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For how many years have you been using GNU/Linux?

Off-Topic discussions about science, technology, and non Debian specific topics.
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millpond
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Re: For how many years have you been using GNU/Linux?

#21 Post by millpond »

Sunsite Slackware, Linux 0.9 ca 1993.

From BBS boards.

Before X.

Cyborg
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Re: For how many years have you been using GNU/Linux?

#22 Post by Cyborg »

For 13 years, since I got my first laptop in 2008. I've used many distros since settling with Debian for good (I hope): PcLinuxOS -> Mandriva -> Crunchbang -> Mint -> Debian

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Re: For how many years have you been using GNU/Linux?

#23 Post by donald »

I was running I think Windows 98 at home and wanted to upgrade to the newest Windows which was Millennium Edition. I want to be polite to the efforts put behind that software that to this day no one has anything positive to say about, and which MS doesn't seem to talk about :lol:. That being said, I tried and tried and tried installing it for over 12 solid hours, gave up and drove to a then popular computer store and purchased a copy of RedHat Linux. This was in 2001 or around that time.

Personal: Redhat -> SUSE -> Knoppix -> Ubuntu -> Debian.
Work: Redhat -> BSD -> SUSE -> Gentoo -> Fedora -> CentOs -> Scientific -> Custom -> Debian.

It seems both my personal and professional paths aligned toward Debian.
Typo perfectionish.


"The advice given above is all good, and just because a new message has appeared it does not mean that a problem has arisen, just that a new gremlin hiding in the hardware has been exposed." - FreewheelinFrank

yankeeFarmer
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Re: For how many years have you been using GNU/Linux?

#24 Post by yankeeFarmer »

I started with Sarge in 2005 if memory serves, then tried Fedora, Suse, and Mandrake for a few days each, then back to Debian, but Testing (Etch) this time.. Been a Debian user since then.

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Re: For how many years have you been using GNU/Linux?

#25 Post by ve9cbc04 »

I have been using GNU/Linux since 2010. Started out with Ubuntu, then worked through all the major distros (including this one - Debian Jessie). Still experimented with many other versions - right until the week before Bullseye was released. Last distro was Arch based, and just got sick and tired of the rolling release and the pitfalls. Finally figured out that stability is more important than having 'the latest bells and whistles' - at least at this time in my life.
Speed reading the manual and an early morning without coffee - is a recipe for disaster. :lol:

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Re: For how many years have you been using GNU/Linux?

#26 Post by Onsemeliot »

In 2008 I needed a new system and wanted to avoid Windows Vista. Therefore, I ordered an Acer Extensa 5220 with Linplus Linux pre-installed. I expected I could reduce complexity by ordering a laptop where GNU/Linux is installed already. Unfortunately, this system didn't even feature a desktop. After some research I decided to try Debian Etch despite being portrayed as something beginners shouldn't go for. I did that mainly because I dig that it is maintained by a diverse community and that it focuses on stability. I happily stayed with Debian stable ever since. Originally I couldn't use my wireless because I refused the needed proprietary drivers. But since I bought my Technoethical T400s years later wireless isn't an issue any longer.

I could convince the local unemployment agency back in the day to pay for Linux administration courses I claimed to need in order to find a decent job (as a graphic designer). Fortunately they didn't know better. And in fact it later came in handy in my job since I was pushed into administrating our web server despite feeling not at all competent enough for this. My courses surely helped me a lot finding my way though things that where very new to me with GNU. I never was a very computer savvy person. But since many years I do help colleagues and others out (with not to complicated issues) as long as they use GNU/Linux systems. This often gives me the opportunity to install Debian, Ubuntu or Trisquel on their systems. But I also have some experience with Suse. For most other people I install Ubuntu to not give them any reason to complain about hardware incompatibilities. After they are comfortable with that they might be ready to pick their hardware more carefully and to move on to something that doesn't contain proprietary stuff.

PrivatePearoak
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Re: For how many years have you been using GNU/Linux?

#27 Post by PrivatePearoak »

I've been using since 2013.
I really enjoyed using terminal as it made feel like a programmer/hacker (yeah, laugh at me! i deserve it! hahahaha).

It was pretty though to get used to it, as i always used Windows, but after three months, i started to get the hang of it and i became way less dependant of Windows.
Nowadays i only use Debian in my PC (can't say the same about work though :/).

Also i realized how much i enjoy spending my time trying to troubleshoot my stuff, writing Shell Scripts and stuff. It was almost love at first sight!

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Re: For how many years have you been using GNU/Linux?

