How did you get started in linux?

[whych]

First started when I bought a book on learning linux in around 96. The included cd was slackware 1.x.
You had to know every piece of hardware and what irq it used to get everything to work, and then linux would probably only run on an old pc that had had all the hardware drivers reverse engineered due to lack of vendor support.
X-windows ran like a dog, even on faster (486!) pc's. To get netscape running, you compiled your own.
In fact you even compiled your own hardware specific kernel after install, to save memory and drive space.
I then moved to redhat and suse and still like suse, despite playing around with other distros.
How things have changed, most linux distros will auto-detect everything and install perfectly, something not even windows can do.
After supporting windows based servers and networks professionally, I have moved everything to linux and have been windows-free for around 2 years now.
Looking at all the linux counter sigs makes me feel old - my reg number is 66197.

[Humann]

I'm primarily a Mac user and a long time Windows/Microsoft hater with a soft spot for open source software. I've long been big fan of the Mozilla and OpenOffice projects and have been 'Linux curious' for several years, since I read an article about Red Hat in Rolling Stone in the late '90s.

My first direct exposure to Linux came last January when I was sitting around a friend's house. There were several of us there and we were bored, so one guy decided to 'fix' my friend's ailing laptop by loading up Ubuntu on it. Once we got that running, my interest was piqued, so I picked up an old Compaq Armada laptop and started looking at Linux distros for it. After a little trial and error, I settled on OpenSUSE 11.1 w/Gnome. It worked great all year, albeit with a few minor kinks like it wouldn't sleep/hibernate properly and wouldn't turn itself off on shutdown, but I could live with it.

A week or so ago, I decided to upgrade it to OpenSUSE 11.2 w/KDE. It came with a few kinks of its own, and I'm working those out one by one. But on the whole, it runs even faster and smoother than the previous version, and now it sleeps, hibernates, and shuts down properly.

[robertneville777]

What first got me into Linux (and even computers in general) happened about two years back with the PS3. I had no computer and I had to start writing papers up for college quickly. I heard it was possible to install an OS on the PS3 which would allow me to run a word processor, so I installed Linux on it.

I first tried YDL (Yellow Dog Linux) because that's what Sony recommends. So being the total new guy to Linux I took their advice. I stuck with YDL for a little bit, but I just couldn't make it go. And I still haven't gotten used to the E17 environment

Having this new OS loom over me, I wanted to find a user-friendly Linux distro. So I literally googled "user-friendly linux" and ubuntu always kept coming up. So here I am, with ubuntu running on my PS3 and on my two other machines, even running on my gaming rig, (though it's far from a good one hardware-wise) playing games through wine. I'm still learning a lot about Linux, but I think I'v gotten pretty far from where I first started, and I'm never going to look back. It's funny. By using Linux, I've learned a lot about computers and technology in general, not just about the Linux OS. Anyway, sorry for the rant. Just another Linux convert here.

Thanks guys!

--robertneville777

[Bemk]

What first got me into Linux (and even computers in general) happened about two years back with the PS3. I had no computer and I had to start writing papers up for college quickly. I heard it was possible to install an OS on the PS3 which would allow me to run a word processor, so I installed Linux on it.

I first tried YDL (Yellow Dog Linux) because that's what Sony recommends. So being the total new guy to Linux I took their advice. I stuck with YDL for a little bit, but I just couldn't make it go. And I still haven't gotten used to the E17 environment

Having this new OS loom over me, I wanted to find a user-friendly Linux distro. So I literally googled "user-friendly linux" and ubuntu always kept coming up. So here I am, with ubuntu running on my PS3 and on my two other machines, even running on my gaming rig, (though it's far from a good one hardware-wise) playing games through wine. I'm still learning a lot about Linux, but I think I'v gotten pretty far from where I first started, and I'm never going to look back. It's funny. By using Linux, I've learned a lot about computers and technology in general, not just about the Linux OS. Anyway, sorry for the rant. Just another Linux convert here.

Thanks guys!

--robertneville777

Nice story and welcome to the forums.

