How I got started with Linux

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crosscourt
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How I got started with Linux

Post by crosscourt »

Im sure all of you have various stories on how you got involved with Linux and what distros you used initially when you started.

Looking forward to hearing your stories.
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crosscourt
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Re: How I got started with Linux

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I originally was heavily into gaming and was using Windows but that changed when XP came out, and registration began. I wanted an alternative to avoid having to run multiple Windows versions all costing me too much. I initially began with Xandros which had a remarkable affinity for running adjacent to Windows with excellent NTFS support. I then moved to Mandriva but it started to get a bit wonky and ended up using PCLinuxOS which was very nice but still had some issues back then. Debian based Mepis was my next choice and that was a keeper as it ran great and really went to great ends to make the experience for the user as friendly as possible. The issue with Mepis was software so slid over to Ubuntu and I cant remember which version it was 8 or 10 but it was amazing. Excellent software choices, easy to install and was able to do some gaming with it due to the improved support. From there I used quite a few more Ubuntu based distros like Kubuntu,Lubuntu and Xubuntu. Thats when the distro hopping really began and ive used hundreds of distros since.
Presently Im running 15 distros but my main ones are PCLinuxOS KDE, Mageia KDE, MX Linux, Q4OS and Linux Mint XFCE. I lean far more towards RPM and pure Debian based distros these days versus my older leanings toward Ubuntu based.
Havent settled down on a single distro in quite awhile but if you had to pin me down it would be Mageia 6 KDE full os and MX Linux 17 lite OS.
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tlmiller
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Re: How I got started with Linux

Post by tlmiller »

Similar story. I was a gamer, started with Windows 95. By the time Windows 98 had come out, I liked the games, but was SOOOOOOOOOO sick and tired of the constant crashes, hangs, and driver corruption of Windows. So I started looking for alternatives. Some of the computer mags I subscribed too had free lInux Discs in them (usually Knoppix, but some had Cd's with several distro's, and in later years even DVD's with multiple distro's), so I tried out linux, and was immediately impressed. I couldn't play my games, but for EVERYTHING ELSE, it seemed a blessing. I had issues at first with getting online (winmodem), but continued to use it off and on for the next several years. Eventually there was a distro known as LibraNet linux, and that I was finally able to get online with, it had FANTASTIC support, amazingly stable, I was hooked. Eventually it went away after it's founder passed, and I moved to the distro it was based on, Debian. In 2003/4-ish, Debian became my primary OS, and has been ever since.
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crosscourt
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Re: How I got started with Linux

Post by crosscourt »

Xandros in the day was amazing and had excellent hardware support but it wasnt free but very cheap to use. Many distros were sold in stores like Best Buy in those days but I agree, in my case it was Mepis but stability was excellent.
Ive used DOS all the way thru to Win7 and still have DOS installed on one of my older computers for older gaming. Win98SE for me was pretty stable and a great gaming OS at the time, but you had to do a ton of tweaks to get what you wanted. I was a 3DFX guy all the way and I have one of the best collections of their cards anywhere in the USA.

On a side note I like your sig with a spreadsheet of all your systems.
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tlmiller
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Re: How I got started with Linux

Post by tlmiller »

crosscourt wrote: Wed Jan 17, 2018 3:26 am On a side note I like your sig with a spreadsheet of all your systems.
Thanks. I did it because in linuxquestions.org I'm one of the moderators of the hardware forum, so like to reference my hardware that's similar to an OP's. Rather than CONSTANTLY updating my sig and trying to figure out how to fit all that in the sig character limit, I figured that would be easier just to link to an OnlyOffice spreadsheet (I could have obviously done Google Sheets or MS 365 online as well, but I do like OnlyOffice better). Works well, I've been using it for a while now on several of my non-single-os dedicated forums.
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crosscourt
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Re: How I got started with Linux

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Use to be over at linuxquestions.org years ago, great site. Ill have to stop by and bug you a bit.
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