this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2023
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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What caused you to get into it, are you an evangel and are you obsessed?

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[–] njordomir@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago

Bought an eeePC on WinXP that ran like trash and barely could handle simple tasks. Dropped numerous flavors of GNU/Linux on it in a few months. I remember thinking "wtf is this" because the settings and interface felt so bare without the WinXP clutter but things ran much better. Fell in love with the repository model of updating everything with a single command, found the UI was actually simple looking on the surface with a ton of depth available to me when my tinkering became more comfortable and experienced. Stayed because I don't think everything in our lives needs to be stuffed full of micro transactions and ads.

When I left the church, I started directing what was my tithes to nonprofits of my choice including FOSS projects instead.

Here I am a decade and a half later and if I didn't have Linux, I probably wouldn't use computers except in the rarest of circumstances. Its just a high quality experience that commercial software can't measure up to because they have different goals.

[–] indigojasper@kbin.social 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

i came because of microsoft paranoia, then stayed for the customization

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[–] Teon@kbin.social 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

McAfee Antivirus.
Got so tired of the software slowing down the computer and freaking out over non-virus programs. Also the price to renew was stupid.
No need for AV running 24/7 on Linux.
After using a few different distros over a couple of years I decided to never go back to Windows (and I detest Apple so that will never be an option), and I settled on Kubuntu.
So. Damn. Happy.

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[–] Ozzy@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 years ago

win10 EOL support. Genuinely hate the incorporation of AI into the OS.

[–] cows_are_underrated@feddit.de 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I am interested in tech, and also watched a lot of YouTube videos about different topics. Somehow I realised how much data windows sends. Since I was planning to buy myself a new pc(my old one was a Celsius W370 from 2009 that took 20 minutes to boot windows) I decided to not install Windows on this pc but to install Linux. I went the classic way and chose Mint with cinnamon.

That was about 1.5 years ago.

I wouldn say that I'm somehow obsessed with Linux and there's definitely no way back. I got completely sucked into FOSS. My next phone will be a Google pixel where I will install Graphene OS on. Fuck big tech.

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[–] AceFuzzLord@lemm.ee 7 points 2 years ago

On an old laptop of mine that has pretty piss poor specs I ended up messing with the regedit on win10. On the only account on the laptop, I lost admin access and couldn't change it back. I tried fixing it using a solution online that required downloading Linux and booting it up on a thumb drive. After that failed and I found out that Best Buy was just suggesting reinstalling win10, I just said "fuck it" and installed Ubuntu, which was what I had on my thumb drive. That was a couple years ago. Since then I have switched to Sparky Linux, even though I rarely use that laptop anymore thanks to my desktop.

I'm definitely not ultra obsessed with it, but I do find it's nice to have.

[–] Lippy@kbin.social 7 points 2 years ago

Curiosity at first after it was mentioned a few times by others. This was back in 2007, and I've been off and on with it over the years and being pleasantly surprised with the amount of progress it had made each time I used it.

I switched for good when I built my new PC last year. I didn't actually mind Windows until it began to get filled with crapware, which has really gotten out of control more recently. It's just as well that Proton has eliminated the last reason I needed to use it.

[–] hottari@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 years ago

I had always used Windows for the longest time. I used a certain cloud service and was impressed with how easy it was to manage services with docker. Fast forward a couple of years and I got a small mini-PC with Windows. I tried to install docker on it but Windows back then had no way of using Docker without virtualizing it with Hyper-V, a Pro feature. I thought let me give this another try. I tried to replicate the same setup with NSSM tools. It kinda worked eventually but it was a dirty hack at best and I did not like this solution.

I thought to myself, why would I pay Microsoft to use a feature I can use for free with Linux and get better performance while at it.

Here we are 7-8 years later.

[–] ares35@kbin.social 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

curiosity, originally. this was back at the very earliest days of slack and debian, some 30 years ago.

i am not 'obsessed' with linux itself, but i have a definite preference for FOSS over proprietary solutions.

[–] Communist@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I tried it out and discovered none of the annoyances I had with windows existed here, then I started customizing things, redesigning my interface from the ground up to make everything as optimized as possible, to an extent that would never be possible on windows.

Plus I have massive ethical concerns regarding proprietary software.

Now I can't leave.

[–] Teritz@feddit.de 7 points 2 years ago

I bought a Steam Deck

[–] SpaceCadet@feddit.nl 6 points 2 years ago

Afterstep on Red Hat 5.1

Story: I started a new job as a system engineer in December 1998, it was the heyday of Windows 9x and NT 4.0. First day on the job, the guy who was sitting across from my assigned desk was running something strange and insanely cool looking on a giant CRT monitor. I was mesmerized by the spinning window animations, the virtual desktops, the cool icons, the falling snow... I struck up a conversation with him, asked him what kind of system he was running there. He told me he was running Linux and this was the Afterstep window manager. Turns out he was the local sysadmin there as well as a Linux evangelist and someone I got along with instantly.

