When did you come to Linux?

[MurphCID]

I’m old. I have been around for 61 years now and feel it every day. I remember when computers were what were called “mainframes” running Unix or VMS operating systems. Then after college while I was in the Army in the 1980’s I purchased by first computer; and IBM PCjr with 128 K of ram a CGA card, and a single 360k floppy running IBM DOS 2.1. Later in 1988 I upgraded to a Zenith Z-150 with 640k ram, dual floppy drives, a 20 MB hard drive (second hand), and an EGA card running a NEC V20 chip and MS DOS 3.3 then later 6. In later years I went to a 386 SX/25 Packard Bell with Windows 3.1. This machine later was exchanged for a custom computer built for me by a buddy with a Cyrix 166 chip. The Cyrix became my first Linux computer.

I saw a review of this operating system called Linux in a computer magazine (I think it was Byte), which made me excited. I remember that I went into either CompUSA, or Businessland and saw a BOXED copy of this Linux called Mandrake. I think it was either Mandrake 7.0 or 7.1 and it was in 2000/2001. The box came with CDs, and books! I installed it, and wow, it was amazing. I never got CUPs running, never was able to really use it to connect my 56k modem to the internet until lots of help from a magazine and it was really never what you would call stable, but it was AMAZING. It had multiple desktop environments and Window managers which YOU COULD CHOOSE! I was on AT&T Worldnet at the time and as is my usual practice I got on forums, researched, and tried to get familiar with Linux over Windows. I learned that there was this community out there that used Linux!!! I joined full of naive hopes and expectations to be warmly greeted and given a major chance to LEARN!

There were the uber cool Slackware guys who ruled the world because they could DO IT! Then there were the Red Hat guys who had a holy war against the Debian guys, and had a bit of an inferiority complex because the Debian guys had “APT”. The Debian people were arrogant self assured guys who knew that they were the “L33t H@x0rz” of the Linux world, because APT took care of dependencies (sort of). There were the SUSE guys, and then there were the Mandrake guys. All the others looked down on me (and other Mandrake users) because we were using a “kiddy distro”. I got on forums, and kept asking a question such as why do we have to deal with dependencies, why can we not have Linux like Windows so that all the dependencies are packaged so that you load and go? I also asked why could we not have GUI tools to do what was done in the command line? COMMAND LINE FOREVER!! NO GUI!!!

I was excoriated, I have told that if I cannot hack it by finding and installing dependencies from the command line then I needed to leave, and never come back! I need to learn to code and use the shell to write scripts to make things work! HOW DARE I QUESTION THE SACRED COMMAND LINE AND DEPENDENCY HELL!!?? I was not worthy to lick the dirty floors they walked upon! How dare I! I was called all sorts of names, told that I needed to get a life, etc, etc. then I was banned from two forums (neither still around). I was turned off my the sheer vitriol and elitism I had encountered. I was asking what I thought were good questions, and felt attacked like I have never been before. I have never seen a more toxic elitist community in all my days.

I re-formatted my hard drive, and knocked the dust of Linux from the heels of my shoes. I had been turned off and doubted that Linux was going to survive. I threw the Mandrake disk, books and box in the trash, and swore I was henceforth a Windows user, nay a Windows evangelist! By this time I had a wife, kids, a mortgage, bills, and life. Life got in the way of me doing much of anything other than installing the latest version of Windows and getting to play a little game every now and then. I would upgrade computers over the years, but I recalled my holy oath, Never more for Linux, WIndows FOREVER! But there was something that kept whispering to me, reminding me of that really neat Mandrake Linux experience. No! No! I’ll never go back! Well after much life happened, and I got to the point where I could afford to get more than one computer for me, I started having this vague feeling that there was something better than Windows 7. In late 2014 I decided to install this new thing called Ubuntu 16.04. I was expecting pain, pain and suffering. I was also expecting the same evil, toxic, elitist Linux community to still be in control (and on some forums they are still in control).