[PDR60]

My history is a bit like some but different than most. I used to be in the deep cycle refrigeration business and was installing a bunch of new AC units on an Applebee's restaurant in 1998 as a side job. Well, they were converting an old hardware store into a New Horizons right next to where I was working. I wandered over one day at lunch and asked what they were all about. Then I came home thought about it and decided to go get an MCSE in NT4 and change fields. I did that over the next year and began to look for a job in the field. I got so lucky..... I wound up taking a gig with a small ISP and absolutely loved it. I couldn't get enough and learned an incredible amount of stuff in about 4 months. We had an Dual 64 bit Alpha machine that ran the "email". It was like a mystery to the other windows guy and I. I had shown a great aptitude for Cisco devices and was now the default Cisco guy after only being there about 8 months. I loved it. (still do) We ran a state of the art 7513. The mail guy asked me if I wanted to learn the Alpha sendmail server that was running True 64 unix. It was like a whole new world. I loved it. Well during this time we had a dell optiplex DNS server blow up that was running bind on something called Red Hat. Well the unix guy asked me if I would like to take over the DNS servers and at the same time build a new DNS server. I of course jumped at the opportunity and started learning and building my first Red Hat 5.1 (Manhattan) bind server. The rest as they say is history. I still work in a Windows shop but I am slowly working more and more Linux into the server builds. We are running a bunch of Centos boxes now and they are my babies. I've learned so much and helped teach others about our great Os and I really enjoy getting folks hooked on it.

[vigol]

1989 : I read some magazine about Home Computers (Spectrum/Z80-Com64-Amiga500)
1989~1990 : I read four books about GW-Basic, IT, Amiga 500, UNIX mail/news
1990~1995 : Reading a lot of magazines and some books in this range: DOS 5.0, MASM 5.0, Win 3.1, Turbo Pascal 7.0, Turbo C 2, Turbo C++ 3,Graphic in Basic & C
1995 : My first experience with a real computer (Until this time I had learned theoricaly with emulating in Mind)
1995 ~ 1997 : Some 3D studio games!!!
1997 ~ 2006 : For some personal reasons and non-IT activities !! I kill -9 Computer for a while.
2006 ~ 2008 : Dancing around the MS/.NET/COM+/Win
........
I had some small problems, searching!, without any success:
1_ HOW does an OS boot?
2_ I want to write an OS?
3_ How does someone write a Assembler?
4_ Which compiler does compiler a compiler?
....
n-1_ INT21
n- And all darkness about that UNIX book, which I read many years ago (X, who, ls ...)
The answer was UNIX
So I started with a FreeBSD CD, It didn't install at all!, The I tried a Fedora Disrto, It didn't recognize my DVD Drive, And finally OpenSUSE done!
I stayed with OpenSUSE for a while, but GPL made a SIGKILL to my heart, and I'm in love (fall/get) with FreeBSD.

[regexorcist]

My friend gave me his Red Hat disk
Manhattan 5.1
That was back in `97 I think

[b2bwild]

1989 : I read some magazine about Home Computers (Spectrum/Z80-Com64-Amiga500)
1989~1990 : I read four books about GW-Basic, IT, Amiga 500, UNIX mail/news
1990~1995 : Reading a lot of magazines and some books in this range: DOS 5.0, MASM 5.0, Win 3.1, Turbo Pascal 7.0, Turbo C 2, Turbo C++ 3,Graphic in Basic & C
1995 : My first experience with a real computer (Until this time I had learned theoricaly with emulating in Mind)
1995 ~ 1997 : Some 3D studio games!!!
1997 ~ 2006 : For some personal reasons and non-IT activities !! I kill -9 Computer for a while.
2006 ~ 2008 : Dancing around the MS/.NET/COM+/Win
I had some small problems, searching!, without any success:
1_ HOW does an OS boot?
2_ I want to write an OS?
3_ How does someone write a Assembler?
4_ Which compiler does compiler a compiler?
....
n-1_ INT21
n- And all darkness about that UNIX book, which I read many years ago (X, who, ls ...)
The answer was UNIX
So I started with a FreeBSD CD, It didn't install at all!, The I tried a Fedora Disrto, It didn't recognize my DVD Drive, And finally OpenSUSE done!
I stayed with OpenSUSE for a while, but GPL made a SIGKILL to my heart, and I'm in love (fall/get) with FreeBSD.

You must be too old... I wasn't even born that time. <_<

[vigol]

You must be too old... I wasn't even born that time. <_<

So, do you thinks that my child photo?
I was born at 28/04/1981.
Please send me a present at my birth day.

[mozo68]

I first used parsix [a debian based linux] then I used gosalia [a ubuntu based linux]then I buy a suse 11-2 linux in my country {4$} but it`s multimedia softwart dosent work in my pc{kaffein,ammarok,..} and now I have mint 8{helena}that work good .but new version of parsix is best in my pc