!

[darklordsatan]

I'm a relative computer noob compared to most people around here it seems. I got my first pc when I was 17

Almost.

I got my first PC (a gift from an uncle, for starting my CS major) when I was 17 (late 2001). Obviously, it had windows by default, but luckily, the "official" OS in the computer labs at collegue is Linux (first mandrake, now Debian), so I was "forced" to use it, and I loved it, even if I was your everyday computing n00b.
My first distro was Mandrake, because some guy in a Linux workshop on my freshman year, would give away the CD set for free.
Later, I switched to something better, and I tried several distros such as redhat and SuSe, but in the end, I became a slackhead. I might add I also use knoppix a lot.
Unfortunately, because of gaming (one of my biggest passions) and dialup winmodem, Im stuck on windows right now (Oh, and also my little sister aka the average Joe Doe who wouldnt resist a *nix flavor ).

That's pretty much my Linux story, which is short compated to my programming one :P