We asked folks in the EzeeLinux Community to share their experiences with Linux and here’s what they said. These are real stories from real people all around the world. More will be added as they come in…
GNU/Linux put the fun back in computing ! I’m free to do anything and there’s always the amazing community which can help me if I can’t do something by myself.
– Georgi
I wrote this to add to the ezeelinux testimonials if you like. It’s a bit wordy, but it’s the truth!
We got our first business computer in the 1980’s. It was a 286 with 20 mb hard drive , 256K ram, and had a little 10 inch monochrome monitor. MS-Dos 3.0 was the OS. And it was awesome! lol
Soon after, I had to upgrade the OS to version 3.3 so I could install and use the little 3.5 inch floppies (they had a higher capacity though smaller in size). This is when I got bit by the geek bug. We got another computer and I networked them with Novel lite then went to Lantastic. Later, when we were running an early version of Windows I switched to the built in Windows network.
I was a Microsoft user for over 30 years so I was ignorant. I just accepted, as being a normal unpleasant routine, having to defragment the computers all the time, having to buy new MS OS upgrades and new business software because the old one isn’t compatible any more, and buying new computers to be able to run the new OS and new printers because the old printers aren’t compatible anymore. And then there’s the anti-virus with constant updates and scans. Being ignorant, I didn’t realize that it was Microsoft and their file system that is crap.
I used 4 or 5 versions of DOS and many versions of Windows (not the 2000 or millennium junk though). Imho, Windows XP was the last “decent” version and Windows 10 is just un-(expletive) bearable.
Desperate, I got a new computer and had Linux cinnamon installed on it. Surprisingly, the GUI was simple and easy to use. With the Linux OS being so different, and used to Microsoft, I had difficulties learning some of it and learning to network it was a real challenge.
Joe Collins and his videos have been an indispensable help to me and I am very grateful to him for it. I have no more Windows computers at home. I changed one at work to Linux, and if I can find the right business software, Microsuck and their Windows OS will be totally gone!
– bill w
Back in the early to mid 90’s I worked for an Internet company in a sales role (This was when we had dial-up services on the old copper telephone lines.) I was always fascinated by technology and when I first started working at this place, that was the first time I even heard about Linux, Up until then I never thought any OS other than Windows and Mac even existed! The people that used Linux were more in the programming and system admin type of area, and what blew me away was the fact that this entire back end of the company was running on software that didn’t even require a licence fee, in fact I remember when we got audited and asked how much the server software cost, the response was “how much is a blank disk?”
I had a copy or Red Hat back then and played around with it at home. The biggest problem was the fact that a lot of the software at that time required compilation from source and that was something I always struggled with – aka dependency hell – and, while rpm was an option, many of the programs I wanted were simply not available via rpm. Because of this I kinda stoped using it and became a Windows user.
Fast Forward to about 2005 and a friend introduced me to Ubuntu and I was impressed how much Linux (or GNU/linux) had changed and become much more user friendly. Now I run my PC at home on pure Linux and loving it. I used to have Windows to game, but even gaming I don’t do as I am having more fun messing around with my Linux stuff. It’s like a reunion with an old friend
– Adrian Hugo
I was using Windows since the 90’s, I was a computer science student back then and after school worked for a web development company and they too use MS products.
I got a taste of Linux around 2002 when I dabbled at using Knoppix but it wasn’t serious and at that time I was still on Windows 2000 Pro and XP
At around 2012, I became an entrepreneur and saw a YouTube video about Linux and it re-kindled my interest. So I decided to learn something new and took the plunge. Dual booted Windows 7 and Ubuntu, started tinkering, reading books about it and I must admit like most things in life there is a learning curve but I enjoyed it. Endless hours on the forums and watching YouTube, learning commands on the terminal.
After a year I decided to remove Windows 7 on my desktop and fully embrace Ubuntu 16.04. I assure you there will be hurdles but I NEVER looked back. I literally use it everyday in my activities. (Graphic and desktop use, video editing, internet browsing, programming and even updating my radio transmitter for my FPV Quadcopter hobby.. List goes on, simply put – Linux Works!)
In 2015, I became interested in information security as a hobby and used Kali Linux on my laptop as my main OS for practicing security and penetration testing. Windows now only reside on my Virtual Box.
I’m now 43 and I wish I started earlier on Linux but their is one thing for sure, the remaining years of my life will be on Linux. Why? Because it’s fun, but that’s just me
So if you have been wanting to learn Linux, do it now! It’s an exciting time.. take the plunge.
Linux User – Manila, Philippines
– Paul
I was born in ’62 and grew up in 70’s. When I was able I started learning about computers. After watching Star Trek (the original series, not The Next Generation) I was convinced that computers were SO COOL!!
My first computer was an Atari 800XL. It loaded programs via a cassette player connected to the computer. At that time I thought floppy drives were OUT-A-SITE MAN! (Don’t feel sorry for me living like a caveman. We had black and white TV and got three of the four broadcast stations: CBS, NBC, and PBS. So we were cool.)
I learned computers mostly from DOS 3.1 and later from Windows 3.11. During this time I almost lost my job twice because I messed up the company computer before getting it back to the original state just before the work day started. I think my bosses were lenient on me because I worked hard and took responsibility for everything I did, good or bad. (by this time I was working as an electronics technician on Flight Simulators for the US Navy, Air Force, and Army.)
Over the years I watched as Microsoft led the way in operating systems for desktops due to the nature of a more open model than Apple or IBM. (I even saw the wall fall when east and west Germany merged because freedom works better than communism.)
At work I learned that the people I worked with were much better when we worked together rather than when someone tried to be the hero or withhold and horde information for his own benefit. So I actively worked to document all the things I learned as we worked and print up notes for the other technicians in the shop. I soon found that they responded in kind. Our simulators had more ‘up’ time and less ‘down’ time. It also benefited the company’s bottom line so they were happy.
I had dabbled in Linux when Ubuntu was featured in a magazine about computers. (We actually used to subscribe to magazines for such articles instead of web pages like we do now.) But it was so foreign to me that dabbling was as far as it went. Plus I had a family to provide for and that came first.
By the time I had my stroke and had to go on disability, I had a nice computer with everything I needed on it. It ran my games, checked my email, browsed the web, calculated my taxes, and printed my documents.
Then Windows became the ‘OTHER’ guy. Apple had always had a closed system, but given it’s share of the pie most people preferred to have a more open system. So MS became more closed. They started dictating what I did on MY machine. I supposed this should not have been a surprise to me because the leaders of our own country were busy becoming the ‘OTHER’ guy also. They bullied the major software developers to spy on us for them. They became more communistic in order to protect us from the communists. So I suppose MS became more closed to protect us from the open world of computing.
