What prompted your move to linux?

[zyb]

I first used Linux in the late 90's. My first favorite was Suse 6.3, I think 6.3 been awhile. I also tried RedHat. Of course at that time winmodems kept me from really getting into it. Anyways after installing Mandrake I fell in love with Linux. I mainly tried it out of curiosity. I kept at it because over the years I saw that Linux was and would offer more and MS Windows was offering less and less. I only use linux these days.

So curiosity drew me to linux and linux itself kept me coming back and eventually sticking around.

[swiftlinuxcreator]

I began using Linux in early 2007. Bad reviews of Vista made me determined to NEVER buy Windows again. Not only was it notoriously buggy, it was so bloated that only a brand new TOP-OF-THE-LINE computer could handle it.

[NightHawk877]

I began using Linux back in 2008. I was bored and had a spare computer laying around. I put Ubuntu on that so I could learn how to use it. I moved it over to my main computer running Windows XP at the time once I decided to multiboot. I'm still using a Windows/Linux boot setup on my desktop since I need to play computer games. My laptop is running only Linux Mint.

Sent from my SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

[Nilla Wafer]

I had read that Linux is good for older computers. When Windows began to seriously tax my computer I didn't want to be forced to buy a whole new computer! And it wasn't just Windows, but all the expensive, resource-hogging software that it takes to properly maintain Windows.

My computer was always telling me what to do (please update this, please run that program, please install this or that) and one day a grandparent who never used a computer summed it all up for me:

Why in hell would you buy a machine that tells you what to do instead of doing what you want it to do? You kids today, geez. If it's your gizmo then make it do what you want. If it won't do what you want then stop wasting your time on it.

I felt so silly for having wasted a minute fretting over a dumb appliance that only frsutrated me instead of doing as I wished. I can't be without a computer for school (including being online for a lot of it), and of course every teenage girl in America "can't live without" being online. So I had to find some way to stay online and get my school work done, and maybe make my computer work for me instead of the other way around!

Thank the Lord for Google, which led me to Linux, which freed me from the frightening and expensive tyranny of Microsoft's operating system, and gives my tired old computer new life and blazing speed and freedom to use my computer the way it was meant to be used: As a tool for me to do what I need and want to do, rather than as a necessary evil to be tolerated in order to get things done.

~nilla

[deSilva]

Ubuntu 4.10 aka Warty Warthog!

[anticupidon]

i was given way back in 2004 a damaged hdd,and someone hinted me to use a linux live cd
i was mesmerized ...how it is possible to have all that software up and running from a cd?
little by little i started to read about it,i imagined i was ready and well prepared.
well,NO!
i had my fair share of experiments with linux installers,deleted partitions and all mistakes one can do.
but failing at somethig is to learn something,so they say.
i was mad first because i deleted some data i was fond of.
the same linux live cd helped me to recover my data and to understand linux file system.
i started by dual booting and for a long time i was more than happy.
now i went back to schol to stdy seriously about operating systems and servers.
now i have my Thinkpad Minted and it is good to have your Linux box and stick with it,no matter what issues you have.
first Mint i tried live was Daryna,i still have it as a reminder that knowledge is like fire -you can cook your meal or you can burn your house with it-.
regards

[drewdlekins]

The first time I met Linux, it was Mandrake 9.2, downloaded off the internet onto three CD-Rs using a dialup connection that took a day. I couldn't get the family computer to burn CDs or play DVDs, and didn't know enough to go online and look for information or help. I was 14. The next time I looked into it was when Ubuntu was riding it's initial wave. I started with 7.04 on a Sempron based desktop, and used it in dual-boot with WinXP for six months. Then I got into Macs for about three years. Wanted to fit in with the art students at university I guess. Sold my last one two summers ago when I got fed up with the Appleocracy. Since then I've been running Linux almost full time on my personal machines, with the occasional Windows lapse for experimentation. Been distro-hopping almost ever since, although I generally settle into a Ubuntu-derivative for months at a time before going on a CrunchBang binge or similar.

For me, just like the move out of Macs, being a Linux user is a principle thing for me. I could go buy Windows, but why? Why pay a monolithic corporation for something that only works marginally the way I want, when I can join a community of people and use software that works better and is created for the benefit of it's users? Isn't that better than software that rapes my wallet and leaves me unhappy?

Yep. It is.

[SilverNexus]

Since my father hates Windows and refuses to use Macs, I have seen Linux for almost as long as I can remember (the only thing I can think of before that was DOS, and that was DR-DOS more often than MS-DOS). Usually they were (grudgingly) dual-booted with Windows (various versions, probably mainly 2000). There was Mandrake / Mandriva (around the transition of the name), RedHat, SuSE 10.0, DyneBolic, SlackWare, and others I don't remember off the top of my head. Around 2007 we finally dumped dial-up, and more update-oriented Linuxes such as Ubuntu we feasable as an OS to use (imagine updating the kernel on dial-up -- yech ). I think I jumped on the Ubuntu bandwagon with Edgy (7.04?) or Feisty, and left it when I jumped on the Linux Mint bandwagon by ditching my Ubuntu 10.10 install at the end of 2012.

I'm not sure there was ever much of a move for me to Linux as much as there was a move away from Windows. I don't think I ever dual-booted my 2GHz computer I used from 2008-ish up until a few months ago, and the only reason I dual-booted my new computer was so I could play some games that did not seem to play nice with virtualization (usually 3D early and mid-2000's games). Other than that, I have pretty much everything useful on the Linux side.