Hey, it was pretty neat, ok this is kind of nice, but I loathed Unity/Gnome as a desktop. But darn, things started working and it was not painful. WOW AMAZING! You go to the software center and download software AND ALL THE DEPENDENCIES WERE SATISIFIED!!! What I had asked for 15 years prior and was told would never happen in Linux, Command Line Forever, no wimpy dependency resolution! Played with Ubuntu for a bit, but it was never really what I wanted. Then I discovered Mint 17.3. Ever since that date I have had at least one computer that has nothing but Linux. I have been a Mint user since 2016. In 2016 as well I finally was able to do something I had always wanted to do, which is purchase a Macbook Pro. I had wanted one from the first time I had ever seen the original Mac back in 1985. Full disclosure, the Mac sits in the drawer of the desk and I use it at most a couple of times a year. I should never have wasted my money. Oh well a man needs toys, right…

Then I kept trying, using cast off laptops from the spouse-unit and the kids. I was having fun. I still kept my desktop for Windows (gaming/photoshop/iTunes). In 2019 I stopped using re-purposed HP laptops and purchased a System 76 Darter Pro, stuck 32gb of Ram in it, and a 500gb drive. Hated, and I mean Hated Pop OS Gnome. It just was not Mint. The more I played with Gnome, the more I loathed it. I have never used an Arch based distro, and was always intimidated by the concept of Arch since I am a VERY newbie user.

Installed Mint 18.3, and problems! No WiFi, no keyboard lights, lots of issues. Well I discovered that the Coreboot firmware just will not work well (if at all) with anything other than a 5.4+ Kernel. Installed Mint 19, updated the kernel to 5.4 and things worked better. Two trips back to System 76 to fix issues (their firmware bricked the system!), I finally got it back. I was going through a really rough patch in RL, so the Spouse-Unit and kids bought me a Lemur Pro from them.

Best.Laptop.I.Have.Owned.Ever. I now own the new Darter Pro with the 11th Gen Intel, and same comments as the Lemur Pro.

I decided that the Darter Pro would become a testing machine. But I stayed with the Debian based distros again due to the intimidation factor of Arch and discovered Coreboot on this laptop will not allow any 4.xx series kernel distro to work. Also MX Linux will not work at all either. It really wants their own POP OS. I managed to get Manjaro 21.12 up and running in Cinnimon which is my preferred desktop environment. The Darter Pro with the Generation one coreboot firmware really, really wants a later kernel. I have 5.14 running now, and so far so good.

So either this weekend or next I am going to do battle and try and get Manjaro running on the Darter Pro. I refuse to have my Newbie self defeated! With both my daughters in college, and my wife and I getting close to retirement, I have also been the main tech support person for my house. Right now I support multiple Windows Laptops (the spouse-unit, oldest daughter (2 one a gaming laptop), youngest daughter (2 laptops- don’t ask…), two Windows desktop computers (both Ryzen), one Intel Nuc, one Macbook Pro (2015), and three System 76 Linux systems.

Why don’t you just put Linux on all the laptops and be done with it you ask? I shall tell you the tale of woe. The Spouse-Unit’s laptop went down once, and before I could get her a new one, she needed to use a laptop to do some things. I gave her my System 76 Darter Pro which had Mint installed, and she freaked. Her head travelled 360 degrees, she spoke in a spooky voice, her eyes bugged out, claws extended, and she just flat refused to have anything to do with “the weird operating system”.

My daughters had a similar response. The oldest told me; “Dad Linux is for geeks, and those odd kids in high school! You can’t do any real work with it, and it does not run Microsoft Office!”. My youngest was of a similar opinion, but she kept finding reasons to use my Lemur Pro, she was banned after I found donut sugar flakes on the keyboard. The wife refuses to understand technology, she wants it to just work like the stove or blender, she does not want to have to think about things. She wants to turn it on, and for things to work the way they always have worked. My 84 year old father uses Mint Linux, but he thinks he is using Windows XP which in his opinion is the last of the “good” windows versions. My brothers and I got him a laptop years ago, and it had Windows 7, and he refused to use it. He was still using XP on his desktop. So I made a deal with my brothers, I would get Mint on his system, and skin it to look like XP. We gave him the new laptop with “Windows XP” on it and he has been happy. We are going to replace it with another one this year, and I will once again put “Windows XP” on it.

So that has been my adventure in Linux and Daddy Tech Support. I look forward to learning Manjaro so that I can expand my Linux knowledge and giving me something to keep busy with when I retire next May.

[whm1974]

I first started with Red Linux back in 1998 and due to AoL being my ISP at the time I didn't stick with it. Then after Be Inc went belly up I switch to Mandrake in 2002. I finally ditch Windows completely in late 2014... And haven't looked back.

[MintBean]

First installed Ubuntu on a desktop around 2007. Kept with it for a year or so before returning to Windows. I was more into games back then and there just weren't enough to keep me interested. Came back again about 3 years ago with Mint and dumped Windows very quickly thereafter.

