1998-ish, needed something better than Win9x/NT for our shiny new cable broadband connection. It was the hot thing all the l33t kids in our local 2600 group were getting into.
Installed Debian on an Am5x86-133 to act as the house firewall and router, web/email host, and Quake2 server, packed into an OG IBM PC-AT 5150 case. Setting up the NAT/firewall stuff was an exercise in madness, but once configured, was smooth and fast.
2005, after made one question into a irc channel and received "all the love" from the community. Then get a Debian sarge cd and I never left the distribution. 🤔️
In September of 2020 I found a video titled: "How to dual boot Windows 10 and Linux Mint" which intrigued me so I followed along and broke my Windows installation, however, instead of trying to fix Windows, I thought to myself "Why fix Windows instead of letting this Linux Mint thingy take up the whole drive?" Which drove me into the Linux rabbit hole into using Manjaro, Endeavor, Arco, Fedora, Arch, and finally Debian, where I live now with FOSS software.
I've always kinda known about it, but my first time deciding to try it was when I read an article about water cooling saying it was the nerdiest thing you could s with your computer outside of installing Linux on it. That set me on the path to learning how to dual boot Linux with Windows. This was back in 2010. I started I think with either Debian or Fedora and started distro hopping. Then my cousin told me about Ubuntu and I couldn't get 10.10 to work because of my nvidia GPU.
I’ve known about linux existing for a long time but I really started to look into it around a year ago after Microsoft was trying to force windows 11 on users and I hated it enough to try Linux and I’m glad I did.
It was roller coaster ride for me. I saw Ubuntu on a YouTube channel tried on Virtual box but then saw mint, so installed that on bare metal then got screen tearing so installed Ubuntu but because of reasons went back to windows. And this cycle of installing Linux using it for a week then going back to windows continued for almost 3 years until I decided to dual boot. I eventually got rid of windows because there's was no need for it anymore. I am using Linux exclusively since 2022. 😁
Oh btw whoever said that windows is easy don't account for the obvious "because you are used it" factor. My first proper interaction with an OS was Android 5 yep not windows. So I was so used to way of doing things in that way and I used to tinker with a lot and because of that I was familiar with filesystem. I got used to the filesystem with / and all directories. But when I got my first computer with Windows 10, you bet I was confused like what the hell with a way installing things.
In the early to mid 90s I was friends with a guy TJ who had a CS degree from the1980s. He loved the UNIX environment but was stuck in DOS & Win3.1 world.
I was learning AutoCad on a 286. Teacher had a 386. I was building a 486DX 100 with Octeck DCA2 motherboard.
I went to the computer store for something & saw a book Linux. Slackware CDROM in the back. I took the book to TJ & his eyes lit up. We had a lot of fun & heartache as Linux wasn't polished.
first look at RedHat Linux 7.2 (Enigma) from my friend CPU and I forget about years but that day, my friend brought Debian 3.0 (Woody) from local magazine, maybe 2002 or something and learn linux networking with slackware, debian, last suse linux by Novell but serious used for everyday since last mandriva linux 2010 and cross over distro linux. And today just used Debian, OpenSuse and Alpine Linux 😊
been an off and on relationship for me. Tried installing mandrake on my power pc iBook, didn't go well, gone between Ubuntu, fedora, mint and windows since 05'. Always came back to windows due to gaming but now, I'm permanently Linux for gaming and everything else.
2004: heard about Linux as a text based system unlike Windows 2014: found a lab computer with a dual boot, but never tried it 2016: had to use Ubuntu for a Scilab session, actually learned about FOSS 2017: dual booted my laptop
Via Usenet back in 1993. 0.99pl10 was the kernel version at a time and I downloaded my first Slackware distribution on 30 or so 1.4MB floppy disk from a BBS via modem.
Discovered HP/UX in 1993 at college and was blown away by the interface and particularly the concept of virtual desktops. Windows 95 was a bit disappointing, Desqview on DOS didn't quite do it, so I was on the hunt for years. Discovered Redhat 5 around '98, installed with Redneck language. System worked awkwardly and I couldn't commit; once I discovered Mandrake in 2001 and the concept of package repos, I never really looked back.
And Windows took 30 years to get virtual desktops.
Learned about Linux from a former boss in 2003/2004 on an ancient dual Pentium 2 running Mandrake 9.2 and KDE 3. Coming from Mac and then Windows, this absolutely blew me away and I was sold.
Used it on the side while my main machine was WinXP. Distro-hopped with #mandrake, #suse, #ubuntu, and settled on #debian which became my daily driver in 2006 in grad school and never looked back.
