So what got you into Linux? - Page 4


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Thread: So what got you into Linux?

  1. #46
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    May 2001
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    The tear probably comes from memories of trying to install Debian the first time.
    Yeah, not far off, actually... I spent many months as a SuSE user because I didn't have the time to sort out my Debian (potato!) install.

    In fact, the first set of CDs I got were very dodgy, didn't boot properly, not a good sign! Then when I got my first Woody CDs from the Linux Emporium (UK web-order shop, very good) everything got a bit better. Moved to my own house, got broadband, started using apt-get over the net, and it wasn't long until I "apt-get dist-upgrade"d to Sarge.

  2. #47
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    A mate of mine was a red hat user, I had a chat to him a couple of times about Linux. But I was on dial up and couldnt get a distro to install, didn't know that I could get Linux format

    Anyway later on we got broadband and I went and downloaded my first distro, SuSE After playing around for a while, getting use to other rpm distro's Mandrake etc. I decided to get Debian, from the Linux Emporium as well Had the Woody install messup a few times before I got it working.

    Then I heard about upgrading to Sarge, I messed that up a couple of times, I had been install X and everything else before the upgrade. But in the end I got it working, now Debian is where I'm going to stay, even though I do keep trying other distro's out.
    If you have to ask why you want to install Linux, then perhaps you shouldn't.
    -- Michael D. Watts (Gone but never forgotten)

    Linux is not Windows | Posting Guidelines

    Code Monkey (YouTube)

  3. #48
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    I believed in windows, until I came across justlinux.

    Now I'm free.

    How I feel grateful all of a sudden...
    Come under the reign of the Idiot King...
    Come to me ... I love linux!

    Registered Linux user: Idiot King #350544

  4. #49
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    Dec 2002
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    orlando, florida
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    several reasons

    i was learning web development and wanted to do it on the cheap. i was always uncomfortable playing with asp/access knowing it would never be a production level solution, so i went to php/mysql on windows -> and then made the switch to linux so i could play with other languages.

  5. #50
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    Originally posted by deathadder
    now Debian is where I'm going to stay, even though I do keep trying other distro's out.
    Sounds like the same thing I hear alot of Slackware/Gentoo users say. I'm for Debian all the way, but don't stay with it out of "loyalty" or something like that. Give other distros a REAL try. In the end, I think you'll come back because of sheer technical superiority.

  6. #51
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    Uh, I'm somewhere where I don't know where I am.
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    Work. I had to do a job which required a reliable OS, and you know you're not getting that from MS. A lot of my customers don't like the MS and love it when we come in with the Linux-based systems.

    Once I got a taste, I quickly gave up MS and have been running RH/FC ever since, with the exception of my laptop which I only use to play poker online. mmmm poker.
    if (i_forgot && this_is_about_code)
    language = c++;

  7. #52
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    Nov 1999
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    Williston, Florida
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    The main reason I installed Linux is because I read an article about it and I was enticed by the open source philosophy. I was also very tired of the BSOD, Crashes, and running out of memory in windows.Also, only having my first computer for a little more than a year, windows was already starting to bore me. My first distro was Caldera Open Linux, which came with an installation book, but I couldn't get it to dual boot with windows, so I wiped windows out and did a full install. It took forever to figure out how to get my sound working, and I had to buy a new modem, but before long I was experiencing RPM dependancy hell. At this point, I really wanted to play my windows games, and I was fed up with Linux, so I reinstalled windows. Linux, however, was always on my mind, I really wanted to be able to install and use it daily.

    My next distro was Red Hat, and I took it to a local computer shop and asked them to install it so I could dual boot. A few of the guys there new a lot about linux, but they couldn't get it to dual boot. They said it had something to do with the custom version of windows from the compaq quick restore disk, and I needed to install A regular windows disk. After a long process I got it to dual boot with Red Hat, but back then, there was no apt-get for RPM so I was still in dependancy hell.

    My next distro was slackware. I downloaded and installed Slackware 3.x and used it for about a year, but I just got tired of compiling packages from source, and having to do a reinstall to upgrade to the next version. This is when I learned about Debian and Apt. Just what I wanted....no dependancy issues, no compiling from source, a huge software repository, and upgrades were done without having to reinstall. So I installed Debian from a dialup connection using a stack of floppies and it took me about three tries to get it right. Finally I had a debian base system installed. Next I selected my packages and about 24 hous later I had X working. I've used Debian ever since. When I look back, I'm really glad I didn't let my first experiences deter me.

  8. #53
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    Jan 2003
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    Originally posted by jamez1988
    I'm helping build a new distro aimed at teenagers.
    That sounds like an excellent idea, get people ingrained that there's more than one OS before college and career get them too set in their ways.

    On that note, check out Slax-Popcorn. It has Mplayer, XMMS, Firefox and Thunderbird pre-compiled and numerous other modules available ion the download site. They are also looking for contributors for new modules, so you could use this as a base and tweak it for your proposed teen audience. Abd since it's a live CD, they could boot their parents' PC, play Mp3's, video surf the web, etc, then reboot and not have affected anything on the Windoze side...
    Slackware current (Dell Latitude D610)
    CentOS 5.2 (Servers)
    Registered Linux User # 375030

  9. #54
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    Jan 2005
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    Ottawa, ON, CA
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    May 1998 -- I had this "old 486" computer kicking around (still have it) and was trying to figure out what use it was. I have no clue how Linux even entered my brain, but I started calling computer firms around town for information and finally found this guy who said I could install Red Hat (5.0) by ftp over my NIC (I needed broadband even then). He gave me incredibly detailed instructions and *bang*, it installed perfectly on the first try. How easy was that?