Being an old fart, and a grumpy one at that, I decided enough was enough and went about learning Linux in order to regain some of that freedom that I had lost.
I must say that Joe’s videos helped me to most as they all started with the basics and let me build on them. Now I understood what had happened to the ‘C:’ drive as Windows called it.
My computers now run Mint. My wife’s computer runs Mint. The sister of my neighbor had me build a computer for her and she is VERY happy with Mint running on it. (She teaches Spanish at the locale high school so I had to learn how to add accent marks and then show her how to do it.)
The ONLY time I run windows now is to play WOW with my friends. These are the same friends that I meet in Linux twice a week to teach the Bible to them. They live from Washington state to Florida.
So I MUST say that Linux has gotten my freedom back and allowed me to have a more American life, digitally that is. I no longer have to deal with viruses and security first, getting my work done second. I can just do what I know to do best, get to work and get things done.
For EVERYONE who takes the time to help others become better we are all benefited. And I think that really shows in the Linux community. I am very honored to be a small part of it.
– JT
I was using Win95 (“The Printer prints!”) before.
My first distribution back in 1999 could have been Slackware.
But I haven’t got the IT-gen that’s why I (for me: Slackware) messed up everything!
In Win98s sight my harddrive was broken. But a friend repaired it.
I had another PC (a gift) and used WinME on it so the old 133MHz PC with the 100MB harddrive was free for Linux.
Tough times back those days with computing the frame rates of your graphic card for yourself.
Using Gnome (with Red Hat) I didn’t seem to have the opportunity* to do things by a single click.
Then I started with KDE and -Hallelujah- I had the single click.
Some month later I found out that I could have had it in Gnome too with a tiny change in the configuration of Gnome.
Then SuSE stepped onto my PC. But pretty soon I turned to Red Hat because SuSEs YaST was behaving like ‘mum’
and decided for itself when you have been “naughty”. I used Red Hat again for a longer period.
Later on I switched back to SuSE until Ubuntu came along.
Ubuntu just felt like freedom. I loved it from the start. Then Unity came along. I hated it from the start.
Since then I use Linux Mint. Cinnamon was and is nothing for me – so I’m happy with MATE.
– Ralph Behnke
As a Windows 7 user until a month ago I was always irritated by the constant pop ups from the essential anti virus and other add on software companies. The final straw was the attempts to force me to change to Win 10, so I began looking for an alternative, and Linux appeared to be the answer.
Despite not knowing how to install an operating system six months ago, (or even really understanding what one was,) and being past my prime at the age of 66, I recently managed to partition and format a new drive, and install Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon. Installation was easy thanks to the self-installer, as was the import of my Excel spreadsheets to LibreOffice Calc. The only real difficulties I encountered were importing old emails and addresses from Windows Live Mail, but that has now been done, so I now have a machine that does what I want, when I want. I am in control again.
In large part that has been achieved with the help of Joe Collins’s videos and personal communications. Joe you are a credit to the Linux community.
– Clifford Coggin
For the past 25 years I have been in business as an IT consultant. Microsoft operating systems (servers and workstations) have paid the bills. However, I cut my teeth on SCO UNIX/Xenix back in the 80’s. As a result I picked up a lot of business on SCO UNIX from many different VAR’s at the time and I made the natural progression to Linux for servers (on premise) and in more recent years cloud servers. Linux has not been a huge part of my business but has been steady. I have several flavors of linux servers running under Hyper-v for apps like Zimbra, etc for somewhat large companies. It has been very reliable to be honest.
So fast forward to the last 8-10 years. Honestly, I got very *bored* with windows and the older I got the more annoyed I have become with the commercial business model and the craziness of MS Licensing, etc. So I nuked and paved windows from my systems and tried many desktop distros throughout the years and settled on Antergos with KDE Plasma. Absolutely outstanding. I need to virtualize windows for specific applications I support but I am loving it plasma. But my primary reason to switching to linux is philisophical and not being tethered and manipulated by a corporate giant. I enjoy the community (although it can be harsh at times). I have been trying to switch people to linux and have had moderate success. So I have had a long storied career in IT and and very glad I am where I am with linux. It makes computing fun! Thanks for all your efforts Joe.
– Mike T
I was first introduced to linux around 2008 in high school when a friend gave me an Ubuntu CD. I had never even heard of Linux, but his excitement about it was infectious and before long I had a dual boot set up on my franken-puter I had assembled from parts my school had thrown away. I didn’t even have internet back then, and had no idea what to do with this operating system. And so it sat for a few years untouched.
Flash forward to the age of smartphones. I got an android, and began learning to do things like bluetooth dialup networks, then rooting, and finally wifi tethering (much to the dismay of my service provider I’m sure. I finally had internet at home now. As it happened, a windows virus found it’s way on to my computer, wrecking it to the point I couldn’t boot. I still had my linux setup to dual boot, and with the power of the internet I quickly learned to use it, saving my files I had thought lost.
Nowadays I have my own handbuilt gaming pc. I have a steam library with 450+ games, and the summer sale is just around the corner. I still keep a dualboot setup, but these days Ubuntu takes the helm, and windows is only booted for games that aren’t linux friendly. I’ve started recommending linux to many people who ask me to get them set up with a computer, and many of my clients are very happy using it as their main OS. I’m even pursuing a career as a linux admin. It’s really become a large part of my life.
– Clayton
Linux Lite with the xfce desktop kept my Dell Dimension PC running after MS stopped supporting XP. The machine has a Pentium 4 processor, and 2GB ram. Linux kept money in my pocket, my computer simple, and safe to this day.
– David C
I’ve been computing for 30 years, ever since MS-DOS 5.0. I’ve used just about every Micro$oft flavour, and having got thoroughly fed up I finally switched to Ubuntu in 2014. I love the quick and unobtrusive updates (just did a kernel update in about 5 minutes!), the power and flexibility of the command line, the limitless customization–and of course the Linux community. I recommend Linux to people every chance I get!
– Bill Flewelling
My very first exposure to Linux was right at the turn of the century. A computer lab in the school of engineering at my university was set up with computers that dual-booted Windows and some version of Linux (Maybe Debian?) At the time this was very mysterious to me and almost seemed like a parallel universe or a secret underworld! We only used these Linux machines to run software for a class on 3D modeling, and after the class I gradually forgot about Linux.
