What Did You Do First With Linux? 739
ruphus13 writes "OStatic has an interesting article on remembering the first time you used Linux. Quoting: 'I'm not sure if the admission that I remember my first Linux installation much more clearly than any date with my first boyfriend or my first date with my husband is a really wise thing to put in writing. I will freely admit it wasn't quite as anxiety-inducing as a date, and the long-term relationship that sprang from it taught me quite a bit about myself, how I learn, and how to passionately load kernel modules at boot. So, what was your first Linux experience?'"
Re:I tried to access the floppy drive (Score:4, Insightful)
Similar story. Gave up on the X-server setup. Come Ubuntu, and apt-get, the tables turned and Linux was just easier.
Linux helps you grow? (Score:5, Insightful)
Up to that point, I never thought of myself in any way, shape or form as a logical thinker. In some sense, I'm really not. But I learned something about myself. I learned that things go wrong in even completely logical settings for no apparent reason -- but there is a reason, and searching it down, identifying it, and solving it is actually fun and rewarding. I can't write code, but I am quite skilled in digging around in it and bending it to my will -- something I never dreamed I'd like doing.
I must say that using Linux (manpages and all) has taught me a stack of confidence, logical thinking, problem solving skills etc as well as a lot about computers in general and how they run. I even run a PC repair business now as well as setting up free Linux boxes for disadvantaged students.
Has anyone else found that using Linux has really helped them develop personally in this way?
My experience... (Score:1, Insightful)
Installed one distro. Sucked. Installed another. Sucked. Tried bootstrapping Gentoo. Failed. Installed Solaris. Sucked. Installed FreeBSD. Done.
Rebooted back into windows ... (Score:1, Insightful)
... so that I could google the errors that I got. Why did I reboot? Because none of my network devices worked.
The last time I installed Linux, on a Dell laptop, Ubuntu this time, same damn thing.
It'll be great when 100% of Linux installs can be done without a 2nd OS installed or another computer.
You FOSS guys owe me 24 hours of my life back.
Re:Linux helps you grow? (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't know if using Linux has helped me develop logical thinking, but it certainly honed my ability to solve problems. The ability to read a log file and compare it to a man page to solve a problem has definitely grown out of my use of Linux.
The self-sufficiency of reading a manual and determining how to use a tool and how to fix it when it is broken is an incredibly useful skill that is a gift that running linux has definitely given to me.
Oddly enough, gaming got me into linux... (Score:4, Insightful)
It was probably around late '96/early '97. I had a friend online who I played Quake with who was constantly spouting off about linux. I've always been interested in computers, but had not really ventured outside of the realm of DOS and Windows save for some dabbling with OS/2 (which I thought was great, but lacked the needed support to be a really amazing end-user OS).
After some nudging, he walked me through downloading and setting up RedHat (Colgate, I believe). I was enthralled by the seemingly endless customization and control over the operating system. Back then, I remember having a proud feeling just being able to get things like my sound card and nic working in this... foreign thing. I felt like I had actually accomplished something when I was able to get Quake running (w/ sound!) for the first time in a non-Windows environment.
After getting used to RedHat, I moved onto Slackware. After all, RH was for n00bs! Heh. Anyone remember glibc vs. libc5? *grumble*
Ironically enough, the same thing that got me into linux was the same thing that took me away from it: gaming. See also: the directx vs. opengl wars. OpenGL lost. As more and more developers started using directx, I ended up booting Windows to access many of the games I wanted to play.
Desktop linux today? Many things have changed, yet so many remain the same. Most hardware is supported out of the box in distros like Ubuntu and Fedora. Gone are the days of having to edit a few lines of source to get your nic driver to work (mostly gone anyway). Everything 'just works', to steal some Apple thunder.
However, gaming under linux is still a terrible prospect. Most games don't natively support it. The wine project, even at 1.x, is still in its' infancy. Even if a directx game does work under wine, it's usually buggy or performs poorly.
Oh, I still boot to linux and regularly tinker. I also maintain an install via virtualbox. And there's nothing that I'd love more than to be running linux exclusively. But unless something miraculous is done, desktop linux will always play second fiddle on my home PC. Sad, but true.
Same sh*t another decade (Score:2, Insightful)
In year of 1996 and it was slack 3.x.
Takes 8 hours to proper setup from floppies to a 486 dx 33 with 32 mb ram and a S3 Trio card And I can't configure my graphics card.
Today I update my kubuntu 8.04 to 9.04
And guess what...
I can't configure my x to work with ATI...
I'm too sick to fix again...
Should have stayed on Linux (Score:3, Insightful)
Even if you managed to mount floppy, you would notice the strange silence and figure the sad fact when you first run xmms. Yes, no sound.
Fix was easy (I bet it is unneeded now)
chmod 666 /dev/dsp along with the soundblaster config at /etc
While it was total torture after Windows (and coming from Amiga to that land), I am thankful to Patrick Volkerding and Slackware. How? Well, I learned how the unix logic works (even the 666) and compiling things from source. I still use that bits of knowledge today on OS X.
What made me nuts after a year (no dual boot!) is the need of recompiling kernel for a freaking USB mouse. It is not Patrick's fault, I hated one thing. Kernel developers (of that time) was ignoring the PURPOSE of USB. The USB is here not because it is state of art tech, because it is massively dynamic.
what worries me... (Score:3, Insightful)
is that this is yet another "i spent hours fixing" kind of article.
most people these days do not want, or have time, to fix their computer, they just want it to show their videos, image, play music, browse the web and read email, and type up the odd text file or spreadsheet. oh and, games. lots of games.
basically they want something that works, and if it stops working, somewhere to drop it of so that it can be quickly fixed. apple makes it clever there, with their "genius bar". even if said "genius" just follows a step by step guide for swapping out some components to see if that fixes the problem, or basically format and reinstall the os, it gives the non-geeks the impression that someone listens to them and cares about their problems.
sadly, its the same thing that fuels the tech support horror stories, where someone comes in with a explanation like "i tried to insert the thing, and something showed up on that screen followed by it going black and not reacting to the dohickys. i want it fixed, now!".
Congratulations! (Score:1, Insightful)
This is the worst possible explanation I've ever seen on this site for the failure of Linux to Just Work. Somehow, through all the crap, it is OK, because you learned to waste your time configuring something that should have been done for you.
But, hey, you got it for free, you can't complain, right?
Re:The Adventures of cptnapalm and tankgirl (Score:2, Insightful)
I just wanted to say that was brilliant.
To tankgirl. *toast*
Re:The Adventures of cptnapalm and tankgirl (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:The Adventures of cptnapalm and tankgirl (Score:1, Insightful)
To tankgirl. Never forgotten. And a fine eulogy.