#28 Post by Marie SWE »

First of march 2018 was the date when I started looking for alternatives to Windows7 who had EOL January 2020 and W10 was no option after my 30years of MS systems
I started with Ubuntu for almost a week, but it was something in ubuntu I didn't like and I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was and I still can't say why.
So I switched to Mint 18.3 and used it for a year and when Mint 19 was released I thought it was too much ubuntu feeling. So I tried xubuntu, Fedora, Opensuse and Kali...
Fedora and Kali has many great tools. But I ended up with LMDE3 late 2019. I still like LMDE but it has too short life cycle and I really hate to installing computers, so I switched to Debian Buster in April 2021. 8) (The common thread is that Xfce has always been the environment I like best)
It has been a real nightmare journey from windows to linux for me, as I am so spoiled with all GUI tools that existed(free and payed ones) in and to windows systems the last 20-25years and I miss a lot of those tools to Linux systems

And now when win11 is the same crap as win10, so Linux.. here I am to stay. 8) 8)

The big pros in Linux is. Privacy out of the box and I have more options to adapt the DE-environment and almost all software is free so it is more economical and i have the option to choose LTS or rolling distros... and I prefer LTS
The only cons it takes years to learn when I don't have the time to sit for hours at the computer several days a week for trial and error experimenting....... and I miss my old GUI tools :oops: :oops:
Why make things complicated in life, if you can make it easier for yourself... Do it. ;o)
You only have one life, so make the most of it and enjoy it while you can.

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Re: For how many years have you been using GNU/Linux?

#29 Post by dlu2021 »

I don't know exactly. The first time I installed it, was using Ubuntu, when I converted two tower systems from Windows 98, that were collecting dust in the garage, for my kids to use as their first computers.

The next time was when I installed Linux Mint on my laptop and dual booted with Windows XP for a long time, never used Windows Vista, knew as soon as I looked at it that I wouldn't like it. Occasionally, I would briefly try other distros, but nothing stuck. At some point my hard drive died and as an experiment I decided to see if I could get along with only using Linux, I ended up picking Debian testing, my thinking was something like, "why not try going straight to the source?", and at that point I valued having newer software than what stable offered.

I have been doing that since then, until Bullseye released, and as an experiment, now I am running stable.

suntem
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Re: For how many years have you been using GNU/Linux?

#30 Post by suntem »

I started with Debian Hamm. Still have the installation CDs. Kept dual booting, or a separate machine with window$ until Woody. During woody, decided to have no more gates in my computer. Pure Debian since then. In those early times we had less (much less) users. Users were people interested in open source, not happy with restrictions. Developers were always there, in some IRC channel, answers were prompt and useful. Debian mailing lists were excellent.

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Dutchmaster
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Re: For how many years have you been using GNU/Linux?

#31 Post by Dutchmaster »

19 yrs. Started with Lindows in 2002.
John
Southwest Virginia U.S.A.

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Northpoint
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Re: For how many years have you been using GNU/Linux?

#32 Post by Northpoint »

I'm terrible on dates (time).
I started out with Slackware. That's all I knew about at the time. I think it was around 2000? I needed more nodes on a BBS I was helping maintain. I did manage to get it going but really had no idea how to work with it. I then switched over to Redhat. I stuck with Redhat for a long time and even started using Fedora. Then after BBS's died out I did run Ubuntu for a while. Then during the desktop/developer spat I jumped ship and went to Mint for a daily driver. I am self employed and needed a good server O/S. This (I think) was back in 2008. I started running CentOS on the servers that I setup and maintained. Well, Since they pulled the plug (so to speak) on CentOS I switched over to Debian. I still run Mint as my daily driver though. However, I have been switching over all my server clients and my servers to Debian now.

I have to say, I really love Debian. Hopefully this will be a long term love affair for me. I can also say, Im still a bit shy in the message forum here and tend to just lurk around a bit and doing a lot of reading. I get the idea that a lot of posters here have similar histories. :)
Get your linux on.

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Zoot
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Re: For how many years have you been using GNU/Linux?

#33 Post by Zoot »

Since 2006 in some capacity.

I started using OpenSUSE as part of an early C Programming module in college in a college computer lab. That year once I figured out how to dual boot Windows with something else, I installed OpenSUSE after a bit of trial and error on my own laptop. I remember having issues getting the wireless and other things to work, so I abandoned it and went back to Windows full time.

I tried out Ubuntu for the 1st time in 2008, it would have been the 8.04 release. It was quite a good experience with everything working. Whilst I might criticize Ubuntu since, it did after all get me into running some flavour of GNU/Linux myself. I tried out other distros on the side - Fedora, Slackware, OpenSUSE (again) to name a few but I just stuck with Ubuntu for another year or so.