Fast-forward to the end of 2015 and I found myself getting increasingly frustrated with the strain that Windows 7 was putting on my cheap desktop computer! After watching numerous YouTube videos (including several by Joe Collins) I was eager to find out whether Linux would solve the issue. Without much trouble I was able to install the just-released Linux Mint 17.3 alongside Windows.
In 2016, still not completely free of Windows, I went ahead and installed the free upgrade to Windows 10. Today I rarely boot into Windows, needing it only for occasional access to iTunes and Adobe. Call me paranoid, but after installing Linux I changed all of my online passwords and since then have not used Windows even once to access online banking or to file taxes.
In 2016 I also bought my first (used) laptop. It claimed to come pre-installed with Win XP and included a Win 7 installation disk, but wouldn’t function beyond the bios… So I wiped it and easily installed my now-familiar Linux Mint 17.3 and we all lived happily ever after.
The End
~final note: I guess I may try to upgrade, but all of my hardware is old and might struggle, and besides, Mint 17.3 still functions flawlessly.
– Jonathan Kane
I started using computers in 96. Stuck with Windows for awhile. Then I took a computer repair class, and one of the other students gave me a copy of SUSE 9.1 I tried it and really liked it. Bye-bye windows. From Suse I went on to other distros, finally settling on Gentoo. Then I left computers for about 6 years. When I came back I couldn’t get Gentoo to install due to the UEFI, But Linux Mint 17.3 worked great, which is what I am still using today.
– Doug M
I started with Ubuntu, Hardy Heron. I made a live CD and tried it out. I dual booted with Windows since it was so easy to do. It allowed me to do anything I wanted to do with my computer so I kept it. About 4 years ago I deleted my windows partition and have been happy ever since. I now have Linux Lite 32 bit on my wifes computer and Cinnamon Mint on my slightly newer lap top. I can see no reason at all to go back to Windows.
– Dan Hardisty
I believe it was just after my first computer programming language course: Visual Basic. I just woke up, downloaded an ISO of Linux Mint, installed it over my Windows, and never looked back. Not only was my U43F laptop seemingly five times faster at everything it computed, I didn’t have one BSOD ever again on my old Windows machine. I have since bought a new System76 machine and chose to use Ubuntu MATE for the time being, but that U43F is still strongly running Linux Mint to this day. I had always switched out my personal software for open-source alternatives; well, why not the entire operating system? The more I learned about computer science, the more Linux made sense, and vice versa.
Oh, also LinuxCon 2014 was near my home in Chicago so that helped out a lot too.
That brings me to today. I am currently a happy Web Developer working on a Tier 2 Support team and aspiring to work closer to the servers one day as a Systems Engineer. I follow the Linux community very closely and consider it all to be a passion of mine and my true calling in a way. I am currently studying for my Linux Foundation System Administration and Engineering certificates, which I intend on taking towards the end of this year. I also have many Linux-based projects that I intend on completing including: setting up Linux From Scratch to running Rasberry Pi web servers.
– Craig Nuzzo
I’ve used Windows from the very first edition (Windows 286, if memory serves), and have been a Windows trainer, teaching others to use the OS, and Office applications. Now, I find myself using Windows less & less, and Linux more and more. Windows has just become too much of a hassle, and Linux is so much more FUN!
Latest example: today, I finally got around to buying my own cable modem, to avoid paying $10/month rental in perpetuity. No change to my router. My Linux boxes picked up the wireless immediately; even my iPhone still connects. But my Windows laptop still won’t connect to the router anymore. I’ll try again tomorrow. But, with the SAME router, why is there an issue. I never have these issues with Linux. Eventually, I’ll phase out Windows entirely. LINUX ROCKS!!!
– Andrew A. Robinson
My first experience of Linux was when my Ma gave me a Raspberry Pi for my birthday in 2012. Although it wasn’t powerful hardware, I was struck by how well Raspbian worked on a credit card computer compared to the big Mac on the desk downstairs.
It was a reasonably fast computer for £30 and I decided then that software must be more important than hardware for good computing. I have always bought the latest Pi and have seen the OS improve/evolve much faster than Windows or MacOS could.
My favourite part of Linux quickly became the terminal. I was 12 and I hadn’t ever experienced anything like it before (MacOS does have BASH but I never found anything apart from SSH that it was useful for). Finally, with the ease of a few keystrokes I could achieve anything I could think of. There was no longer need for any odd tutorials that had to tell me where to click and what website to install from, as well as relying on me using the same interface; it was now reduced to a few commands and configs. It also follows the Unix philosophy to do one thing well and be customisable much better.
I eventually had to buy a cheap laptop as my CAD/CAM course required the use of Windows-only programs. And it was horrible, slow, and I always felt like I hadn’t truly been ‘given the keys’ to my new computer. Plus, I got a tad paranoid at the power the large companies had over my computing lifestyle.
My course ended in 2016 and I was really interested by the sheer choice provided by Linux. It wasn’t an operating system or kernel so much as a framework. I livebooted countless distros and eventually settled on Debian LXDE because I already knew my way around it and have found it to be fast and stable.
But every single distro I tried was faster and easier to use than MacOS or Windows.
I found myself using the mouse less and less. I moved to the i3 WM and worked mostly in terminals. Eventually, the first thing I would do upon booting was to move to a tty terminal. I ended up disabling the automatic graphical boot and then uninstalled anything graphical entirely. The command line has enabled me to be more efficient and productive and has taught me an indescribable amount. A smartphone was all I needed graphics-wise and so I reaped the speed and configurability benefits of the CLI.
And at no point was I scared of the CLI. Linux had opened a way to use my computer exactly how I wanted to. It gave me enough power to brick everything but also the help and documentation to get it working again.
If I really couldn’t work it out then I had the superb hive-mind collaboration that is the Linux community. Most problems had already been answered years beforehand and new questions were answered eagerly and (usually) without judgement. Whatever happened, I never failed to find some answer. Yes, not everything worked and yes, I did sometimes get frustrated. But I never got an answer that just said “it’s not possible” (a common occurrence on Mac/Windows forums for me).
Recently, I moved away from Debian and onto Void Linux. I have found it to be an even better experience and even faster. I have bought a ThinkPad x200s and it works like a charm despite being considered an old computer. Once again, I could choose an OS that matched my use case better.
I feel that Linux as an OS model is much more successful than MacOS or Windows. It can adapt to change much more quickly and has a much faster development model. Trends can be introduced more quickly and bugs patched more easily. It is also easier to ‘give back’ as you can submit bug reports or your own patches, set up a website, or else just tell someone else about it.
