25th Anniversary of Linux – My Story of how I started with Linux

25 Years ago Linus Torvalds started Linux. I started a lot later in 2009 with Ubuntu 9.10…

[progressiveboy]

Thanks for bringing attention to this important milestone. I found myself getting into Linux for the same reason as you - trying to get bloated Windows versions to run on older hardware. Have found your tutorials and insight extremely helpful in helping me transition. Thank you - much appreciated...

[charlieoscar]

Great story thanks for sharing....I used Red Hat Slackware first version back in the 90's didnt understand it at all.. Now still using Linux Lubuntu and still learning.All my hardware is over 10 years old and still zipping along nicely....cheers

[charlesleblanc]

I started in 2009 with 8.04. After a while, I was looking at the internet for support and guidance and I found one of your video. Currently I am using Xubuntu, tailored to my taste. You have been a great help and a source of inspiration. As far as Linux goes, I had sad times when some distribution disappeared (MeeGo, Bodhi 2.0) but overall, it really meets all my needs except for the occasional gaming.

[waynefoutz]

I got started with Ubuntu 7.10 after purchasing a Dell laptop with Windows Vista on it. I had no problem with XP, but that monster, well, after two weeks of trying it, it had to go. I had heard of Linux before at the time, someone had given me a copy of Red Hat a couple years before, but I had no luck getting it to work. I read about Ubuntu in a magazine, so I downloaded it and gave it a go. That started my nine year hiatus from Microsoft. I'm back on Windows 10 now, at least for the time being.

I miss the Osgui days. We had a lot of fun on his forums, at least up until the drama at the end.

[gish]

I actually started the same time as you, probably the month after. I installed the LTS first (8.04) because I didn't know what I was doing. Told my cousin about how awesome it was (it rescued a laptop that was running terrible due to vista) and he straight away installed it.
I went round his house and saw his OS had loads of extra cool bits, figured out he had karmic koala and reinstalled to that version!
Had a lot of good times with Ubuntu, especially back then when it was all new and shiny to me!

[leediot]

My Linux story is quite interesting, I had an old laptop (Same specs as yours) HDD broke and I was not a geek at the time. Needed to get it working for college, store had no HDD for my laptop so I was screwed. No money for a new PC. So I got an Ubuntu CD and used it in live mode for months and I stuck all my work on a USB flash drive. My printer and scanner and Everything worked from a CD without me needing to do anything. That was enough to win me over

[techdragon]

I too had a similar experience when first getting into Linux. I was about 14 years old and I had a crappy old netbook for my fist computer, I liked the netbook at first and it didn't run too badly either. It was when I started searching for alternative windows operating systems, I originally only thought there was Windows and Mac at this time. I then found something called Linux, so I started researching for the best looking distributions (I didn't really take care with how good the system actually was then) and there I found Pear os. I fell in love with the clean looks of the distro and installed it onto my netbook. After a while of more research I decided to make a bootable live usb of it, which I then took to school and showed other pupils in the class. From then I found Ubuntu which I now know how to use and install properly and used Ubuntu and many other distros. Now i'm using Fedora 24 and looking into developing my own distro. It was your channel that inspired me the most to use and enjoy Linux.

So thank you very much!
:)

[derstreber]

wow my first linux ubuntu 8.04, I never thought I had used linux longer than anyone much less quidsup.
not much to brag about, so I won't but it is surprising in a way.

[Ograws]

I discovered Linux when I bought an iMac in 2009 and started researching into operating systems. Before that I never understood the concept of operating systems and GUIs, so in a way Mac got into Linux :P Like you, I watched OSGUI videos and first tried Linux on Virtualbox then dual booted with Windows and now I use Linux on most of my computers (except this iMac which I'm using right now)

[vgamesx]

I actually had a similar experience starting with Linux but for different reasons, my first laptop was similarly spec'd with a 1GB of ram/80GB HDD and a celeron core m, so a bit more usable, but still incredibly slow, even compared to my desktop which only had an E2200 in it, also a lot of my school's computers were old and slow too, thus I started carrying around a usb bootable flash drive which had various distros on it, I never fully committed to using it however, although just a year ago I received a slightly broken laptop which I've since repaired but didn't have a lot of money for a drive, so I got a small 16GB SSD for $8, installed Linux Mint onto it and it's been pretty good up until I found an i5 for $15 and now it's been absolutely fantastic for general tasks like web browsing, so I'll probably end up using it a tad more often.

