On Mon, 2003-09-15 at 07:03, Evan McNabb wrote: > Q: What features or attributes of Linux led you to start using it and/or > influence you to continue using it? Please be specific and descriptive > as possible and as technical as you would like.
I got interested in it because I didn't like Windows which was the cool thing to do at the time. I suppose I did have some valid reasons to dislike Windows too. What really piqued my interest was the misguided notion that because Linux was free (as in beer) everything else that ran on it had to be free as well. I didn't quite understand the GPL yet. This was in 1995. But I didn't actually get my own computer until 98 after my mission. The hard drive crashed and with it went my only (and probably illegitimate) copy of Windows. I scrounged up an 80MB hard drive and since I had nothing to lose I put Linux on it. I tried Redhat but it didn't like the CDROM for some reason. Next was Slackware which was funny which basically booted up to a shell prompt with the message "now make a swap, format your drives and install Slackware". That was a little much for me. Luckily Debian (slink) worked. I was really surprised how well that 80MB drive held up. If you rm -fr /usr/share/doc and /usr/share/man you can fit quite a few binaries on. CS 240 was the next semester which forced me to get a larger hard drive and make my Debian install a little more stable. Being able to work on my programs at home was really cool. And while I was supposed to be working on my web sucker or my XML parser I would learn about my new system. This was the time my commitment to Linux solidified. The reason I keep using Linux now and why I evangelize to all my friends and coworkers is because of the Freedom. I love being in absolute control of my computer's destiny. I don't have to stay up at nights worried about BSA raids. I have hundreds and hundreds of high quality programs that don't try to extort money from me if I use them remotely or to run a business. To sum up, the two biggest factors in my adoption were being able to freely replace my illegal copy of Windows with a more useful and legal copy of Linux, and being able to use my home system to compile code rather than fighting the hordes in the labs. Corey ____________________ BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ ___________________________________________________________________ List Info: http://uug.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