Therefore, when you use Linux; you unavoidably become part of the community. Try and say that about MacOS or Windows.
Linux is also just… Nicer, I suppose. It isn’t for profit and is secure. The open-source nature means it benefits everybody. People can study the code and change it to their needs, users get a faster update cycle, developers get direct feedback and help from the users.
In short, it is powerful, free, open, user-friendly, dependable, fast, community-driven, and educational.
On a completely separate note, you look like a proper techie wizard when you use it. The text-based games are also lots of fun.
– Finn Driver
I’m an old guy from Tasmania (late 60’s) and I love Linux to bits.
I haven’t had any educational training with computers and to be honest was very wary of them and only had baad things to say about them. My big thing in life was music and over the years I had amassed a fairly large collection. I have a medical situation which prevents me from being employable and was sent to life’s scrap heap with a disability pension.
A friend decided to give me an old computer and hardware he no longer used which I found brilliant for cataloging my music collection and working out household budgets etc. as well as being a great memory aid (all on Windows 98). The next hand me down had Windows XP and after many one step forward and two back moments I managed to teach myself a bit about computers.
Because the equipment I was using was ancient (in computer terms) I had many problems with breakdowns etc. but with assistance from people who knew what they were doing I managed to learn a little about the internal workings re hard drives, PCI cards, ports and cabling etc. My XP computer died and I was given an ex government Dell with a bung hard drive.
In the meantime I had acquired a Linux installation disc and after swapping hard drives I started my Linux journey. I have done a great deal of distro surfing but have found Linux Mint with the XFCE desktop is perfect for my needs. I have a Dell Optiplex 790 desktop as well as a 2008 Toshiba laptop and both are running perfectly on Mint 18.1.
My blessings and thanks go out to everyone involved in the production of all these brilliant free ware distros and to anyone out there thinking about changing to Linux, go for it.
– Chris Saunders
It goes a little like this some time in 1969 I came in to existence. Was always working in the communications industry mostly telecoms hardware. In the end I was using a Amiga based computer way in to the PC age when Pentium 100’s where all the rage. fast froward to about 1997ish I was supporting the desk top publishing industry self taught on Windows PC’s then Somebody gave me a Slacware 4.2.2 Disk. since then it has been a off and on again use till one day I was using a Linux variant more than I was using windows.
So what am I using Linux for? Well, Lets start with Music production, Video editing, Photo editing, Most types of document processing, Web page creation and maintenance, most things people do day to day on the web. True there have been little problems, most where in the past versions and not really an issue these days there are only two things that do not work out of the box on my system one is a printer, but the corrupted Linux support from the manufacture 32bit driver had enough information to allow me to make a driver from the ppd (I had to do this all the time in the windows world so not a surprise) and a gaming keyboard that used the scroll lock to light up the keyboard, My current window manager does not know about scroll lock a little look on google and a small script was fashioned and that works too.
The last mother board upgrade broke my windows install that was last used to update some bios firmware many years ago the new board can update bios from usb even then it had been nearly six months after the mother board upgrade before I even bothered to check if windows would boot I erased its partition about 4 months ago. To me my computer is a tool if it works then I use it if it doesn’t then I find a better tool I still have a duel boot laptop where the work is done on the Linux side and a few windows diagnostics are used yes I had a update that ruined a diagnostic run that took a 48 hour testing run to complete. I don’t use wine any more as there is a as good or better equivalent Linux/Unix software available.
– Robert
I began as a DOS user from way back and Windows was only a novelty for me for years. I even had a copy of Windows 1 that I played with but stuck to my other shells, like X-Tree. I became a full time Windows user when Windows 95 came out, and was continually annoyed each passing year by the progression of Windows and its Problems. In 1998 a friend gave me a copy of Redhat Linux to play with and I got frustrated by it and gave up.
One day several years later I was browsing for some new toys in a local computer shop and came across a display of Ubuntu Live CD’s. I was interested, but didn’t want to pay a lot, and I asked how much. When the cashier told me it was free, I grabbed and left. I ended up playing with Ubuntu on an old system for a long time. Updating from time to time. When Windows 8 came out I finally just formatted my primary computer and installed Ubuntu 12.04 and never looked back.
I still play with other distros on Virtualbox, but Ubuntu is my Primary OS now and will remain so.
– Dave
I got my first desktop computer in mid Oct.2015, with the idea that I would become computer literate and be able to get into a job in an office trailer and not be intimidated by the computer on the desk when I transitioned into a (Electrical)Forman positon. I had received an Apple iPad as a safety award from work the previous December and had discovered the internet and Youtube tutorials, so I figured I could learn computers on my own. After spending a few weeks getting fairly conversant in Windows 10, I discovered tutorials about this other computer operating system called Linux and was intrigued. Throughout my life I’ve found, (I’m in my mid 50’s), that when I’m self learning a topic that by approaching things from several different angles that, although initially it can be kind of confusing, I end up in the long run, learning the topic more thoroughly and with better overall comprehension. I found a place to source a used laptop, so I could learn how to install Linux, then learn how to use it. In mid Nov.2015 I bought a $50 HP Compaq 6510b and after some trial and error got Ubuntu 15.04 installed and running. I soon found the laptops overheating issue and decided to get a new one to further my Linux experience. In Late Dec.2015 I successfully installed Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on a new HP Notebook and was up and running. I found that I enjoyed navigating in the terminal, installing software and even following a certain tutorial, installing the Cinnamon Desktop (that tutorial and others were yours). In late Jan. 2016 I found an older HP Compaq dc7700 office desktop in a thrift store for $25 and even though it had no hard drive, I bought it and took it home. The first thing I did with it, was boot it off of a USB stick with Ubuntu and found it worked well, so I found a place that sold gently used hard drives and DDR-2 Ram to install into this computer. I Have since then used this computer and a half dozen drives to install many different Linux Distro’s. My current stable includes, Linux Mint 18.1 Cinnamon, Ubuntu Studio 16.04, Manjaro I3/xfce 17.0, Fedora 25 Gnome, Qubes OS 3.2 and the brand new Debian 9 xfce. I also have Linux Mint 18.1 Cinnamon on my new laptop and Peppermint 6 on the old laptop. Another $30 thriftstore find has Xubuntu 16.04 installed and I also use Qubes OS 3.2, Tails 3.0 and other Linux Disto’s on USB keys for further linux fun. I do still run my original Windows 10 installation and have a hard drive with Windows 7 installed for the learning experience and have found using Linux and Windows gives me a better spectrum of computing experience. I now consider myself firmly past the Noob stage and definitely ahead of the average User, to the point that computers are no longer a source of anxiety, but a source of enjoyment, learning and the good mental health that goes with staying mentally challenged later in life. Thank you for the tutorials that I continue to learn from, what with the varied topics and excellent pacing/teaching style that you provide.