[sammiev]

Easy, I love to test and play.

[Snapcase]

My first attempts were just curiosity. I started in the times of Ubuntu Dapper and Edgy, also tried the coetaneous Mandrake, Fedora and Knoppix versions. Gave up after a few months tired to "fight the machine" and went back to the easy and fully user friendly Mac OS X. By that time the PowerPC went away and Apple switched to Intel. Huh! From that point (Never owned a MacIntel) I kept my PowerMacs until they lasted and later kept going with Hackintosh builds on HP workstations. Things started to went wrong and wrong with Apple regarding the pro market. Needed to change to Windows for pro audio. No other way even today, but for the other computers I kept going with Mac OS X until last december.

New year. Fed up of Apple and Mac OS X and the paths they are taking. Time for a change. All along this year I've been trying Ubuntu in different flavors, (like in the old Ubuntu edgy days, again my thing is KDE). Also tried different audio oriented distros (AV Linux, KXS Studio...) in an attempt to get rid of Win for audio... No way. Linux aways feels promising in that department but it's like it never gets there... Need to keep Win besides I hate it...

Lately I discovered Linux Mint. For the first time in a long long while I've found an OS that doesn't drive crazy and makes me look back and missing that former Mac OS ease of use and stability, I've been missing it for years. I mean those good times of a Mac OS X 10.4 running on a PowerMac G5. Linux Mint 15 KDE is such a discovering. This time I'll stay in Linux. LM 15 is as user friendly as it should. What I expect for a computer, or an OS for extension, is firing it up for the very first time and after a few personalization and configuration tweaks, getting it just working with minimum issues from the day one until it dies. That's what Apple gave me years ago, and finally Linux is there too. LM is not for geeks. My old father (78) can use it with no problems.

[uzername]

Basically b/c I can't stand Windows or anything about it. Didn't want to pay a premium for Apple hardware and OS, and Linux did everything I needed, and more. The more I used and learned about it, the more I discovered how flexible (and fun) it is. The last windows I really used was XP. I have 7 on my laptop, but I've booted into it like twice I think in a year (and quickly rebooted out and back to linux again :pp). I'll be a linux user as long as there's a linux to use.

[Lin Jones]

I just really don't see the need with continuing with Windows and using something that is complete contrary to my philosophy. I use only free and open source whenever I can anyway, so why not support an ecosystem that supports that. I don't see myself ever leaving Linux again.

[Evgeny]

I had many nightmare and virus with windows, and I always end up paying, internet explorer.

But i started trying o play a game, with internet explorer would not allow.
so I began searching for alternative and that how I discovered there existed alternative to microsoft product.

I got hit by a new virus and I ditched windows right away

Now, I don,t remember having a virus.

I won't give my master password, even to my girlfriend. I'm not stupid

[wheeledgoat]

Having the perspective of using DOS and OS/2 way back when, every iteration of MS Windows past 3.1 has left me with the nagging feelings; "It shouldn't be this hard" and "An OS could and should run so much simpler/easier/smoother/lighter than this."

Unless super-bored, I've never been a cutting-edge type person. I don't upgrade until I have to. I let others iron out the kinks and I use what works, even if it's old. Tinkering and troubleshooting is fun if I have the time to play, but it really pisses me off when I need & expect something to work and it doesn't.

When MS announced it was dropping XP support, that was the straw for me and I started shopping for an alternative. (I was so very sick of my XP installs tanking after about 6-12 months, hanging on mup.sys when I tried to boot. It was almost predictable. The silver lining is it taught me good data backup and recovery skills, as well as how to make images and restore systems. Thanks, microsoft!)

I tried linux of some form or another (can't remember) back in 2000, but I wasn't savvy enough (or ready to dedicate the time necessary) to get it.

Today, though, with Linux Mint giving me an out-of-the-box OS that the whole family can immediately sit down and use... WOW! Awesome. And not only does it WORK, but I can tinker and play as I go and grow into it.

And I know that, worst-case-scenerio, I'm 30 minutes away from a fresh install that will, upon completion, be UP TO DATE! And it will include office productivity, printer/scanner/network drivers, a decent browser, and pretty much anything else I'll need. I won't have to spend half a day hunting around, popping discs in and out of the tray and installing optical burning software, graphics & audio card drivers, etc etc etc. yay linux mint!

[factotum218]

I never really considered Windows or Apple products to suck. But at home I never saw a need for one specific OS for anything I did. Games are fun, but not something I take seriously as a reason to have a computer. What's more is I work in graphic design professionally but nothing astounding that would require the latest Creative Suite and 12GB of ram so with that I don't take my work home with me. At home I'd rather experiment, play, and just be creative. It's not hard to translate something of an idea or process over to different software if I decide I want to use it on a project at the office.

I'm constantly learning and finding new things to do, but looking back over the last year that I ran Windows I counted the times I used any of the Adobe software on one hand. Especially now with three children the home computer serves as a remote office for me while an avenue of edutainment for the kids. I use WINE for Netflix but otherwise everything is native software through the KDE environment giving me plenty of options and plenty to do.

My story isn't as enthusiastic or as inspiring as some of the others but it's simply not having any solid requirements from any platform and I think that's why I'm so passive about it. All I see from most retail consumer software companies are attempts at gated communities and lock in and I doubt I will see anything exclusive to Microsoft or Apple that I would be interested in.