[hudini_81]

Hi there guys!
My name is Allen. I'm 22 years [young] and I live in Belize C.A. Just in case you're wondering
where the heck that is... it is to the west of the Caribbean Sea, south of Mexico and east of Guatemala. Ring a bell?

Anyway...
a few months ago, back in mid July 2003 to be exact, I was introduced to a new OS.
(new to me anyway)
And as you might guess... it's name was Linux!
Hmm... What can I say?
Robust, Powerful, Secure and oh yeah... FREE!
Yet, I didn't think so when I was first introduced to Linux. Having been a hardcore Windows
user, my first impression of linux was... okay... is that a DOS rip off? Where is the fancy UI?
How can I get work done on this thing? HELP!!!

Man was I sure missing the big picture.

I didn't know anything about X window, Gnome or KDE. I had no idea that there was a wealth of open source software that basically filled all my windows needs and wishes.
Besides, it crahes a whole lot less than umm... what was it... oh yeah... Windows!

Yup... and that my friends, in a [tarred] nutshell, is how I became a linux addict!

Well... now that I joined this Linux forum, I hope I can learn more about Linux from you guys.
I'd definitley like to hear how you guys got started with Linux. And what to do to get the most from it. The NERDY stuff. Hehe... especially those of you who are interested in Linux programming.

I've recently been checking out the KDE Desktop Environment and QT. However I was somewhat disappointed on the KDE-Qt dependency, since I don't really like the way Trolltech implemented their signal-slot callback mechanism. I still haven't gotten a copy of moc or qmake, so I switched over to the Gnome environment and got introduced to the gtk+ c++ wrapper library [gtkmm]. Although it has a lot of dependencies, once properly installed, I found that it is far more easier to code with that Qt. And it requires no extra pre-compilation steps. I'd definitley like to hear opinions regarding the gtkmm vs Qt debate.

Apart from c++, I also like php , ruby , javascript, java and hmm... C#?

I've also wanted to learn python and pearl. So I just hope someone out there can help me out when I get stuck. I'm also willing to share the knowlledge I've gained throughout my short [knowledge craving] life.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

ps. and happy hacking!

Al.

[big_k105]

welcome to the forum and welcome to linux

i will explain how i got into linux tomorrow but its bedtime now cya

[CopperTop]

Howdy, Hudini!

Glad to hear that you seem to be enjoying Linux so much. Myself, I was introduced to Linux about 3 years ago by a real techno-nut friend of mine. It was then almost 2 years after that when I decided to give it a go myself. So last June I tried a setting up an LRP router and then jumped right into a RedHat desktop. I've since tried Slackware and now I'm running Gentoo.

Well, that's just a short synopsis of my Linux history. Hope you enjoy your stay here.

[flw]

Howdy Hudini,

I was introduced to Linux by my employer that was a linux nut to the extreme of excluding all other technologies as just a passing phase. This closed minded attitude turned me off for several years. I learned what I only had to know and that's it. It was not a learning environment for linux.

Linux's many attributes though has finally overcome my poor introduction to it and now I'm back on track. Very slow but steady. There are many here who have been involved with linux a much shorter time than I but know much more than I. I'm also not programmer which doesn't help. You don't need to be but it helps.

[big_k105]

ok well i had been messing around online about 3 years ago and ran into linux.com and looked around and read up on it but never had a computer that i was allowed to put linux on untill about 8 months ago so that is when i really got a good job into it. i had taken a unix class in college last year but it was a "unix using linux" i mainly took it so that when i finally did start running linux on my desktop i would know alot of the basic commands. and that is how i got into linux and again welcome and hope you enjoy your time here

[Giro]

These are the things that stick out in my mind on my Linux journey.

I started on Linux a few years ago and i was one of those people who installed it because i wanted to be a great hacker and all the hype about how powerful it is and that :P
Then once it was installed i was like what now and never used it again for about a year. Gained some basic knowlage on computers and for some reason i bougt a cheap machine and wacked Linux on it again with the hope of setting up a two machine network. A few months latter i realised what private ips are which helped a lot and finally got it running samba after learning alot on networking (A hell of alot of reading).
Then i spent about 4 days non-stop trying to compile my first kernel which when i did and understood what i had done hooked me on linux. Then another month trying to get my speedtouch working which i didnt. At this point i hated the CMD and thought my dad was silly for using it Then it was just a snowball things seemd to click faster and i learnt the CMD and how much better it is then point and click, I setup a webserver, mail(Took me quite a while), local DNS ect...
All this took me years/months of going round in circels doing the same thing reading more then i have in my life ect..(I always redo something a second time so i know i fully understand it and it wasnt a fluke) But the more i did it the better i got not just at Linux but how to use resorces like the net to find info.
And now have 5 out of 7 machines running Linux used all the big distros and feel compteble that i could setup most things if asked.
Also i have finally made the jump to pure Linux on my new Laptop no duel boot. And the rest as they say is history.

[sarumont]

First off, welcome to the boards, Hudini. Hope you enjoy your stay (may it be long and Windows-free ).

I got my first taste of Linux shortly after I got online. I wanted to be a hacker, so I read...and found out that I needed Linux. I ordered RH6.1 for $12 and put it on my box (dual-booting with Win9. I was messed around a little and then gave up, needing the partition back to install Red Alert.

I came back to Linux about 2 years ago, messing around with MDK and FreeBSD. I installed RH9 when it came out last year and replaced it with Gentoo a week later. A week after that, Windows was gone and I was a happy penguin.

I'm still running Gentoo and have played with slack and debian on some spare boxen. I know some perl and am working on C atm. And my unpartitioned space on my HDD is crying out for an LFS install, so that will be happening very soon.

[Nerderello]

I got into Linux because I like playing with operating systems (sad, I know).

I've played with, so far, PC-DOC, MS-DOS, DR-DOS, Mac OS, TurboDos,
CPM, VME/B,MVS,OS/400, BeOS, Win 3.11,Win95,Win98,OS/2,Ultrix,UTS,AIX,HPUX, oh and Linux

have fun
Nerderello
ps. I was in Bleize a year and a bit ago. Went out to Caye Caulker and then St something or other on the border (before going to Guatamala). Neat place, drank far too much rum :P

[fingal]

Started using Windows when I worked in the plastics industry in the early 90s. Back then it was DOS/DR DOS and Windows 3.1 running on a 24 MHz IBM clone with 4MB RAM! During my Uni training (I'm a librarian) everything was Windows based, but I always felt something was missing. I wanted (and still want) to get 'inside' my machine. One day I was walking down the street and I bought a 'Big Issue' magazine (a street paper for homeless people) and it contained a book review (can't remember the title off hand) and the book was about Linux, open source, hackers. I was intrigued so I bought the book, thought 'YES!' and still, being a bit lazy, didn't get a Linux distro. I liked the rebel attitude behind the whole thing though. I've always liked and respected people and things which are 'different' in some way: my people!

A couple of years later I built my own box and installed Linux just to see what it was like. I haven't done any programming yet, but I've abandoned Windows. The only thing I miss is playing 3D games like Quake. I know I could if I tried, so this isn't really such a problem.

End of autobiog.

[big_k105]

Nerderello,
where did you get OS/400, beOS, and OS/2. i love OS/400 and i have always wanted to try the other too but dont know where to get them at.