    Never had very good luck with RPM, but switched to MDK because it was at least familiar. Then, I tried Debian just because it seemed to have a devoted following and I wondered what the hype was about. Then, I chickened out and went back to MDK (for a week...). Then I decided my compulsion to jump distros was for good reason, and I went back to Debian... and it's my mainstay.

    I feel kinda like a hack for being scared to stick with Debian initially, but (at the time) it seemed like it was too complex and required more manual setup than MDK. It taught me more though, and I felt like I "grew up" with it as a result. I think that experience probably cemented the attachment I have to it today.

    - T.
    Last edited by tlyons; 02-10-2005 at 03:04 PM.

  10. #55
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    Originally posted by Sepero
    Sounds like the same thing I hear alot of Slackware/Gentoo users say. I'm for Debian all the way, but don't stay with it out of "loyalty" or something like that. Give other distros a REAL try. In the end, I think you'll come back because of sheer technical superiority.
    I keep coming back to Debian because I haven't found a distro that I enjoy using as much as I do Debian, that and I havent found anything as good as apt, or with as many packages. Thats the reasons I keep coming back, not because of any "loyalty". If I find another distro that I prefere I'll use it, it doesn't matter what it is, aslong as it's Linux.

    I do want to play around with a *bsd install, I'll have to do that when I get the time.
    If you have to ask why you want to install Linux, then perhaps you shouldn't.
    -- Michael D. Watts (Gone but never forgotten)

    Linux is not Windows | Posting Guidelines

    Code Monkey (YouTube)

  11. #56
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    Dec 1999
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    I used to use Debian, and for the longest time it was my main distro.

    It has since fallen to second because of Gentoo.

    I had the opportunity to try both pretty much side to side, and found that some of the Debian packages were kinda flaky and unstable while the same version in Gentoo was rock solid (partly because the gentoo build was machine specific, I think) -- and yes, I'm talking about firefox predominantly.

    I liked Debian because of the ease of installing new programs. I don't necessarily like waiting around for an update to openoffice or X to complete compiling, though it is a deterrant for simply trying new software simply because I can! I now go and see if I'll actually use it, rather than simply install it and forget about it!
    Knute

    You live, you die, enjoy the interval!

  12. #57
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    Knute, no they were likely just bad builds.

  13. #58
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    McMinnville, Oregon, USA
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    Christmas 2001, I was at my aunt's house. My cousin, a hardcore geek since the early 70's when he was a very small kid, told me he didn't use Windows. I asked him (innocently) what he did use. This was my Freshman year of college, so I went back to the dorm room, downloaded Red Hat 7.1...or 2... or 3.... and couldn't get it to install. 7.3 was the first version I finally got to function. I thought the idea was great, but I knew absolutely no one outside of this one cousin who'd even heard of Linux. I later found out there was a single person in my hall who'd even heard of it, and he'd never even seen it. To this day, I know about as many Linux-familiar people as I did then.

    I did the dual boot thing for a while. Hard to be interested in something if you don't have anyone to talk with about it. One day the next summer, I decided to say goodbye to Linux. It was great, and I'd used it quite a bit during my dual boot time, but I decided that Windows was just that much better.

    I kid you not, later that week, I installed over Windows and have never, ever looked back. And that was that. I've since done the distro hop, though. Currently love Slack, but if I had the time, I'd give Debian an honest try.

  14. #59
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    Dec 2002
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    Wow, one week to hate it.. It's taken me months of fighting lack of error reporting to hate it.

  15. #60
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    Oct 2002
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    On August 14, 2002, I was surfing the web, and found myself for the first time in the winamp.com forums. I encountered a thread hyperbolically entitled "Microsoft Palladium: the End of Privacy". I had never heard of Palldium before, but I was so enraged by what I read that I announced in that very thread that I was going to take up Mandrake Linux, which someone had told me was a good Linux for beginners.

    I immediately emailed Microsoft announcing that I was switching, and why, and closed my email with the words "Thank You and Good Night".

    I had lost my job a month earlier. I had edited lawbooks. At my job, we had all talked about Linux all the time. There was one guy who ran it (this guy put the geek in "geek") and he talked about it with such enthusiasm that we all got the bug, but I was the only one who ever got the guts to try it... Tackling Linux gave me something to think about other than my terrible job prospects.

    Looking back on the months that followed, my anti-Microsoft fervor seems a little comical. I'm a slow study, and it was a long time before I was really running Linux in any significant way... yet I was haunting that forum... and this forum too-- posting virulent anti-microsoft manifestos for months... usually using Windows 98!

    These days I run Linux (usually Sarge) mostly because I'm used to it, and running Windows has become a real pain. When you think of the Linux desktop, with its choice of environments and mutiple workspaces, and place it in contrast with the Windows desktop (with no choice of environments and a single workspace), the question "Is Linux ready for the desktop?" seems like the height of ironic humor.

    But I never forget that my most important reason for running Linux is that I find myself living in a moment of great historical change, right up there with the invention of the prininting press, and I want to contribute to this moment in a significant way. The plan was that the whole PC revolution was going to be a corporately owned phenomenon, everybody linked by a Microsoft's Secret Corporate Operating system. That's one plan that I am proud to have a hand in f**king up!
    Last edited by blackbelt_jones; 02-11-2005 at 12:09 AM.

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