– Brad O
Used Windows XP from 2006 up until Windows 8 came around then used that from about late 2012. I would have generally called myself very satisfied with the experience. THEN CAME WINDOWS 10. I was offered to try out the initial roll out of the update to Windows 10. Being that it was the next update I just did it. Then all hell broke loose.
WIFI would not work. Sound stopped working after ever other update. Had to reload the machine at least 5 five times.
Got first introduced to Linux through English-Bob’s youtube channel when he first started talking about puppylinux for older hardware.
Around Easter 2016, I had enough. Nothing would work. I gathered my courage and did a quick search for the easiest to use windows 10 replacement.
Long story short I’m using Linux Mint full time!
– Ron Motilall
I am a writer so I need a reliable machine and functional software. I was amazed when I learned that I not only got the Linux operating system for free but that I got all of my software for free, too! I use LibreOffice daily. It’s very easy to learn for people switching from Microsoft Office and it can read and make MS Office and native open source files so you can send documents and spread sheets to friends and co-workers, (with a few exceptions like Excel macros.) Lots of people say Linux can’t run this (proprietary piece of software they need for work) or can’t do that (run AAA title games or iTunes) so it’s crap. Well, it might not work for everyone in every situation, but that’s true of Windows and macOS, too. Know that no one operating system is perfect, just keep an open mind and take the time to learn what Linux is good at; like open-source software and non-DRM games, music, movies and books. Stick with it, learn one new thing about Linux a day and you could accidentally become a tech expert, too!
– Ewan Keepers
When I switched fields from journalism into computers in the 80s, I discovered UNIX (the ancestor of Linux). It was logical and brilliantly designed, much easier to understand than other OSs. I wrote dozens of technical manuals using a UNIX workstation, and longed to have UNIX on my personal PC.
When Linux came out, I rushed to buy a set of install disks … but it was a complicated, time-consuming process. Since I had other obligations, I dropped the project.
Jump to 2015 when I bought an old Dell desktop with Linux MInt installed. What a revelation! It was solid and easy-to-use. It took me several months to move my workflow to Linux, but it was worth it to get away from the frustrations of Windows.
Since then I’ve been refurbishing old laptops to give away, and Linux distros are ideal for the process: Ubuntu Mate, Mint, Lubuntu, MX-16, Puppy, Point …
Linux is a good companiion in the different phases of life, whether you’re learning about computers, in the midst of a career, or giving back to the community in retirement.
– Bart Anderson
I’m 64 and have been using computers since the early 90’s. My first computer was the second best I could buy at the time, a 386/25. I got it to learn “AutoCad” for work.
I tried hard to stay away from a windows GUI as I just new I would hate it. I used DOS (a licensed copy of QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System)). I preferred Dr. DOS but he died. When Windows 3.1 came along I knew I had to do what everyone else was doing and so I was stuck. That was the way things were for me until Windows dropped support for XP a couple of years ago. Then I had a decision to make. Upgrade everything for Windows, move over to an even more expensive Mac thing, or move to Linux, which is what I did.
I found System 76 and got a basic machine with Ubuntu 14.04 on it and have not looked back since. Yes, there is a learning curve and yes I have had some minor disasters along the way. For example, I lost my Unity desktop when I upgraded to 16.04 though I did it as safely I as knew how, waiting for 16.04.1 to come out and going through the software updater rather than downloading and “.ISO” file. Fortunately I had been trying other desktop environments so I just switched to the Cinnamon desktop which is still serving me just fine. My understanding is that a re-install would probably take care of that but that would mean loosing all my programs and I just don’t want to deal with that now. I’ll wait until the next release comes out with the GNOME desktop and deal with it then.
Understand I am not a programmer or anything like it. I’m just a user who hates Microsoft and am so glad to be free of them. I’m a basic user, email, web surfing, photos and videos, social networking and the like. System 76 does not sell printers and they recommended HP so I got one of those. I had to jump through a few little hoops to get the driver thing worked out but it’s all good now and I’m free! Now my (and I do mean MY) computer does what I want it to do instead of dealing with the really quirky way Microsoft wants me to do them and limits my ability to do other things.
I always liked DOS and Dr. DOS as I mentioned as I could write batch files and actually get a lot of things done with them. Now I’m back on the command line writing very simple scripts and using “alias” a lot to get a lot of good work done with very little effort. For example, daily, I use the software updater program but have found it doesn’t do everything, so I wrote a very basic (if not a bad looking) script:
That’s a complete change from what Microsoft forced me to deal with. That is freedom as far as I am concerned and, with a little effort on my part that’s the way it is in the Linux world. Need or want to do something in linux? Put in a little effort to learn how, put it together and there you have it. Love it man! Just really love it.
Yes, this issue or that thing, sometimes, maybe. But the linux community is helpful and I usually find the answers to the questions I have and actually haven’t needed to use them much at all this past year. A simple web search has been getting me what I need. That’s really wonderful and again is a complete change from going through the Microsoft knowledge data base which always let me down. Those things just weren’t Written with the average user in mind.
Oh! And I haven’t even mentioned security. No malware, no spies, no viruses, no theft, no searching for programs (and buying them) to find all that nasty stuff. So many headaches I no longer have. What a relief!
I am so happy I made the switch to Linux. Open source baby. It’s the way to go!
– Kevin Reynolds
My Linux story goes back to about 2006 when I purchased a new Laptop with Win Vista on it. The OS’s reliability issues started my search for an alternative which came in the form of Ubuntu as a dual boot option. I didn’t abandon Windows yet and Win 7 didn’t give me enough trouble to trash it, but that all changed with Win 8.1. By this time I had gotten into video and needed a system that worked and had a little more to offer than Microsoft’s wonderful little Movie maker so I bought one; it didn’t work as promised and it’s support consisted of forum members ganging up on me saying theirs worked fine. They later confirmed my issues were indeed not a figment of my imagination. (too late LWKS) After that Microsoft was really hounding me to upgrade to Win 10 and experimenting with about 10 distros I found Mint 17.3; an OS I thought was good enough to install on other People’s Machines because it worked out of the Box and wasn’t hard to get used to. From that moment I dropped Windows like a hot Potato, including all my paid for Software licenses for Movie Editors, recording Software and Guitar Amplifier Models. I now run Mint 18.1 and Kdenlive for which there is a wonderful support group in G+ that won’t treat you like garbage. I also donated $10 for each copy of Mint I run on my 3 machines in 2016 and have installed Mint on several older machines for folks that can’t afford a new one.
