What drove you to start messing with linux distros?

[Vimmer]

I tend to view this forum as more of a practical, problem solving space, but I also get curious about others.

For me, it was really all about learning new things, breaking out of old habits. The computer explosion over the course of my entire lifetime has made me very curious: computers are designed to be mysterious boxes dedicated to doing specific things, but the sheer possibilities are pretty mesmerizing, especially when you understand what little you know. Overtime, the more you learn, you get a feel for what you can and can't use your basic screen-based machine for. Someone at a party once told me they felt sorry for me because of my fascination of with linux, but i don't really get that mentality: maybe they felt sorry for me for a different reason, i don't know...but it was related to me talking about linux. If you see me talking about something, there are probably multiple reasons you could come up with to feel sorry for me!

The exact moment I decided to fully switch over to linux fully was when windows wouldn't actually set my default browser to firefox from internet explorer. Maybe they have fixed this since, but it doesn't really matter, as learning about linux has overall been a profitable experience (not in terms of money, but giving me a reason to live...).

 

[Alexzee]

What drove me to start using Linux was the consistant virues on Windows.
Also, the seemeingly unending updates and reboots were preventing me from getting anything done.

In addition to that, I had an opportunity to talk to the top Slackware Developer Patrick Volkerding and a Linux Guru who later became my Linux Teacher.

The favor and learning I gained from these people (and so many members here @wizardfromoz, @KGIII, @osprey, @CaffeineAddict, @GatorsFan, @Condobloke @Brickwizard and what I've learned in my own studies on Linux has been indeed, like you said; "an overall profitable experience"!

Alex

 

[Vimmer]

Also, the seemeingly unending updates and reboots were preventing me from getting anything done.

Yes...when you use Windows, you often get this desire to nuke everything and start over due to dissatisfaction with your experience. At least now a days it has a "reset" feature like smart phones do.

FWIW, i'm not trying entirely to turn this into a windows hate thread, but more or less trying to understand what was lacking before, or what's fun about using linux.

 

[MikeRocor]

For me, it was a combination of things.

*) I kept "inheriting" computers that had completely fubar'd MS Windows installations on them. Nothing wrong with the computers themselves, but Windows couldn't be easily recovered. Invariably, if I had a good Windows installation CD, it wasn't "right" for the hardware I wanted to install it on. Windows ME said something to the effect of, "No no no... you need at least 100 Mhz CPU or I'm out of here"

*) I wanted to get back to the level of control Ihad over my machines in the pre-Windows days.

*) I wanted to learn something that was "new" (to me) but that had a more "serious" lineage than Windows.

*) "Free" (as in beer) was a nice feature. I didn't yet understand about "free" (as in speech) and "FOSS".

 

[f33dm3bits]

I honestly can't remember, someone introduced me to Linux. I thought it looked cool and different and it was free so I wanted to learn more about it and so it became a hobby/obsession/passion(whatever you call it).

 

[Trynna3]

Messing and trying to fix Win10 installation. For weeks, thanks to AI and other sources, I had to reinstall the whole thing. But by that time I was quite accustomed to using cmd and powershell, and said myself if I had to do this as a Windows user, I could as well give Linux a try. And the rest is history.
Microsoft can only thank themselves for another customer going elsewhere. Had enough of their shenanigans, also with Win11 what I keep hearing/reading all the time.
Now Europeans are switching to Linux, Denmark made waves in the news, Germany was mentioned sporadically, but little is spoken about France, since like 2005?
My Linux system is faster, more responsive, more customisable, updates not forced upon me.
Let's see what future brings.
Devs, please keep it up to date and secure. Don't let AI mess around. And be aware of adverse state sponsored infiltrators that could try to bring another backdoor into the core system.

 

[MikeWalsh]

In my case, it was simple.

Come the EOL for WinXP, I'd been using M$ stuff for the best part of 30 years. I was fed up to the back teeth with it.....and felt it was high time for a change.

Overnight, I nuked Windows, installed Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 'Trusty', and dove headfirst into the murky waters of the Linux eco-system. I'm glad I did; I had no ties to M$ for anything, so I made a clean break and a fresh start of it.

I'm entirely self-taught; nobody has taught me, or spent time explaining or showing me how to do stuff. A certain natural inquisitiveness has been my ally throughout my life; I may not always stick with new stuff.....but I am at least prepared to take a look at new concepts, and try things out before dismissing them out of hand.

