Did you expect that you'll use Linux?!

[pascal111]

I never expected that I'll use Linux soon, I'm a member also in LDS forum and a member opened a topic about Linux, and I was Windows user, so I shared my limited knowledge at that time about Linux and Windows and I said that I liked Mint, days run and I forget I said that then one day I decided to try Linux and Mint particularly.

Look to my posts at 2018 in that forum and what I said at that time, my logging name is (ahmedcrow):
https://www.ldsfreedomforum.com/viewtop ... 42#p979542

Tell us about how that happened with you too?

[LanceM]

I experimented with Linux for years before switching. Once I got serious and decided to really ditch Win 10, I took nearly a month of testing Mint before I was sure I would not need Win. Things like getting my Brother printer/scanner working wirelessly and Freecell solitaire, photo editing, word processing, spreadsheets, and so on with many things. Now I wouldn't even consider going back to Win.

[pascal111]

Good point! It's important to find new OS doing stuff you need.

[151tom]

.

[smurphos]

Having messed around with Ubuntu a few times over the years I first thought I may end up using Linux as my primary OS back in 2014 when Windows 10 was announced. At roughly that time I'd been gifted an old XP Toshiba laptop which I installed Mint XFCE on and made into a media / file server. I chose Mint for that project as I'd never liked the main edition Ubuntu desktops (it was probably Unity I tried a few times).

It also ran Vino so I also used to remote into it from my main Win 7 HP laptop and I became comfortable with desktop Linux and Mint specifically that way, thinking that I'd probably convert the main PC eventually

The WIn 7 HP laptop was briefly upgraded to Win 10 towards the end of the original 'free' upgrade window in 2016. I think Win 10 lasted about 2 days, before I wiped it and installed Mint Cinnamon as it's sole OS. I've never looked back. I've got a new Dell laptop now still running Mint Cinnamon as it's main OS tripled booted with Android-x86 and whatever other Linux distro intrigues me at time. A few other installs reside in VBox.

The old HP laptop (which now has a broken display) is currently the Media Server running a headless Ubuntu minimal, whilst the very old gifted Toshiba laptop I'll wipe and reinstall OEM Mint XFCE and will donate on.

So other than my work laptop (Win 10 except all of the company's apps reside on a Citrix server running Win 7 ) there's no Windows in my house. I've got a ChromeOS (which runs Debian Stretch apps like a champ) convertible as a travel laptop and an Android phone.

[Portreve]

My first exposure to GNU+Linux was when a high school buddy, who by 1998 was living in Orlando and working for an ISP, gave me a set of discs of RedHat 4.2. On and off, I played with it on a series of x86 towers I had built and/or upgraded, but honestly nothing really jelled for me until LM had come on the scene and started to seriously tighten up what Canonical had done, and then by the time they'd produced Cinnamon, I could see it was becoming viable.

Eventually, I got pissed off enough with Apple and commercial proprietary vendors generally, and I started trialing 17.1. By the time 18.1 had come out, I was in a position to switch, and I've been using LM full time since.

Hopefully in the next couple weeks, I'm going to be buying a Dell OptiPlex 9010 and I will set it up as my primary computer, finally going back to using my 2011 MBP as a laptop instead of as a desktop conversion.

[Gillcar]

Absolutely...

I started playing with many distributions and versions of Linux while I was still working in computers and electronics, and we were using Unix on some of the equipment we had. Knowing Linux helped me debug some Unix system sometimes
I always liked to use the command line in both Windows and more... well, I admit I’m old enough to have used Dos before Windows.
I always preferred Debian and Ubuntu but have switched to Macs and iPads from Windows.

It’s only this week that I discovered Linux Mint and ordered a Mini Box 2 Pro after trying it on an old PC.

I will surely have a few or many questions to ask when I begin to use it regularly...

Btw, this is my first post... this year, because when I tried to register, I was told I was already registered from last year or earlier

[CaptainKirksChair]

Actually, no. I was trying to do something with an old Dell E6400 laptop that had my old company's licensed install of Windows. I wanted to use the laptop but didn't have a Windows license. Knowing that Linux was free, I decided to give it try. I was not planning on Linux becoming my daily driver. I installed Ubuntu and it was okay but unfortunately, being a Windows user, I thought Ubuntu had too much of the macOS look and feel. So it just wasn't right. I know now that was an unfair assessment because it was tainted by Windows. So I tried Zorin and that was okay as well but again, just wasn't right.

I was reading a blog (completely unrelated to computers) and one of the other readers/commenters made a negative comment about Windows. Another commenter mentioned he used Linux Mint and had for years, and could not understand why anyone was using Windows or macOS. So I thought, "Okay, I'll try Mint too." Best computing decision I've ever made. My first install was Mint 17.3 Cinnamon. The 17.3 version was fairly new at the time and everyone was raving about it. The install was SO easy. I didn't understand partitioning too well but I knew I would learn because Linux works so much better when you learn. I also tried to install Mint 17.3 KDE onto a home-built desktop. The LiveUSB always worked fine, the install completed successfully, but the boot never got past the "World" icon. Oh well.

My intention was just to see if something useful could be done with an old laptop. That has led to my daily driver iMac 9.1, my HP Envy 17t laptop, my son's Dell E6400 laptop (yep, that's the one!) and my wife's Dell All-in-One running Mint 19.2 Cinnamon. Linux Mint is all we are using now.