– Onno Vocks
My story starts out back in in 1996 we had a neighbor who was the SR. System Admin for a local university he was getting a new computer and asked if my parents wanted his old one. He loaded slackware 3.1 on it which as I had been using DOS mostly at that point was not much of a change in a way. I was given an AMD 5k86 P90 system for my birthday by that point I had figured out how to break and repair the system enough that I was able to build and install 3.2. I worked to save up for an upgrade to a K6-2 in ’99 when I started high school by then I had moved to Debian. I have grown up with GNU/Linux most of my adult life. I have watched the move from toy to work horse in that time.
I currently call Gentoo my home distribution but I run everything at this time. I found EzeeLinux helpful when providing guidance to those who are drifting the tide. I am not old or at least I don’t feel that way. But 21 years passes very quickly.
– David J.
I have been using Personal Computers for almost 30 years. Starting with MS-Dos and later Windows 3.0 all the way to Windows 8.1. You could call me a loyal Microsoft user. I had a vast knowledge and was(am) the person that friends and family some with their questions.
Personally what pushed me over was the aggressive marketing of Windows 10.
I never forget September 30, 2015. I was infected with the Windows 10 malware. Windows 10 was forcefully downloaded on my machine and it was a peer uploading to god knows who. It had uploaded 30GB to other machines before I noticed( I had a monthly limit of 100GB)
Can you imagine any other company using your resources to service others without your knowledge?
The same day I installed Ubuntu 15.10, and no dual boot. If you want to learn something new, you have to go all in. (If you’re going to be the bitch, be the whole bitch! no half bitch allowed here -Louis Rossmann)
Unity was not for me, 2 days later Ubuntu Mate and after a month I installed Linux Mint 17.2 Cinnamon. I am not a distro hopper but play with other flavors of Linux in Virtual Machine.
– Frank
After running Linux on my school laptop on and off for a few years I decided to completely switch over after learning about the Windows 10 privacy concerns and the shadow updates in Windows 7. I also love PC games, and I felt that Linux had more than enough titles available back when I switched. I’m never going back to Windows.
– Lasse Loe
I used to be an advanced user of windows. After i got a new laptop, i actually had no problems using windows 8. So i did the upgrade to windows 10 thinking that it will work as well as windows 8. But instead of working correctly, windows 10 slowed down extremely and was nearly unusable after just three months of usage. At that time i had to write an important paper for school, so i was very frustrated.
Then i discovered a youtube video comparing ubuntu with windows and i got interested. I bought a new hard drive to install linux on and was very satisfied: for the first time i had a system that worked fast and how i liked it. I could develop an efficient workflow, because now i could change how my system works and responds to my inputs.
Using linux made my computer faster and more flexible, which made me and my work also faster, more flexible, more efficient and more professional.
The difference was so extreme, that in school i had already started writing while most other students laptops hadn’t even booted.
In a way, linux is just like a set of legos: You have a large number of pieces to build a system exactly fitting your needs. You dont have o adapt to the way a company thinks people should use their computers, you can use your computer the way you want to!
– Leon P.
My story with Linux began in 2010 when I finally got frustrated with Windows enough to finally find a better alternative. A quick search revealed that “Ubuntu Linux” was my best starting point. I was immediately blown away by how it just worked! Then there was the software. Once-in-a-blue-moon tasks such as converting video formats, editing an audio file, creating a power point presentation, or even finding a program to view my wife’s digital MRI scans was easier than I had ever imagined was possible. Even when I decided to go back to school for an IT degree, I was amazed by how I was able to effortless find compatible FOSS to replace proprietary, closed-source software necessary to complete my school projects for almost ALL of my classes. I consider my an average user with extremely minimal needs and, in the end, Linux just works. Plain and simple.
– Eric Milward
I moved over to Linux after I had no choice but to purchase a laptop pre-installed with Win 8.1. I was looking to buy one with Win 7 pre-installed, but by 2015, there was no chance of finding a new one. Anyway, the last good OS MS made was Win 7 and I think many more people like myself will move over to Linux once support for Win 7 ends in 2020. I initially installed Ubuntu 14.04 in a dual boot setup with Win 8.1, as the program that I use to update my car navigation only had a windows version. Once I got this program working properly under Playonlinux – I deleted the windows partition instantly. Have been running my laptop exclusively with Ubuntu for the last 2 years. Upgraded to 16.04.1 last year and it just runs smoothly without any issues.
Apart from the extensive information available online, Joe’s videos have been very helpful to get a better understanding of how Linux works and to tweak it to my needs. Thanks again Joe! All the programs available through the repositories more than meet my needs (Libreoffice, GIMP, etc) plus they’re free! I’m an author and frugal by nature, so the Linux philosophy suits me to a tee
My wife was having problems with her old laptop. One day when she had finally had enough, she told me to wipe Windows from it and install Linux. I gladly did this the next day and installed Linux Mint. She couldn’t be happier. Her exact words were “I can’t believe how much easier Linux is to use compared to Windows”. Now she’s using Kdenlive to edit some old segments she recorded while working as a journalist to upload to Youtube. She can’t believe how similar Kdenlive is to Premiere and the fact it’s free.
– Nemo Bogetic
Well, I’m pretty new to Linux having been using it for about two years now. So, I’m still in the learning mode.
Like a lot of Linux users, I came to Linux from many years of using MS Windows. To be more specific, every version of Windows since Win 2.0 as I’m an old MS-DOS and PC-DOS user dating back to about 1985 when I bought my first PC, a Tandy 1000A, 4.77 MHz, 8086 machine with 640K of RAM and two 5.5-inch floppy drives. The machine came with two floppy disks, one was Tandy’s Deskmate office program and the other was a copy of MS-DOS 1.10.
To boot the machine, you slipped the DOS disk into the A: drive and turned on the power. That brought you up to the Command prompt level where you could then enter either DOS commands or a command to start a program that resided on your B: drive or, by removing the DOS disk and inserting another floppy into it, your A: drive.
The Command level of a DOS machine is kind of analogous to using the Terminal in Linux.
Since no net existed then, you could go online by calling up another computer that was hosting a Bulletin Board System (BBS) and search through it’s file section to fine other programs, either freeware or shareware, to run on your machine. This was done with a 300 baud modem and, if the BBS wasn’t a local call, Ma Bell charged you by the minute to connect.
