How did you come to use Linux?

[David Woods]

I first tried Linux in '97 or '98. I can't remember if it was Red Hat 5.0 or
6.0. I think I tried SuSE too. This was in addition to also trying BeOS and
using Irix in the lab. I was just curious about other operating systems, but
I was still primarily a windows guy.

I hadn't tried Linux in years, save for a few bootups in Knoppix to try and
figure out hard drive
problems. I eventually went into web design and hosted both Apache and
IIS servers from my main computer to aid
in development, as well as MySQL and MSSQL. I was highly dependent on the
Adobe suite and Visual Studio. I figured I was stuck in Windows for good.

My interest in linux and open source never really declined though. I was
getting better at the command line during brief SSH sessions here and there
with my linux hosting server. And I liked it! I had started to shift towards
cross-platform software, just on principle. I learned Vim. I set up several
Linux distros in virtual machines to try them out, and loved them. (and I
couldn't wait to see what this "compiz" I kept hearing about would be like!)

Finally, enough was enough. I had a small break in my work schedule, took a
breath, and dove in. The Windows dependent software I now have running
within VirtualBox virtual machines. The Adobe suite isn't quite as smooth,
but overall the experience has only minimally declined. The improvements in
Linux has trumped those problems tenfold. I started out with Ubuntu and have
kept with it (although I have dropped Gnome in favor of KDE).

I'm looking forward to the day when I can run the Adobe suite in Wine. And
my ASP.NET site development has gotten scarce, so I rarely need to start up
Visual Studio.

The best part? I've only booting into window ONE time since switching over,
and that was to test a color profile. Five minutes later I was booting back
into Linux. Windows felt so... institutional. I've already decided to clear
out my Windows partition and reformat it in ext4. I just need to spend a
couple of hours making a final backup of things, and that's that. Bu-bye
windows!

-david

On Fri, Jul 3, 2009 at 9:40 PM, Travis Newman <panickedthumb at gmail.com>wrote:

> We tried sharing our conversion stories in a meeting once, but perhaps fast
> moving IRC chat was not the best place to share, so lets try now.
>
>
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