I had already been curious about Linux and wanted to try it, so he gave me a copy of Red Hat 5.1 to install on my home PC and I started my journey there. 25 years later I still run Linux, the expertise I developed with it has helped me immensely in my career and I'm still friends with my former coworker.

[–] whoisearth@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 years ago

OS2/Warp

IBM showed us there could be a superior OS that wasn't Windows or Mac. Been chasing that dragon ever since.

[–] ChojinDSL@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 2 years ago

Windows XP pissed me off one two many times.

[–] PRUSSIA_x86@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

It came to me in a dream

[–] fujiwara@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 years ago

Windows begging me to create a Microsoft account on start up everyday, even making me unplug my ethernet to get past it. I'm not obsessed with Linux.

[–] the16bitgamer@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

On the list of reasons over the years.

  1. High School friend showed me their install, and how it had these sick spinning cube desktop. Ditched it once I realized I couldn't do anything I wanted on it.

  2. In University, the ComSci labs all had networked machines with Ubuntu installed. It was cool, but again outside of coding, I couldn't do anything I wanted on it.

  3. 2022, I got a new Laptop, couldn't use Windows 11 without an account (I know of the work arounds). MS has Windows 10 with a EOL in 2025, and Valve is pushing the Steam Deck hard. Gave it a second shot. I now can do everything I want on it without issue. I even made a 1 year retrospective video about it.

I use arch btw /s

[–] Noctechnical@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 years ago

How to dual boot linux mint and windows (ended up accidentally ended up just having mint on my drive).

[–] sunred@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 2 years ago

Basically servers and Pis.

If you wanted to host your own site and services, a Linux vps was (and still is) the only choice. Back then it was Debian, nowadays I use Arch on everything. Same with Raspberry Pis when the first one became available in 2012. With university I started using Arch on my laptop and later when Proton and Wayland became good, I moved to it on the Desktop as well.

[–] MrBubbles96@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Two things made me leave. Both having to do with Windows.

  1. Microsoft themselves.

  2. My Windows install was just...bad. I'm not sure how else to describe a Windows that frequently crashed and just gave up and Blue Screen. Sure, both probably happen to any normal Windows install (well, the 1st thing. If you get the second, yeah that's a problem)--but not at the frequency it happened with mine, I'm sure. Besides that, it was slow for no reason (AFAIA, anyways) and doing anything took a while. Yeah, I eventually reinstalled it after some hassle, and after that it was just slow, but then i made the fatal mistake of trying Windows 11 and was like "if this is what I'm eventually ganna have do deal with...no thanks." Tbf, Microsoft was promting it, so i assumed it was an upgrade to Windows 10, not a wannabe chromebook with some baffling "lets fix what isn't broken and works great as is" choices.

Well, thinking about it, there was a third reason i ususally neglect to mention:

  1. I had a choice. I like looking at all my available options and choosing what to go with instead of having something chosen for me. I'm a big boy and can make my own choices for myself, thank you (looking right at you there, Bill). As soon as i heard "there's something else besides this or an Apple Product. And it's much better than some people like to give it credit for" i researched a bit on the differences, the requirements, and a good place to start, and well, here I am.

As for what I am, IDK. I'm a happy Linux user, but i also get some people are perfectly happy Windows users (or aren't, but are locked into the ecosystem regardless) and hey, as long as we agree that both OS's have their quirks, you let me keep my penguins, and I'll let ya keep your...erm, Windows (does Windows have a mascot? I doubt it, but you never know)

[–] majorequivalent01@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 years ago

windows 8 that came with my core i3 laptop. did not jump into the windows10 bandwagon for all the bad things i was hearing about it. gave up when some apps start doing crazy stuff because os is old. mucked around with mint, and distro hopping from usb. mind-blown. now i've acquired a fairly new laptop and dual booted with debian12. has never done a random restart on it for months (due to force-it-down-your-throat-win-update). i still use a win laptop for work and some games, but that will never touch my personal computer. it's fun reading all the comments here. thanks :)

[–] eeltech@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

A combination of:

  • I was very curious about computing and trying different applications
  • I liked customizing and tinkering with my setup: Launcher, window manager, icons, etc.
  • I was a poor teenager

On the windows side, there were neat apps like Stardock Windowblinds, for the most part, everything was paid and expensive for someone with no disposable income.

Mind was blown when I realized everything I wanted was available for free! My first install was actually from a CD that came with a book I checked out from the public library

[–] furycd001@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 years ago

The year was 2002 & I was fed up with windows for various reasons. Connected to the internet looking for a windows alternative & ended up finding slackware. Installed slackware & got it somewhat working. Happily used it for a short while, before moving on to Fedora Core when it was released....

[–] Mio@feddit.nu 6 points 2 years ago

Servers in school. Learned how to setup a website, Linux tools test. Then at home how to setup a Counter Strike server.

[–] turbowafflz@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

My dad gave me a laptop running ubuntu as my first computer many years ago and I have never found any non-linux operating system I really liked. There are some things I love about Haiku, but it just isn't quite good enough to replace Linux for me, at least not yet

[–] crmsnbleyd@sopuli.xyz 6 points 2 years ago

Linux user group at my uni. I love Unix like systems, especially Linux.