What was nice then — as hard disks were quite expensive, Tandy’s 20 mb one costs about $700 — is that programmers had to write small programs.
Windows and larger drives changed all of that. As the versions of Windows changed, the Windows operating system took more and more memory to run and resided in more space on your HD and at the same time, Microsoft changed Windows from being a program that was run on a DOS machine to the operating system itself.
So you no longer had to load DOS first and then run Windows.
MS also changed it so you couldn’t even get to DOS if you wanted to.
That means you lost control of your machine, it started containing thousands of files of which you didn’t even know existed or even why they were there. Unlike in a DOS machine where you knew every file on your machine and why it was there.
So now when you open a Command Window on a Window’s machine you get just that, a Command Window and not a DOS window where you have direct access to the operating system’s Command Prompt — i.e. the C: on most machines now.
It seems like every time Microsoft came out with a new Version of Windows, you lost more and more control over your machine while MS gained more and more control of it and you got hit with more and more ads.
For me, this peaked with the automatic upgrade of Windows 10 where MS took control of millions of machines worldwide and forced their Win 10 OS onto them. This was done mostly to enhance MS’s bottom line by gathering information off your machine without your permission and knowledge for resell.
There were ways to stop the automatic upgrade to Win 10, but it took some net research and editing of you machine’s KB files (The updates from Microsoft Update).
I did let one of my machines update to Win 10 and was amazed at all of the ads you’re hit with and the data MS wants from you. There are ways within Win 10 to turn a lot of the MS snooping off, but you never know if the next automatic upgrade will restore those features.
So that’s why I switched to Linux. I wanted to control the machine I paid for. It is my property; not Microsoft’s. With Linux, I control the machine. It updates when I tell it to and it updates what I tell it to update. And it doesn’t spy on me.
And Linux will run all the programs I need to do; what I need to do daily and those programs are basically, like the OS itself, free to use and come from depositories that I know are safe and virus free.
What’s nice is I don’t have to shell out a $100 or more a year for Virus and Anti-maleware programs, defrag my disks weekly or more, or have my machine suddenly tell me it needs to reboot when I am working on something important.
Linux will upgrade it’s own kernel and never ask you to reboot.
And, by the way, you can run Linux without ever using the terminal if that’s your choice just as you can Windows without loading a Command window. It takes less space on your HD and uses less of your machine’s resources.
In the past two years I’ve use Linux Mint 17.3, 18.0, 18.1 and I’m now on 18.2 beta (not because I had to change operating systems, but because I like to explore them) and I’m happy again. Life is good.
– Keni Haswell
I have been using Windowses from version 2.0 up to 7 at work and home. When the version 10 came out, I heard so much of it spying on us, and the way of it being pushed to us aggressively really kicked up my paranoia. I had tested Linux Mint 18 already, and when my Win7 crashed for the last time, I already had this other hard drive ready with Linux. So it was really easy to switch. The only reason for me to miss Windows are a couple games (Fallout series), but that’s not a really a big deal. They were buggy in Windows too. At present I have installed Linux Mint to my computers (desktop and netbook), my son’s computer as well as my mother’s computers. They all work nicely.
– E. Johansson
I started with DOS and CLI in the 80s-90s. I tried linux back then and also later in 2006. Sadly I was too deep into the windows GUI way of doing things that I just didn’t give linux a good enough try. I am a semi retired windows system admin. I say this only half joking.. windows gives me PTSD. I switched to Linux to fall in love with computers again. I really dislike the directions windows took with 8.. then they backpedaled with 8.1 and then the forced people who paid for their OS to switch to 10. In many cases my clients were bloody highjacked. It had already been upsetting supporting windows (mostly servers but you have to support the end users who pay the paychecks) for 15 years. With windows 10 I had enough. I left windows a little over a year ago and I never looked back.. not even once. Linux has delivered. I love computers again. Best thing is when people ask me to fix their computers? .. I say is it running linux? No? Sorry I can’t help. Happy to help here though with my limited knowledge. I have already written some hopefully helpful tutorials. I will continue to write as I learn. I started using manjaro probably 4 months or so after switching to linux. It took me time to test over a dozen distros in VMs. I mostly watched youtube how tos and some great channels with reviews on linux distros. Manjaro with KDE was the right fit for me personally. know have two manjaro machines. One is my main workstation, the other a laptop.
I have learned from many of your youtube videos. This is a small way of saying thanks.
– George
I dual booted on and off for years before finally getting fed up with Windows’ privacy violations, forced updates, and general issues, before deleting it permanently. Although I’ve been distrohopping quite a bit (since I have the time to), I haven’t needed Windows for anything since. I decided that the few games that are Windows-exclusive are not worth it to me to give up my freedom, privacy, security, and stability. I am very proficient in GNU/Linux over my use over several years before the permanent switch and I prefer it over anything else. Even simple things like mounting a samba server is simple and straightforward in a GNU/Linux environment provided you have some experience and knowledge of bash. All of the drivers I need, including GPU (amdgpu), are built into the kernel for me so there is no messing around with proprietary or “unique” drivers. Switching distros is as simple as wiping only the root partition, keeping the /home partition intact, meaning I don’t lose any data or config files. I’ve messed with Debian, Ubuntu-based distros, openSUSE, Fedora, even Gentoo. I find myself coming back to Arch most of the time for its fast and easy to use pacman and pacaur package management applications. Debian/*buntu comes in a close second. Zypper in openSUSE, in my experience, is powerful, but extremely slow. DNF in Fedora is pretty quick as it parallel downloads packages, but the repos are quite lacking. These are about the only flaws I’ve discovered in these two distros, and if it weren’t for my desire to tinker, I’d probably stick with openSUSE. I’ve fallen in love with KDE Plasma 5, in particular, due to its customizable nature, refined compositing, and the KDE application set. I want to like GNOME, but it takes too many extensions to make it usable for me, and even then, it’s very limited in what it can do compared to Plasma. I don’t care too much for Cinnamon, but I might give it a try again soon. XFCE is probably my second favorite, with its notable customization options. Anyway, as of 08 May 2017, I’ve divorced Windows and given my love to GNU/Linux, no matter the flavor or dress that sits atop it.