[WiltshireJon]

Ubuntu (Dapper Drake) in about 1997. It wasn't a happy marriage on my laptop, big trouble getting the WIFI to work, and lots other glitches. Went back to Windows (I liked Win 7). Moved to Mint a couple of years ago (disliked Win10 intensely) and love it. I still have a dual boot on this laptop and will ditch win when I need the space, but have replaced win on another laptop and the home server. If only the Mrs didn't need windows for working, windows would be gone altogether from this house.

[Bolle1961]

Ubuntu (Dapper Drake) in about 1997.

The first Ubuntu was released October 2004, Dapper Drake was released June 2006

[WiltshireJon]

Sorry. You are right. 2007 ish it was. I am old.

[Moem]

Around two years ago. Yes, I'm a n00b.

[kc1di]

First linux Installed was slackware about 1994. Then Redhat linux in about 1995. Have tried many Dirstros since then, but started using Mint in 2008 or so. Still using it though I do try others from time to time. Always come back to mint.

[MintBean]

WIltshire John- snap! That's it, Dapper Drake - same one I started with.

[AndyMH]

Xandros (a Canadian distro) around 2000. Liked it, ran it on my company server then sold company. Then windows until about two years ago when I got a decent internet connection and started playing. Tried ubuntu and a few others, found mint and been with it ever since. Started dual boot with win 7 and now run win in a VM for those few programs I occasionally use and don't run under wine.

[Fred Barclay]

Around two years ago. Yes, I'm a n00b.

Looks like I beat you by only a year -- I must be a newbie too.

But more on-topic,
The first time I ran across Linux was a Kali 1.0.3 (if I remember correctly) virtual machine a friend set up when he was helping my family with a new laptop. To say I had no idea what to do with it would be an understatement but I started playing around with it and soon learned a bit about Linux. A month or two later I found a computer magazine that mentioned Ubuntu as a good alternative to Windows 8. As that laptop was running Windows 8.1, a free alternative sounded really interesting to me, so I downloaded Ubuntu 12.04 and 13.10 isos, and figured out how to make a few virtual machines with 'em.

I liked what I saw, but I thought the interface was a little weird (of course, I had no idea that the interface was the same Unity that quite a few other people weren't enthusiastic about.) About that time I ran across a Nixie Pixel video about Mint, so I tried it out in a virtual machine and from a live usb drive. About 6 months later I got my first computer (a XP machine with 1GB of RAM), wiped the hard drive and installed Mint 17... and here I am 3 years later, still loving Linux!

[jimallyn]

A friend gave me a Mandrake CD in summer of 2002. I had been hoping for a long time for an alternative to Microsoft's junk. I installed Mandrake, and it was OK, but then my friend told me about Xandros. They had a great distro! I used Xandros until 2014 when I got a new computer and put Mint on it. None of the computers I currently use have anything Microsoft on them. My previous computer dual booted Xandros and Win98, but that one has only antiX on it now. (I need to give or throw that one away one day.) I have another old computer that has Xandros on it, and maybe also Windows, or maybe it has Windows in Win4Lin. I need to put a lightweight Linux distro on that one too, just to see how it will run, and give or throw away that one, too.

[majpooper]

I have told this story a few times. In 2011 took a course in linux at the local community college because I was interested in learning about computer technology. We used SuSe for that class. I found SuSe OK but not any easier to use than Windows 7. After the course I played with it but stuck with Win 7 and hating it. I played with with a few other distros - like Puppy linux and Fedora but they were just not easy to work with. Then someone recommended Ubuntu and for whatever reason it clicked and I dual booted - I still ran a few Windows apps. Then at a wedding reception I met a bank IT security guy and he told me about MInt and that was it - after a couple of months I ditched Windows completely.

[AndyMH]

Glad to find another Xandros fan. When I came back to linux, it was the first thing I looked for, shame it's no longer around.

[jimallyn]

Glad to find another Xandros fan. When I came back to linux, it was the first thing I looked for, shame it's no longer around.

Yeah, but Mint has done a good job of taking over as the easy to use, everything just works distro.

[sevendogs]

1998 - was in the military and saw a retail box of Mandrake Linux on the shelf in the base exchange so bought it. I already knew of other OS alternatives to windows at that time so was curious. Never looked back.

[dXTC]

Although I had toyed with a Live DVD of Ubuntu 10.04 way back when, I didn't start using Linux regularly until the summer/fall of 2014.