[–] a_fancy_kiwi@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

Plex

At the time, Windows was updating and restarting whenever it felt like it which would stop my Plex server from running until I logged back in. Windows and Macs are now just thin clients that allow me to connect to all my Linux servers.

[–] envelope@kbin.social 6 points 2 years ago

I used Unix workstations in college. After graduation my choices were MS-DOS and Windows 3.1, or a real OS. Started with Slackware in the mid-1990's.

[–] stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 years ago

The constant reinstalling of windows. I actively resisted it because I wasn’t interested in learning something new. My laziness eventually kicked in and it was easier to learn Linux.

[–] kpw@kbin.social 6 points 2 years ago

Something felt wrong using Windows. It felt right when I switched to Linux.

[–] xohshoo@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

one too many BSOD
this was 2005 ish

[–] PseudoSpock@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

The desire to learn something beyond DOS, beyond just BBS', beyond RIME and FIDOnet email, wanting a UNIX like operating system that was like what I had at university, to be able to natively run talk, ytalk, IRC, ICB, Gopher, FTP, and NNTP.

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[–] deadbeef@lemmy.nz 5 points 2 years ago

I've been using Linux for something like 27 years, I wouldn't say evangelical or particularly obsessed.

I started using it because some of the guys showing up to my late 90's LAN parties were dual booting Slackware it and it had cool looking boot up messages compared to DOS or Windows at the time. The whole idea of dual booting operating systems was pretty damn wild to me at the time too.

After a while it became obvious to me that Slackware '96 was way more reliable than DOS or Windows 95 at the time, a web browser like Netscape could take out the whole system pretty easily on Windows, but when Netscape crashed on Linux, you opened up a shell and killed off whatever was left of it and started a new one.

I had machines that stayed up for years in the late 90's and that was pretty well impossible on Windows.

[–] TimeSquirrel@kbin.social 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I was trying to run a forum in the early 2000s and was pirating Windows Server with IIS to do it, and I discovered this entire other free, legit OS to do what I wanted to do with ease. Back in those days you could install a "LAMP" stack during install which gave you Apache, MySQL, and PHP automatically configured, whereas in IIS I was having to install a seperate PHP interpreter and figure out how to send php scripts to it and back, the whole thing seemed janky.

After that Linux became my go-to for any IT related project, and even more so when I started my electronics hobby due to how you can just make it do any damn thing you want.

In 2020 it became my desktop permanently after Microsoft decided they didn't want their OS running on my perfectly fine computer anymore.

[–] biflip 5 points 2 years ago

Screenshots of x-plane and other games on the back of the Red hat 5.2 jewel case.

[–] joel_feila@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

I was on windows 8 and 10 was out my pccwas old slow i really didnt want a pile of spyware with my os. I asked around and found Linux mint.

[–] sexual_tomato@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 years ago

I built a computer and didn't have high speed Internet about 18 years ago. Couldn't get Windows activated so a friend gave me a (Debian?) CD so I could get something going. Been keeping old machines alive with it ever since.

[–] monovergent@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Windows 10. When your OS no longer respects your choices and you have to fight it every minute, there is something wrong. The creeping invasions on privacy have only cemented my use of Linux

Truthfully, I'm not sure if I would have ever switched over if Microsoft kept the Windows 7 paradigm. But I started my search for alternatives when Windows 8 - already too adventurous for me - came with the computer I bought.

Towards the end of my time using Windows 10 as my primary OS, the realization that the UI is not an inherent component of the OS sealed the deal. As a Windows 2000 fan, I fell in love with the way Chicago95 Debian replicated the look and stability that I had sorely missed.

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[–] Thorned_Rose@kbin.social 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I don't really have any one stand out reason. I first introduced myself to Linux in the late 1990s, buying a Red Hat CD and phone book sized manual that at the time cost a lot, especially as I was poor student. I think one of my tutors (I as doing computer studies) said that he ran Linux and I got nerdy and curious. It sadly didn't last long as too much of my other study was based around Windows.

Over time, Iecame to despise corporate monopolies, spying, manipulation, billion dollar advertising budgets, and turning people into products (not just Microsoft, but Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc.) more and more, so I decided it was time (early 2010s) to give Linux a go again. I'd read people saying it was more usable for gaming than it used to be. Still required giving up some games since Steam Proton wasn't a thing yet but for me, I was making an concious choice to only support gaming that was Linux native (or games that I already owned that worked on WINE).

I distro hopped bit before settling on Mint. Used that for about 2 years and then got a new PC. Wanted to challenge myself more and went with Arch. I have enjoyed the customisation, freedom, privacy and ethically conscious choice ever since.

I wouldn't say I'm obsessed but I certainly try and free other people from the shackles of non-floss software as much as I can.

[–] Ascend-910@kbin.social 5 points 2 years ago

RIP Windows 7

[–] palarith@aussie.zone 5 points 2 years ago

Back in the day, it was the cheapest way to get a company online. I built a slakware server with sendmail and squid on our isdn line

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