Never looked back. Had no need to, since Linux lets me do everything I need to, IN the way that I want.


Mike.

 

[Brickwizard]

I am sure I have said this before,
I use to use IBM on my home computers [4&8 bit] then i got a 286 with W3 on it then a 386 with 3.1 on it then i upgraded to a 486, skipped W95 went to w97 for a while then XP came out which being NT based instead of MS DOSS was quicker and more reliable [still not solid], now i cant remember why/how before i switched to XP,I found myself on the MS beta panel to test XP, then when XP came out i also beta tested Win Millennium and 2,000] neither of which got a good report from me, than came W7 that was the final straw, I had already been playing around with Linux sine the mid 90's so decided to duel boot with Ubuntu hanging on to XP till the end, then a friend [a MS engineer] kept giving me discs from his trade mag, to play with, in 2009 he gave me a MINT2 disc, erm I thought this looks like it could be good, then mint 3 came and out went Ubuntu, and not long after the now defunked XP, I have played with several distributions over the years [far too many to list and many long gone] and now have a tendency to stick with Debian stable distributions, I think the best one over the years was probably Mint 9 or 13,
I see myself as a Linux user of long-standing [over 23 yrs], I am not a Guru, Geek, or any other form of expert, and like everyone else here, if I were to live another 75 years I will still be learning Linux as it is constantly evolving.

 

[MzQ1NjExN2]

The exact moment I decided to fully switch over to linux fully was when windows wouldn't actually set my default browser to firefox from internet explorer. Maybe they have fixed this since, but it doesn't really matter, as learning about linux has overall been a profitable experience (not in terms of money, but giving me a reason to live...).

Windows is very inflexible when it comes to its browser. I wanted to uninstall it but there was no option to uninstall it so I had to go into the C drive and manually delete the folder. The problem is it always kept coming back in the next Windows update.

Microsoft's push to make the user use the Windows browser was also the main reason why I went with Linux. Although I don't remember having an issue setting Firefox as my default browser the last time I used Windows. You must have used an older version of Windows.

 

[Trynna3]

Windows is very inflexible when it comes to its browser. I wanted to uninstall it but there was no option to uninstall it so I had to go into the C drive and manually delete the folder. The problem is it always kept coming back in the next Windows update.

Microsoft's push to make the user use the Windows browser was also the main reason why I went with Linux. Although I don't remember having an issue setting Firefox as my default browser the last time I used Windows. You must have used an older version of Windows.

My understanding is they are embedding the browser into other functionalities, so they keep bringing it back so you have a fully functional system. I used Revo Uninstaller to get rid of Edge in Win10, also AI, which were uninstallable according to many, or it would break your system. I created a restore point before this nuke, then restored it back when I got rather scared... still ended up with broken Windows (which is what I think happened from the hindsight) and had to reinstall it to get it back in a proper state - last year, spring time. DISM and other tools failed to repair it...
I am going Linux now so it doesn't really matter to me anymore.

 

[MikeWalsh]

@Trynna3 :-

M$ have a long history of intertwining the code of the file manager and the browser. Even as far back as the release of XP - some 24 years ago - File Explorer and Internet Explorer were so tightly linked that if anything went wrong with either of 'em, the other refused to function correctly.

Browsers in Linux have always been able to access the local file system, by the simple expedient of entering

file:///

.....in the URL bar and hitting "Enter". Try it if you like; it will take you to "/", the root of the entire file system.....then you can navigate from there. Any browser will let you do this, since it's long been a part of the global browser standards......dating back, so I believe, to XHTML 1.0, in January of 2000.

The KDE Project's Konqueror was a combined HTML- & file-browser, right from the day of its release back in October of that year:-

Konqueror - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I've always suspected this was where Microsoft got the idea for combining functionalities of the two items.....only of course, M$ being M$, they took it 3 steps further, as usual, and went totally OTT with it.

Konqueror is still under regular development to this day, a quarter of a century later.


Mike.

 

[kc1di]

Ham Radio 29 years ago Slackware.

 

[dos2unix]

A combination of things.
The cost of Windows.
The "vendor lock-in" of Windows.

The evolution of the internet is really tied to the evolution of Linux.
Things like, telnet, chat, web servers, ffp servers... these are what made Linux popular and unique.
These are also the things that made the internet popular... for a while.
Search engines weren't really a thing yet. Ai didn't exist yet.

But then email blew up the internet.