I had acquired a small handful of used desktops and laptops from my wife's boss when that business shut down. Those computers were all running Enterprise or Professional versions of Windows (some Vista or XP, but mostly Windows 7), and I knew I would have to wipe and reinstall. But I didn't have the product keys to restore to Windows 7; Enterprise Windows 7 uses a server-based authentication scheme instead of storing the product key in the local registry, and I didn't want to spend a bunch of money for new personal licenses or go the crack/keygen route.

I then remembered my Ubuntu experience and decided to see if Linux could help me restore some functionality to them. Among the first batch of distros I tried was the then-new Linux Mint 17 Qiana, which fit the bill very well indeed.

[Nate]

It was the mid to late 90s, I got my first machine powerful enough to run a contemporary operating system around that time (before then I'd had an older machine running MS DOS and games like Space Invaders on the larger, actually floppy, floppy disks). I can't remember the exact specs, but it was nothing cutting edge, cheap for the time, had an AMD Duron processor so that might give you an idea. I didn't have much money back then, outside of productivity I enjoyed gaming, but could only afford the odd game once in a blue moon, (relying mostly on demos for my entertainment, a $5-$10 magazine generally came with several demos and some freeware titles on the cover discs back then which was the best value for me back then). Then around that time period, I noticed some magazines had cover CDs with linux distros on them, such as Mandrake and Red Hat. I read about them and open source software in the magazines, installed them out of curiousity (most just had Gnome and/or KDE as desktop environments), and then I saw all the games they packed in. Completely free, non demo games. And all the productivity software I needed at the time, all free. I installed, other distros as I found CDs (the dialup I had meant I wasn't exactly downloading anything of that size) and eventually stumbled upon Xfce through one of them (can't remember which), which ran the best on my first few PCs which were all relatively low spec and it kind of stuck as the one I always go back to ever since. I remember saving up for a commercial version of Red Hat which was sold at Newsagents years ago ($30ish if I remember right) and it came on several discs and offered significantly more software than those single CDs that came with magazines (along with some nice packaging I wish I still had, a couple stickers with the logo and a few other bits and bobs). From there I distro hopped, sometimes spending a good amount of time with one or another, sometimes only a short period, eventually cover CDs became cover DVDs and then came decent internet connections and a world full of choices. These days I pretty much always have the habit of installing Arch on home based rigs and Mint on my mobile hardware and always with Xfce as my desktop environment. It's what I'm used to.

EDIT: Actually, I think the Duron was my second PC, I think the first may have had a Celaron or a Pentium II.

[timapple]

I first started using Slackware in 1998ish. Then in the following years I played with the various SUSE box sets I could buy in the local bookstores. Loved the 7 CD booklets..lol. I tended to fall back to slackware though...then I had a break from computers completely for some years and came back in the MID 2000's... Been distro hopping ever since. Settled on Mint for now.. really like Neon and Solus..but nothing is as ready to go and finished as mint right out of the box as far as I know..

Cheers

[strohi]

The first time I heard about Linux was around 2009 when I read about it in a magazine (I was 14 at that time). There was a DVD with Kubuntu included so that I could install in on my Laptop. I hated it. KDE4 looked ugly and nothing I was used to from windows worked. It was also pretty laggy and I was very unhappy with the whole OS. I've never bought a magazine of CHIP since then.
I also had problems removing it and getting the used space back to Vista. Only a few months later my first contact with Linux was finished.

Around 2011 I was on a internship in a bank which was at that time replacing its computers. They gave me an old one on which they had Ubuntu installed. But I didn't like the idea of having a task bar at the top and another one at the bottom. I soon replaced Ubuntu with Vista and sweared to god I'd never install (k/x/l)ubuntu again.

Around 2013 or 2014 I read about Linux Mint and decided to try its cinnamon version. It somehow felt much more beginner friendly than Ubuntu which I absolutely disliked thanks to Unity. I really liked its application menu since it was compact and tidy. But I did go back to Windows againg because it was really unstable at that time.

Around 2016 I put a new PC together for my parents. Since they did not want to pay for Windows I decided to use Linux Mint 17 with Cinnamon. It's enough for them to deal with and they like that it's pretty easy to use.
Around February 2017 I finally decided to use LM 18 KDE as main system and I'm really happy with it. LM improved a lot since 2014 and I really love its KDE version.

What's next (2019)?
I'll switch to another KDE based Linux as soon as Kubuntu will stop support for their version which is the base of KDE. It's not finally decided but it looks like openSUSE Tumbleweed will be my next OS. I'm pretty hyped!