Replying to When And What Is Your First Linux Experience?

Around 1997, I used to teach "specialist" courses for Microsoft Office and even some Basic programming and HTML. I thought I was pretty savvy, and I wanted to get some work in a certain internet company. My friend there showed my Linux. He showed me Gimp. I wasn't that impressed, I had seen better "free" programs off magazine covers. He kept pressuring me that I (in particular) would like it and I wanted to impress.

Then, later on I was tutoring this kid in C++ (long story, but I dind't know C++ that well at all) and my big expensive MMX computer blew a hard drive. It was a disaster; I was computerless. I needed at least a text editor to write programs on to be ready for the kid I was mentoring. I went into a local Cash Converters store (second hand sales) and bought an old 486-DX2 model. I think it may have had an old Windows 3.1 on it, or maybe just DOS. I decided that I didn't legally own the licence for a Windows install on that computer and thought to use it as my Linux experiment while my other "real" computer was away getting serviced.

I'd recently got a book "Linux for Dummies" which included a RedHat 5.2 install CD-ROM.

Yes the install was a bear, but the Dummies book was very step by step. It even talked about how to probe the modem in console mode. The chapter on setting up graphics (known as "X") had a very big "if you get this working, you are one of the lucky ones" on the first paragraph. I got it working. Slow, but I had achieved something. Now I at least had something I could dump texts onto a floppy with. As a bonus, I discovered that there were also command line C and C++ compilers included (we had searched a long time for Windows compilers before). The screensavers looked pretty good.

Then I accidentally left my Linux 486 on... for a week. I came back later and wiggled the mouse, expecting (as with Windows) for the screen to be frozen. No such thing. My desktop snapped into life, the computer just as fast as when I'd left it.

That blew me away. This old thing was already outsmarting my bigger expensive machine in terms of stability. I was always having to reboot the Windows box and having to repeat my last page or so of unsaved work. I decided that any "real" text processing should be done in this cool new little machine, porting back to Windows maybe for the printing.

But then eventually, over time, I found I was using that little box for pretty much most of my work... I never quite got MechWarrior to run though. It was the "one program" (well maybe two; there was also Bryce3D which I needed to teach later on) but then, there are things I can do now in Linux which I was never able in the other OS. I have full blown up to date Linux (I've been through several different distros) and only generally see Windows computers when I'm troubleshooting other peoples problems.

Hmm, my first experience must have been around the end of high school. Back then, most of my hardware wasn't recognized, and messing up on the installation meant starting from scratch because the monitor wasn't set at a supported resolution or wrong driver.

Getting Ubuntu and its live CD, I think, has the potential to get Linux into the mainstream market, just because it's much more user friendly and awesome for its ease of installation and use

Hi,

I remembered trying of the installation. It lasted for a year to install it. First I have to look for the installation CD and it was impossible to find an installation cd of any kind. And Linux was not very well-known. After along period of time I finally found one. And I tried to install but hardware problems accoured. At first I had to figure out what how to create a partition. And I had to find a suitable HDD. After finding all the info I started installation and I stopped again for the root username. After I learned I've to use root I had completed installation and I was tired and happy but it was not the thing really I was looking for.. and the biggest problem is I have to find documentation to use it..

it was a long story..

I can't remember when I had my first experience with linux, but I still remember that it was Red Hat Linux 6.0. By the time I installed it, it was already outdated, but I didn't mind because I wanted to install it on an old DX4 with not enough memory. It was a hell to install it because I had to modify the huge list of software and partition several 500Mb HDDs to get it installed (and to make things worse, if there wasn't enough space, the installed would stop and I had to start over and over again).
After a while, I did get Red Hat running, but it was soo slow that I decided to leave it for what is was.

Few year laters I re-attempted it, but it failed again .

My first real try at Linux as a windows replacement was with Slackware, I tought that if I'd go with linux, I'd better do it good (and Slackware IS good, but realy tough).

Hi All,

I want to learn when and what is your first experience of linux?
Mine is; 1996 first install of linux. 1995 first time I heard of linux. I remember how I was happy and how I was curious about linux. I was bored of Windows. It was not the OS I was dreaming of. It was not completely flexible. I was feeling that windows is not the edge of the computer tech. There are something wrong about windows. And Linux was like a dream for me.. I remember how I tried to get a linux distro. I remember how I installed it.. How excited I was. It was incredible..

The linux I installed was Turquaz linux. It had a very very simple GUI and I dont know what to do.. I even dont know what a root is. When I installed it, it asked me for a password and a username.. I have written a password in the installation but I have not told any username. I remember writing every username I think of (from boss to admin ). But I had not found it. After a day or to I learned that I have to log in with root username.. It was incredible.. I am laughing at myself now.

It was incredible..
Those were the days..

Thanx