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How did you start with Linux?


michaelcole
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Someone else said this somewhere else and i would like to follow up on this..

I know there are some exceptions to this, but basically, the majority of Linux users are one of two types of people. Either they are tech people like us, where if they have a problem they either figure it out themselves, or ask about it on a message board, or find the answer on the Internet, or they're someone that knows a regular Linux user, and that regular Linux user convinced them to give Linux a try. In that case, if they have any questions, they'll just ask the person that convinced them to try Linux.

I was first given a CD of Lycoris Desktop/LX years ago before that i had some others but this was the first i really installed then used.

 

I then tried RH and did not like it one bit. I read something on Mandrake and then got hooked..

 

Which was your first and how did you get it..

 

Mine was given to me by a PC shop owner, Who cut a few copies and handed them out to people interested in linux.

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Slackware 2.?? CD bought at a local computer store in the mid-90s and updated by downloads from the Internet. I was going into a UNIX job with no previous background in it (except for knowing the C language) and thought I'd tinker around at home with Linux to accelerate the learning curve. It was a great experience.

Edited by jboy
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Mandrake 7.2. It was on a magazine cover disk and was only disk 1, it didn't have the rest of the set (if there were any).

 

I only used it briefly, and then started a year ago (March 2005) because the job I was looking to do required Linux/Unix knowledge, and so started to learn before I got the job.

 

Now I do most of our Linux installations and solutions.

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I've heard of linux in school, one of my friends have installed Red Hat 5 on his box. I tried it too - didn't like at all, it seemed to be too difficult. I left Linux ting for a couple of years. Then i read in some tech-site that linux based server applications become very popular and that Linux have undergone a major improvement in GUI. I wanted to install linux again but i didnt know what distro to install so i picked Debian. It was a wrong decision, becouse i was completely unfamiliar with CLI. Afterwards i downloaded Mandrake Linux 10.1 and loved it. About a month ago i tried FC4 and am using it ever since (i also got Mandriva2006 but it runs slower than FC4, so i don't use it).

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Guest Hobbletoe

I first tried Linux back in the late 90's when I bought a "Teach Yourself Mandrake Linux in 24 Hours" book from Waldens at the Fairfield Mall. It came , I think, with 7.2. Being a Solaris administrator at the time (still), I was fairly familiar with UNIX, and learning Linux isn't that much of a jump.

 

As to why, Microsoft. I was only using it for gaming (Everquest. Hobbletoe Clubfoot on the Erollisi Marr server), and just wasn't happy with MS, security, and things like that. Having to fork out money to add basic functionality. Having to hack Windows registry to secure things, ... Blah.

 

I've been very happy with Linux (running Mandriva at home, Mepis on my laptops) for a long time now, and short of a Shockwave player, my wife is happy with it as well. She has noticed that are PC doesn't slow down, need rebooting, and pretty much just runs.

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At the University, we did all our work on Unix terminals. We had Applix (=Ooo), XV (=ImageMagick), lots of compilers/interpreters (C, ADA, LISP, Prolog...), and TWM.

 

I "fell in love" with Unix, because:

- we each had our own settings,

- bugs always had an explanation,

- TWM, in all its simplicity, did its job well and fast,

- we could log in at any terminal as if it were the server itself,

- the terminal was a single window to several servers!

- we could remote-display applications, talk (unix talk)...

- it just worked.

 

From that day, I did all I could to transform my Atari 520ST into Unix. I had a 500MB hard drive and 4MB RAM, so I promptly installed Mint (unix-like micro-kernel based on Minix) and switched to the multitasking version of the Atari OS.

 

I married my wife in 1999 and the Atari was just too old. We needed a modern computer and a color printer to create our "invitations". And we had no money.

 

I built a PC from parts (much cheaper). No money, no Windows. I bought Mandrake 6.0 powerpack and from that day, I kept using Mandrake, up to Mdv2006 now.

 

Yves.

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My first computer was a 80286 with DOS as the OS. It was useless to me, so I gave it to my 5-year-old daughter as a toy.

My next one was a DX2 with W95. I tried instaling RH5 and SuSE, but never got past the text-based installer..! Mynext Computer had W95. I had finished University (at age 49) and just lost my job. The LinuxWorld was on show in Frankfurt and I had a free ticket, so I had a good look around and collected free CD's. With lots of time on my hands, I tested just about every distro that could be done in six months. ( FC1, SuSE, AUROX, etc. etc.) Mandrake was the one that worked best for me. I've tried several other distros in the mean time, but stayed with mdk. Maybe because just about everything in mdk works with a graphic interface to it. I just can't remember console commands, so I need everthing graphical. Thats how and why I use mdk.

Helmut

Edited by Helmut
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I was getting sick of the windows trend, saw Mandrake 7.0 at Best Buy, and bought it. I have ran every Mandrake/Mandriva release since then, including most of the betas. Prior to my dsl days, I started buying disks from Cheapbytes. Trivia: one of the best releases ever was 8.2. The worse release of all time was 8.1.

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My first linux was Red Hat 7.1, downloaded with a dial-up modem (a pain!) but I was proud of it. Switched to Linux as it was interesting, safe from spyware, viruses and it did not come with any "trusted computing" stuff.

 

I had once found an abandoned Red Hat 5.something CD laying around in a library but could not figure out what it was and how to get it up and running. I had never heard of Linux at that time and thought, it might be a Windows-application. Stupid me! Of course, I trashed that CD as I could not find any installer or .exe file on the CD. :P

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