[Faded_Mantis]

Dad installed Mandrake (somewhere around version on an old Pentium II back around 2002-2003. All I did was play the tux games on it (tux bomber and that nowboarding one ftw!)

Since then I've tried Gnoppix (version 3 I think), Knoppix (Version 4 I think), Xandros 3.02oce and Ubuntu.

I'm still just a casual user, I know more about it than alot of people I know (knowing what sudo does already puts me ahead)...but I really know nothing about linux and haven't got any of the 'hard core' credentials of you lot :P

[fingal]

I remember a similar thread some time ago, but I thought I would contribute again.

I first heard of Linux while I was at university as a mature student, but didn't try it out because someone suggested it wasn't all that functional. In any case, I wasn't ready to risk losing Windows in case I couldn't complete my assignments using MS Office tools.

Following graduation, I found that my version of Windows 95 was collapsing like a wet wedding cake. The Internet was a fairly new concept to me, and I thought that viruses and online attacks were the exception rather than the rule. How wrong I was! I didn't even have a firewall; I was so green...

I was left with a problem. I need computer skills for my job, but I didn't have the resources to buy MS Office. At that time, like a lot of post-grads, I was quite poor and needed to make some cuts. Still curious about Linux, I bought a copy of a street paper called 'The Big Issue' (UK members will know all about it) and saw a review about a book called 'The Hacker Ethic' by Pekka Himanen, with a forward written by a certain Linus Torvalds.

The book made a lot of sense to me, because it appealed to my natural radicalism, and suggested that work should be done for joy, not just for pay. This idea is still following me around today... I like to play around with technology, and I like to explore new ideas. Linux partly fulfills that need.

I found a copy of Mandrake 9.? attached to a Linux mag. and tried to install it on my old box with no results at all; it simply wouldn't do it! Strangely, I knew it would work sooner or later so I decided to build my own computer. This was a challenge for me, as I had never attempted it before.

After a lot planning (too much in fact) I ordered hardware through the post and got building. Eventually I had a bootable box with no OS. Like most 'newbies', I tried a frightening array of Linux flavours including Slackware (actually I found this one dead easy to install), and most of the other mainstream distros. There were many trials and tribulations: the path to *nix Nirvana is rarely smooth, but persistence is always rewarded.

Today I'm back to using Mandriva (as it's now called). I might try others as I feel inclined, but I'm too busy doing other stuff right now.

I'm not 100% Windows-free because I have to use it at work, but I don't have it at home. If I've learned one thing it's, 'Don't be afraid to try new things. Make mistakes, but carry on and you'll get there in the end.'

[ammaro]

for me i had one subject in collage called unix operating system.. it was introduction to unix..after collage i decided to delve into linux started with fedora and ending with debian..now im working as linux admin..and all our servers runing on debian

[bigtomrodney]

Originally Posted by bigtomrodney

I started back with Mandrake 8.x and SUSE 7.2 I think. I played around for a while before switching to Red Hat 9.

I remember playing around with the earlier Knoppix and Morphix discs.

I eventually went back to Mandrake and by version 9.1/9.2 I was using Windows for so little that I switched completely and ditched Windows from my machine. I have used countless LiveCDs and installs on various test boxes. I think I have about 80-90 install discs but at this stage I pretty much just use SUSE. I get my work done, all my hardware works and I run the odd few risky updates but aside from resintalling the nVidia drivers after a kernel or X upgrade it's rock solid and pretty quick.

Just reading back over my own earlier post, I have since switched to Ubuntu and find it does the job even better. I'm lucky enough to have a machine decent enough to run VMs at a reasonable performance level so I am getting back to running more and more distros. Last night I tried openSolaris 2008.05 but I don't think I'll be switching anytime soon

[fky168]

Firstly, I introduce myself to our community.I come from china and now I'm an embedded linux application software engineer in Xi'an software park.
I got started in 2001.When I was a freshman and selected Computer Application as my major.At that time I heared about Red Hat/Debian. Then I got a Table model machine and installed Debian by the reflection of one of my roommates and classmates in 2002.But I real got started in 03/06/2006, because since then I have being started to learnning Linux(ThizLinux7.0).
Nowadays I work on my computer with Fecdor7/8 and install Ubuntu8.4 on my own IBM T61 as studying.
I'm very eager to learn and communicate with everyone in our community!
My E-mail:fky168@163.com

[javilin93]

Hello fky168
Well I first heared about linux about 2 years ago when my older brother told me about this different and radical new operating system in which eveything was created by a community and not by a big company,so with me being more curious than curious george himself I downloaded a copy of Xandros and gave it a try(I gave a up about a week later because it was too hard I was only 12).
About a year later my computer got stuffed with viruses,and adware(everything in the Notorn encyclopedia of Viruses ).So that was the magical moment in which I remembered about the radical OS,I downloaded a copy of ubuntu and got it working.Now every computer on my house runs linux,there is now way I'm goin back to windows

[vigol]

Around the 1990,-- a Eight Yeas Old Child -- I heard about PC! For several years, I've playing with MS
From GW-Basic to C#, DOS 5 ~ XP, BBS ~ IE7, CSV ~ MS SQL, But without much success.
I don't know why.
Around the June 2007 : I find myself in perl / php / mysql. Encounter many difficulty in installation and finding src/exe, and many more. No guides, and as a whole I hate GUI, and related process.
I used to coding in C/C++ without IDE, I dislike somthings like C# / VB / MS SQL. and ....
What should I do, hey ; there's UN*X, It's good to start from there, But what about Licence?!
Let taste something Like that. ????....???? BSD / Solaris ? I love both name. That's true. I get in love with there names. That's sound great : SoLaaariiiiiis, Bee ES Dee. well, I'd try those, ... many problem raised. In fact I didn't know : How should I install it, configure it, use it, Slice? / ? Where's the partiotion. It was a Hell... In one of the warm days of summer, one of my best friends said : Linux is a dummy system, It's for dumbs, It will go to trashes. Bad stye? Bad Idea ? But It made me HOT. I found openSUSE 10.2 and Fedora 6 from shop, I Installed both... NTFS : OK, MP3 : OK, Dialup : OK (Of cource all of them in OpenSUSE 11.2). and now...