At different times, I was a web admin, an ftp admin, an email admin.. and then finally a Linux admin.
A pretty bad one at first... but I was a quick learner.

 

[Vimmer]

Windows is very inflexible when it comes to its browser. I wanted to uninstall it but there was no option to uninstall it so I had to go into the C drive and manually delete the folder. The problem is it always kept coming back in the next Windows update.

Microsoft's push to make the user use the Windows browser was also the main reason why I went with Linux. Although I don't remember having an issue setting Firefox as my default browser the last time I used Windows. You must have used an older version of Windows.

Yes, i just tested it, and they did fix that issue. I was having it as early back as Windows 10: what would happen was i went into defaults, changed it to firefox, then creepily it would switch back to IE after i closed the window! I currently have a Mac and W11 computer, but it would take a really huge motivation to switch to either one for my main. Part of the reason why i eventually decided to spend the money and have those systems available is one of my main joys in life is experimenting. Linux systems have disappointed me in a number of ways, but you can always switch to a different one. Once you get used to plain debian, there's little to no reason to stop using it as your main system. It's not even about difficulty levels (which don't exist), it's about changing your habits.

I've resolved that the best way to run W11 is to debloat as much as you can, and then only install max 5 or so forms of extra software for you to use. Luckily, there are lots of software developers out there who have more than one reason to write debloat stuff, so be very careful when searching for something to do that, debloat software would actually be the perfect cover for a virus.

I'm kinda disappointed there aren't more "i used to be a mac user for years, but got really sick of it" popping up in this thread: i guess apple does a better job of locking users into their computing environments. I guess windows is next best for customization, but still can't compete with FOSS in that regard. You can't even assign keyboard shortcuts as easily on proprietary systems, whereas with linux desktop systems, it's mostly never an issue.

 

[Mike-BTU]

Windows gradually became very v e r y s l o w. It wasted hundreds of hours of our time.

Should have switched sooner.

THIS POST describes it to a T!

 

[PuppyHome]

What drove me was sheer need. Started back in 2008, was in a very bad place but needed a computer to communicate with family. Long story.

The hardware I had at that time was an old 32 bit IBM Thinkpad T-40. It ran XP ok but then came Vista. Could run it barely. Buddy of mine at the time was kind of a geek and suggested Linux.
I was a computer noob back then. Managed to burn a CD (Ubuntu, I think Bionic Beaver). 32 bit. My IBM sprang to life again, yay me!

I also ran into Puppy when looking for even more lightweight stuff but it was way over my head back then.

Stuck with Linux since I'd say 2013-ish........give or take a year.

 

[KGIII]

Familiarity was a large part. I'd been a UNIX (various versions) user in the past. I'd tinkered with Linux on the desktop before. We used Linux on some servers. I no longer needed to use Windows.

 

[bob466]

I can describe it with one word...windoze.

Viruses...Spyware...Blue Screen of Death...constant problems...system slowing down...not being allowed to do what I want on my own computer...being told I must install another windoze system (w8) that I hate or my computer won't work ever again and the list went on.

So in 2012 I started looking in to Linux in Virtualbox and a Flash Drive...I liked what I saw.
So in 2015 I switched to Linux Mint Cinnamon permanently and never looked back...I also wished I'd switched sooner.

For me Linux offers the freeedom to do whatever I like on my own computer...the choice of many Distros...stability...heaps of software...user friendly depending on the Distro...a System that doesn't break and you don't need a degree to use it.

I no longer need a CD folder full of repair Disks and virus scanners that I ran constantly and downloads that brick my system...not to mention corrupt system files that could never be fixed.

 

[MikeRocor]

...and so it became a hobby/obsession/passion(whatever you call it).

"perversion"? Just a thought.

One thing that caught my interest about Linux was that it was "like Unix" and I was friendly with some Unix geeks at a place where I once worked. Then, in my first professional IT job at a smallish local consulting company, one of the principals of the company was about to send me off to a client who needed a Unix guy. My boss thought I "knew Unix" because I "knew regular expressions". I guess that wasn't that much of a leap at the time but it was way off the mark in this case. I hastened to tell him I'd never touched a Unix system in my life and he sent someone else on that job. But that close brush with disaster got me thinking I ought to "learn Unix" so that was a little added incentive when I finally got around to trying Linux.

 

[The Duck]

I was bored and wanted to see what Linux was about and no other reason I was happy using Windows.