In 2009, with the 9.04 release, and the subsequent 9.10 release I remember having all sorts of niggling issues with them. This prompted me to try out Debian, I figured I was used to the Debian echo-system having used a Debian-based distro for a few years now. Why not use the source?

I used Lenny for about a year, and switched over to the Testing branch and continued with that until Squeeze released in 2011. I never had any of the same niggling issues with Debian, so hence why I'm still using it today.

I did continue to dual boot Debian & Windows on my main desktop throughout the release of Wheezy and Jessie, but given I'm a gamer I didn't boot into it that much. Eventually I just went back to Windows full-time around 2016 on my own desktop given I found myself using it 95+% of the time anyway.

That was until I got into running my own server at home around 2018. I initially started with Windows Server, and thought about getting back into the Linux world for a long time, until I installed Ubuntu Server 19.10, only to be presented with some weird issues - the Server having locked up throughout the night randomly a number of times as an example.

Then I installed Buster about 2 years ago on my server. I went for a minimal command-line only install just like Ubuntu Server, and it has honestly worked a dream. It was so stable (unlike Ubuntu 19.10) and so much more flexible than Windows Server. I've really enjoyed Debian again for the last 2 years and I've learned so much. I've since upgraded my server to Bullseye a number of weeks ago and it's continued to work really well. :)

I also got into running my own self-built router around early 2019. I built a small system around an Athlon & a 4-port Network card. I toyed with Pfsense and Opnsense for a while (which was my very 1st venture into the BSD world), but there were some weird issues with both of them, I couldn't get port-forwarding working with OpnSense for instance. I settled on another firewall Linux distro - IPFire. I've been running that since and it's worked extremely well. I'm much more familiar with Linux than I am with BSD so that's a huge plus, I've also enjoyed that and learned so much.

I should also mention that I've used Red Hat & CentOS at work for the last 10+ years. I still don't really use any flavour of Linux on my own desktop since I'm still a gamer and I'm too lazy to mess with Linux gaming now, but it's pretty much the only place I don't use it any more.

That's my usage of GNU/LInux in a nutshell for the last 15 years now.

arabianights
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Re: For how many years have you been using GNU/Linux?

#34 Post by arabianights »

redhat linux 7.2 (GNOME) 1/2/2002
Mandrake 10 (KDE + iceWM) 9/19/2004
Ubuntu 7.04 (GNOME + XFCE 1/1/2011) 2/28/2009
Debian 6/7/8 (XFCE-icewm-awesome wm) 2/6/2011
Devuan Jessie/ascii/beowulf 5/11/2017

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Re: For how many years have you been using GNU/Linux?

#35 Post by seeker5528 »

My first distribution was Slackware, The only reason for that was dial-up and Slackware had clearly defined sets of floppy images for command line, games, Xwindows, Xwindows games so I was able to just grab the set for the command line and get in installed and poke around at the command line here and there for a few weeks while I downloaded floppy images for the other sets of disks.

Then I tried RPM he** -- um - Red Hat and SuSe for a while, because the store I found that had OS/2 stuff also had boxed versions of those distributions.

Corel Linux was released in 1999 and I am pretty sure Windows 95 had already been released, so I would guess it was 1997ish when I first installed Slackware. When Corel Linux was released that was my gateway to Debian, there were a few iterations of Install Corel, update from Debian stable, update from Debian unstable before I got familiar enough with the Debian installer to make it through without getting too frustrated before the end. if something broke it was most often because of differences between Corel and Debian, less often because of issues with updates from unstable did something wrong or failed to do something. By that time I had stopped using OS/2 and was back and forth between Debian and Windows, so I was usually able to boot into Windows and find out what I needed if an update from unstable broke something.

Debian unstable has been my primary since then, I do have an Ubuntu install on one computer and recently got a KVM VM going so I could get some familiarity with Windows 11 before people start calling me and asking me about it. Now that I have some familiarity with KVM and virt-manager that will give me more incentive to take a look at some other distributions.

Installing from scratch is a rare thing for me, I have multiple computers, multiple installations of Linux and Windows so if one is borked I can do my stuff on another one.until I figure out a fix, find a fix, or an update fixes it. These are the times you learn. So my desktop install goes back a ways, survived being cloned from failing drives, managed to transition from 32 bit to 64 bit without reinstalling, managed the transition from a drive with msdos format drive table to to a drive with GPT format drive table.

Linux on a laptop is a relatively new thing for me and I did a new install for the laptop because I have a bunch of stuff on my Desktop install I do not want on the laptop and I figured instead of clearing the selections on a cloned install it was better to do the most basic net install I could do get the selections on the desktop, delete a bunch of stuff from the list, then use that to set selections on the laptop and let apt-get dslect-upgrade figure out what dependencies to pull in for the dslected stuff.

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