It's FOSSShare your Linux journey in the comments below! 🙂 🐧
Equationeer@itsfoss 1997, Windows 95 died one too many times and I went and purchased a Slackware CDROM from some store that doesn't exist anymore.
Dustin Williams@itsfoss Around 1999 from a Popular Mechanics article.
Eligos@itsfoss destroing hundreds of systems, since 1998
minecraftchest1@itsfoss
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.
Gombang@itsfoss about 1999 from a local Linux magazine.
Isho'ye@itsfoss 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@itsfoss 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. 🤔️
khoi 👨💻☕️
Mighty Murder Mittens@itsfoss 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.
Mangdries@itsfoss 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.
madmax@itsfoss 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. 😁
@itsfoss 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.
@itsfoss And a lot more things about windows confused me. The filesystem did took some time to getting used to like why local disk <random letter> exist. I wouldn't say I didn't knew anything about it. I read about it on my school books but it was just how to open programs and rote learn how to use them like menu bars but nothing much about actually using the OS. I installed mint and saw the filesystem and it felt familiar like way too much. Then I learned about Linux distros and rest is history
@pikachu_sensei Exactly, people forget the "because you are used to it" part!
hellaconfused@itsfoss
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 🏴☠️@itsfoss 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 😊
obi0bi@itsfoss 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.
bruuteuzius@itsfoss 20 years ago I couldn’t stand the fact that windows couldn’t run on my old pc. So I tried “this weird ubuntu thing” 🙈
@bruuteuzius That is a long time back!
Karsten@itsfoss I learned about Linux in 2003 when my parents installed SUSE on our families computers. The Windows installations had broken too many times.😄
Pankajkumar Patro@itsfoss 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
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@itsfoss beginning of 21th century (2001). At college, with Red Hat 6.2
eboye@itsfoss my friend from high school was installing RedHat and showed me. It was 1999
John Cholewa@itsfoss 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@Excusable All the best!
Daedalous Eros@itsfoss 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