- Joined
- 2 Aug 2005
- Posts
- 8,721
- Location
- Cleveland, Ohio, USA
I was at work the other day and a coworker from a different department noticed that I wasn't running Windows on my laptop at my desk. I told him that I was running Ubuntu, a variant of Linux. I also showed him that I was running the same system on my Power Mac and he was amazed. He didn't think that you could do such things. I began to tell him how flexible Linux was for me and how it let me do a lot of nice things that I couldn't do in Windows or OS X alone. He said he'd heard of Linux and that he'd love to try it. I quickly produced a Ubuntu 7.10 Desktop disk and handed it over, explaining what a Live CD was and how it worked. We got to talking about open source in general and he asked me how I got started with it.
This was the first time I'd really given it any thought. I considered it for a moment and realized that my first experience with Linux was in high school. A friend of mine was running Mandrake 8.2 on his laptop. I thought it was a bit neat but didn't give it much consideration.
The first time I consciously used open source/free software was when I was encouraged to get Firebird, a web browser, to replace IE on my Windows computer. I started using it and immediately fell in love with the software and all of its advanced, for the day, features. Wee Firebird eventually morphed to become Firefox and the rest, as they say, is history.
The first time I used Linux was when I was trying to set up a dedicated SETI machine in about 2004. I found a floppy image that contained a minimal Linux setup and auto-ran SETI. I had to provide my own network drivers but when I did it booted and worked flawlessly. I started reading about Linux at Slashdot and other tech sites and eventually put it on my desktop.
Now I've got it on everything; my laptop(s), my desktop(s), even my television (MythTV).
That's enough rambling from me, so I shall ask you:
How did you first get exposed to Linux?
What was the first time you used FOSS like?
What was the first time you yourself used Linux like?
This was the first time I'd really given it any thought. I considered it for a moment and realized that my first experience with Linux was in high school. A friend of mine was running Mandrake 8.2 on his laptop. I thought it was a bit neat but didn't give it much consideration.
The first time I consciously used open source/free software was when I was encouraged to get Firebird, a web browser, to replace IE on my Windows computer. I started using it and immediately fell in love with the software and all of its advanced, for the day, features. Wee Firebird eventually morphed to become Firefox and the rest, as they say, is history.
The first time I used Linux was when I was trying to set up a dedicated SETI machine in about 2004. I found a floppy image that contained a minimal Linux setup and auto-ran SETI. I had to provide my own network drivers but when I did it booted and worked flawlessly. I started reading about Linux at Slashdot and other tech sites and eventually put it on my desktop.
Now I've got it on everything; my laptop(s), my desktop(s), even my television (MythTV).
That's enough rambling from me, so I shall ask you:
How did you first get exposed to Linux?
What was the first time you used FOSS like?
What was the first time you yourself used Linux like?