[ryanwolf]

Wow I would've thought someone as experienced with Linux like you would have started back in 2007 or sometime earlier. I also started off of Ubuntu 9.10 heh. I kinda miss OSGui's presence; I used to watch his content quite a lot when they were still around

[GManWrites]

You started one year before me I started with Lucid Lynx. Two events prompted me to look for an alternative to Windows, one was Vista which was so bad on a Laptop I had and two was when I purchased an authorised Windows 7 DVD from a reputable retailer to replace Vista and then Microsoft false flagged it is not a genuine version of Windows. After much backwards and forwards with a useless Microsoft customer service rep I said stuff it and found Ubuntu. I am on Fedora based Korora 24 Gnome at the moment.

[tell]

The year I started Linux was 2012, it was Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. I had an old HP Windows XP computer I don't know what the model name was but it was lighting pretty hard outside well the lighting hit my house and it fried my computer. Long story short got a really cheap computer that some guy said it have Windows 7 on it. Well it had a floppy drive in it so I asked him what use to be on it, he didn't know really he got it off of a other guy some I bought it because I needed a computer. Windows 7 was so slow on it so I put Windows XP on it. Next day later Windows XP said I got a trail on it, I know I got a legit copy of it. 29 days later I need it to be fix I founded away around it but I couldn't update. Then I remember the guy told me something about Linux and how great it was also it was free. So I hunt online and I think that's when I first saw Quidsup video about Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. So I put it on my computer and it works a lot better. Now I got a Emachine (which it was an u[grade from that old HP) and I'm running Manjaro XFCE and always stick with Linux. So I used Linux for 4 years.

[BTRZ]

I first tried Linux back in 1996 with Red Hat Linux 4.0, but I could not get some of my hardware to work properly, so I went back to Windows. It was about Ubuntu 12.04 time that I started to use Linux more and more again. I guess I too am a creature of habit ;-)

[ronybatiste]

I started with Suse linux in 2001 it came with 4 CDs. The real challenge was connecting to the internet because I had dial up at the time.

[Uejji]

Started with Slackware in 1999. Using Ubuntu GNOME today.

[dannyvillaroel]

I have Deepin os on my Thinkpad T530. I love it :)

[Synthwave]

I started back in 2008 with Intrepid Ibex. I had been on an on-off relationship (like with that crazy blonde girl) with Linux until 15.10 and 16.04 when I finally ditched W$ for good. Technical problems (hardware issues) and a complete lack of serious game-ability were the culprit, when I found out the Steam for Linux beta was coming almost half a decade ago, I knew GNU/Linux had a serious possibility of being my permanent OS. When the steam machines came out I decided the move was going to happen.

[ygorufukaff]

Been using since 99, exclusively since 06. Its been a long time...

[assalane]

Wow I never would have guessed I started Linux earlier than you. I started with fedora 8... or was it 7? It was in 2007. I saw Fedora core 5 booting option in my Uni but it was something of an oddity for me and I didn't really delve in it. But then, Windows Vista came out. And I was so appalled that I wanted anything, and I mean anything, as a replacement. Saw some cool videos of Compiz and had a talk with a friend that was also maybe interested to try Elive, went to fedora website and downloaded the DVD.

Boy was I hooked, and thinking back, I don't understand how! I went through so may hurdles. Most stupid one was: I was blindly following a youtube tutorial for Fedora and the guy (can't remember which channel) was installing the wifi driver for a Broadcom NIC during his setup process. Of course I didn't have a Broadcom so I really didn't need too. This alone made me brake my configuration so many times lol. I think I must have reinstalled Linux *at least* every week during the first 2 month, and stopped altogether using Windows, but still kept the dual boot.

Hahaha takes me way back!