[lsemmens]

When I started in computers back in the 1980s no, I did not even consider Linux as an alternative. I had shortlisted CP/M, DOS, and Mac and went with DOS as the path of the future. My first intro to a 'NIX OS was VAX-VMS in Uni in the mid 80s. Then became aware of RedHat back in the 90s about the time Win3.11 was king. I likes the OS/2 concept, but that never took off, more's the pity. Tried my first Linux in about 1998 but it was not as versatile as it is now. I ended up using Win2000 because ME was definitely the edition to miss. Over the years I tried a few varieties but could never move away from the M$ hold on some of my favourite apps. M$Access and VBA were my big hold outs. Then came "Patch Tuesday" a year or so back. I decided, then that W10 was no longer worth the trouble.

[trapperjohn]

Is there any other OS?

[deepakdeshp]

There is IOS.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacOS
FreeBSD

[handsomegenius]

I can distinctly remember installing Linux on a partition in around 2002 and deciding that it was definitely not at all for me. Now I refuse to touch anything else. Hahahaha.

[Moem]

It was always in the cards for me. Many of my friends use Linux. It was just a matter of two things: I needed a reason to stop wanting to use Windows, and I needed an alternative. Win10 provided the first, Mint provided the second, and here we are.

When I had just done my first Mint installation on a netbook that used to have XP, my partner came home and said, so you're finally ready for Linux? I said: no, Linux is finally ready for me!

[Flemur]

No.

I never expected to have a computer in the house because, basically, I hated them (and still do, to some extent, since they're all still pretty kludgy), starting out with a programming class required for a EE degree, which used punch cards (I was amazed how picky the whole thing was, one small typo and it's completely broken! Like a car that won't start because of a bent windshield wiper - who wants to mess with that?!?) and made me change majors to physics then math then I became a ... programmer, although I managed to write applications (engineering, 3D rendering, architecture, GIS, C^3) and avoided learning about the internal workings of the computers or OSs themselves unless it was absolutely necessary, which it mostly wasn't.

Along with the picky-punch-cards I recall my revulsion at first using Unix after using IIRC Vax/VMS; I ran into this UNIX Haters Handbook the other day and it brought back those fond memories and is probably responsible for the rant up above.

[old_noob]

I ran into this UNIX Haters Handbook the other day and it brought back those fond memories and is probably responsible for the rant up above.

That's great... reminds me of my experience with the UNIX command line in the early 90's. I worked at a hazardous waste incinerator that opened running Windows 3.1 in the control room. Of course 3.1 typically crashed a couple times a week and each crash resulted in a Notice of Violation from the environmental compliance people, so we learned to live with Novell UNIX.

That is probably why I was content with Windows for many years afterward.

The 2 things that got me interested in Linux were the 1-2 punch of Snowden's revelations and W10 looming in the future. And Mint was the first distro that Just Worked everywhere for this noob. My wife is clinging to Windows and I have various Linux distros on our older machines. Hopefully the W7 EOL will convince her that I am right...

[exiledrose]

Eh truthfully not really I didn't even know what Linux was all I knew about was windows. When I heard there where other Operating systems besides windows it blew my mind you could say lol. My very first Linux was Linux mint 14.1 lol. Though when Linux mint 17.3 & then Linux mint 18 came out I had to switch back to windows do to my WiFi driver losing support & couldn't get it working with all the various work arounds mentioned.

Though linux mint 19 my grandpa gave me his old laptop only thing it could run was linux smoothly lol. Though sadly I had to sell that for some extra money & was using a windows 7 desktop computer made back in 2009. My parents gave me back my old laptop (the one that the wifi driver lost support back in 17.3 & 18), It could barely run windows 10 it was slower then molasses, it ran windows 8.1 & I am like meh don't want to use windows.

So decided to try linux mint 19.2 on it & somehow the wifi driver is working again, So eh I plan on sticking with linux for awhile now truthfully.

Anyway I never thought I would use linux in my life always thought windows was like the only thing people used. Only thing is I own a lot of apple products like ipods & iphones & those really don't work well with linux but I have found programs to use & can say I can kiss windows goodbye for good lol.

Plus computers running linux run 10x faster then windows no matter how old or new they are (from personal experience).

[jimallyn]

I expected that I would be using something other than Microsoft OSes as soon as I found out there was such a thing. I hated Microsoft back in the DOS days, before Windows was released. A friend told me about Linux in 2002, and it was goodbye, Microsoft!

[LanceM]

I expected that I would be using something other than Microsoft OSes as soon as I found out there was such a thing. I hated Microsoft back in the DOS days, before Windows was released. A friend told me about Linux in 2002, and it was goodbye, Microsoft!

I'm goodbye Microsoft too. Well, I keep a copy for a few utilities.

[Scorp6]

I've always wanted to try Linux and was always fascinated with the idea of it so I often played around with bootable CD's and live USB's. About a month ago I dual-booted my cheap Wal-Mart laptop with Mint 19.2 to try to use it more. Now, I dread booting to the Windows partition and avoid it every chance I get. The only time I've booted Windows in the last week is to check and see if Disney+ would work (I'm currently in Kuwait) with my VPN because Disney+ is not supported for Linux (hopefully, it's only a matter of time).

I've been able to do everything I need to do and finding programs that duplicate some Windows tools is very fun. Oftentimes, I'm finding that the Linux tools are much easier and more efficient than the Windows counterpart (perfect example is Shutter being used for Snipping Tool).

In short, yes I knew I'd use it but I wasn't sure I could get by without Windows altogether. That time is coming very close I think. I'm loving MInt 19.2!

[DAMIEN1307]

hi blueocean,
I used my old copies of Windows disks along with old AOL disks for skeet shooting practice...lol..Amazing what you can do with "double-aught buckshot"...DAMIEN