I don't even remember when I leanred Linux was a thing. But I found out earlier this year that it had improved massively in recent history.
So I dual-booted Linux Mint to nose around without hard committing. And I just... Never booted back into Windows. Since then I've deleted Windows entirely, gone to Kubuntu, Vanilla OS, and now I find myself on Pop!_OS.
In 1997 or 1998 I had to live-edit some typos in html pages. I'd say it was an #apache webserver living inside a #linux server, and I had to login via telnet session (ISDN). The editor I used was nano.
Cyclops
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Dustin Williams
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Eligos
in reply to It's FOSS • • •GunkSlinger
in reply to It's FOSS • • •minecraftchest1
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Got a used laptop from my Grampa in about 2018ish. I originally put Windows on it, but due to instability, I eventually tried out Linux Mint.
I don't remember how I herd about Linux, but I have been daily driving it in some capacity ever since.
Isho'ye
in reply to It's FOSS • • •1998-ish, needed something better than Win9x/NT for our shiny new cable broadband connection. It was the hot thing all the l33t kids in our local 2600 group were getting into.
Installed Debian on an Am5x86-133 to act as the house firewall and router, web/email host, and Quake2 server, packed into an OG IBM PC-AT 5150 case. Setting up the NAT/firewall stuff was an exercise in madness, but once configured, was smooth and fast.
Sergio
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Chill Agorist
in reply to It's FOSS • • •khoi 👨💻☕️
in reply to It's FOSS • • •It's FOSS
in reply to khoi 👨💻☕️ • • •Yogurt-x86 :antiverified:
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Mighty Murder Mittens
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Mangdries
in reply to It's FOSS • • •madmax
in reply to It's FOSS • • •madmax
in reply to It's FOSS • • •It's FOSS
in reply to madmax • • •hellaconfused
in reply to It's FOSS • • •In the early to mid 90s I was friends with a guy TJ who had a CS degree from the1980s. He loved the UNIX environment but was stuck in DOS & Win3.1 world.
I was learning AutoCad on a 286. Teacher had a 386. I was building a 486DX 100 with Octeck DCA2 motherboard.
I went to the computer store for something & saw a book Linux. Slackware CDROM in the back. I took the book to TJ & his eyes lit up. We had a lot of fun & heartache as Linux wasn't polished.
Thanks for everything TJ Wright
Emir Morataon
in reply to It's FOSS • • •obi0bi
in reply to It's FOSS • • •It's FOSS
in reply to obi0bi • • •bruuteuzius
in reply to It's FOSS • • •It's FOSS
in reply to bruuteuzius • • •Karsten Fey
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Pankajkumar Patro
in reply to It's FOSS • • •2014: found a lab computer with a dual boot, but never tried it
2016: had to use Ubuntu for a Scilab session, actually learned about FOSS
2017: dual booted my laptop
::1
in reply to It's FOSS • • •eboye
in reply to It's FOSS • • •David Segonds
in reply to It's FOSS • • •John Cholewa
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Discovered HP/UX in 1993 at college and was blown away by the interface and particularly the concept of virtual desktops. Windows 95 was a bit disappointing, Desqview on DOS didn't quite do it, so I was on the hunt for years. Discovered Redhat 5 around '98, installed with Redneck language. System worked awkwardly and I couldn't commit; once I discovered Mandrake in 2001 and the concept of package repos, I never really looked back.
And Windows took 30 years to get virtual desktops.
ઉશ્કેરાયેલી-અદાલત-૬૫૧
in reply to It's FOSS • • •It's FOSS
in reply to ઉશ્કેરાયેલી-અદાલત-૬૫૧ • • •Pete Orrall
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Learned about Linux from a former boss in 2003/2004 on an ancient dual Pentium 2 running Mandrake 9.2 and KDE 3. Coming from Mac and then Windows, this absolutely blew me away and I was sold.
Used it on the side while my main machine was WinXP. Distro-hopped with #mandrake, #suse, #ubuntu, and settled on #debian which became my daily driver in 2006 in grad school and never looked back.
Daedalous Ilios
in reply to It's FOSS • • •I don't even remember when I leanred Linux was a thing. But I found out earlier this year that it had improved massively in recent history.
So I dual-booted Linux Mint to nose around without hard committing. And I just... Never booted back into Windows. Since then I've deleted Windows entirely, gone to Kubuntu, Vanilla OS, and now I find myself on Pop!_OS.
hophophop
in reply to It's FOSS • • •