– Nate
I used to goof off with a live CD of Ubuntu 9.10 whenever I got bored with Windows 7 (which actually happened quite often) on my 2010 eMachine laptop. I decided to jump in and install 14.04 in Dec 2014 because the Windows Updates were annoying and I was up for the challenge of using Linux daily. After a few months, I learned many things with help from Google and YouTube. My favorite programs (Inkscape, GIMP, KolourPaint, VLC, Audacity, as well as a few emulators) work on Linux, so that helped a lot as well. Actually, I think I found out about Inkscape and GIMP while I was using 9.10! The Terminal is awesome, too. I would much rather install programs and update the system that way as opposed to downloading an EXE file. It only took about a week for me to learn basic commands and it was well worth it. I’m still using that same laptop to this day (albeit with Debian 8.8 this time, I may upgrade soon). One thing’s for sure, it’s hard to get bored with so many different desktop choices! I used to enjoy Gnome 3/shell, but I moved to MATE because it’s lighter and more familiar to
me.
– AjthePPGfan
I actually got into computers in general very young. I was around 7 or 8 and it was a co-worker of my dad who had an Apple II. I heard about UNIX when I was in high school. I then tried to actually install a clone of UNIX called Coherent which I purchased in the early 90s. It was supposed to work on a 286 but I didn’t have access to one with enough memory and couldn’t actually install it..
Fast forward to 1995-1996, Slackware, I downloaded the floppies, installed it on one of three partitions on my Gateway 2000 P5. The other two were Windows 95 and NT4. It was still so alien to me that I didn’t even know how to get it onto the internet until I actually got a job with my ISP.
Working for an Internet Service Provider first in tech support and then starting my current career as a system administrator opened the learning floodgates. I have used various Windows OSes over the years but basically just to play games or for specific software that wouldn’t run on Linux.
I don’t run Slackware anymore, I use Ubuntu Gnome with a custom filesystem layout using encrypted ZFS for its advanced features like deduplication, snapshotting, and over-commiting for virtual machine efficiency.
I eventually would like to get Xen hypervisor running instead of Virtualbox, it’s kinda rough to get going but very rewarding.
I believe in the openness that Linux and other open source software provides. People buy computers (phones and tablets included) without realizing how dangerous they can be for identity, and even physical security due to doxxing.
Education is key, the more people understand computers at a fundamental level, the more intrinsic that knowledge is, the less likely ignorance can be used for harm.
Feel free to edit this as long as it’s in context.
Keep up the good work Joe.
– David Fulton
My Linux story is actually short. My first “touch” with Ubuntu was when I was about 12 – I got an Polish computer magazine’s DVD containing some Live CD distros (Ubuntu 14.04, OpenSuse, Xubuntu 14.04, Debian, Fedora and Arch). I’ve booted this DVD inside of an virtual machine and I thought, that I’d be great to have Ubuntu (as I liked look of Unity), but I was somehow scared to not break my existing Windows installation. Some time later I got an used PC (with only 1 GB of RAM). It had Windows 7 and it was really slow, the entire RAM was taken at boot time, etc. Then I thought, that installation of Ubuntu may be a great thing for that.
It may sound weird, but I was really surprised, that after plugging into this PC USB WiFi card it worked out-of-the-box, as I thought it wouldn’t work, as the drivers I had were for Windows. It was actually the serious beginning of my Linux experience.
Some months later I unplugged hard drive from this 1 GB RAM computer and plugged it into my main PC and installed – again – Ubuntu on it. I broke it really fast (actually – not me, but Ubuntu’s upgrade that failed and this Ubuntu installation was unbootable….). I formatted it as NTFS and left unused… Some time later I discovered some Linux channels (including Your channel). Then I got “motivated” and installed Linux Mint 18.1 MATE. And I’m still there, it was 2 years, now I’m 14 years old Linux user…
Best regards,
-Anonymous in Poland.
Years ago I had as may people to deal with Windows …. after getting really tired of it I got my first MAC ….. which is OK to work with, but too expensive over all and outside of the USA the service sucks big time.
After having to get a way my MAC for repair I thought I’m going to give Linux a try, and I bought a new DELL Latitude 3470 with pre-installed Ubuntu to try it out ….. and now I’m working so much with it, that my MAC is just used for playing music. So I would never go back to one of the former systems. The only thing I was never able to get going properly was the Bluetooth and the wireless printing. But maybe I’m doing something wrong. The bottom-line is that I would never use again one of the “traditional systems” …. I’ll stick to Linux form now on.
– Bernhard Maechtel
I have been tinkering with Linux for a while as a student but it took me a while to adapt it full time. But now I’m working as a developer in a small startup and 90% of my day I’m on Linux. I only use Windows from time to time for newer games I want to play at home.
I really love the control Linux gives me over my system and what I can do with it. I don’t understand most of it’s inner workings but I know, if I want to find out more, I can. My operating system is no convoluted black box to me any more like Windows was. And that’s also thanks to the great community around it like EzeeLinux.
– Anian Ziegler
I had my first experience with Linux at our school’s computer lab when I was 12 or so. I wanted to boot up a computer, but instead of the Windows 7 loading screen Grub2 popped up. It gave me the choice between Windows 7, Windows 2000 and Ubuntu 10.04. I felt adventurous and booted Ubuntu. I was used to the long boot times of Windows at our computer labs, so I was very surprised to see the Gnome2 Desktop after about 30 seconds. I started using the computer and was amazed by the performance of Ubuntu on the ancient hardware.
Back then I was using a very underpowered Asus Netbook (EEE PC 1201ha) with Windows 7. I watched some tutorials on YouTube and installed Ubuntu 12.04 on it, and again, I was amazed by the performance of it. A couple of years later when I built my first PC, it was no question what OS I would install. I started learning more about Linux, tried out different distros and even installed Arch Linux manually.
Two years ago I started taking IT classes at my school. My teacher was the teacher who installed Ubuntu on his lab’s computers. He found out about my passion for Linux and asked me to help him to set up Linux Mint 17 at the lab. I showed him how to configure Grub, set up the fstab to automount our server and how to tweak the Mate desktop. Now most of the computers at our school run Linux Mint with my tweaks.
I really enjoy using Linux because it simply doesn’t go on my nerves and I don’t have to be afraid of viruses and spyware, unlike on a certain other operating system. Currently I have two laptops running Mint and a Desktop PC running Fedora.
– Peter H
I was somewhat of a Luddite before adopting Linux as my main operating system. I purchased a Gateway netbook back in 2008 that ran Vista. It was slow but usable. After four years of using that netbook as my only computing device I started looking into other OS options because of the general slow-down that is a part of the Windows experience. I found Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. I had no idea what a BIOS was or what I should do with one so I decided to use a Windows installer and choose a dual boot configuration. I used 12.04 on that computer in a dual boot config up until a couple of months ago and it worked perfectly for my light consumer-grade needs. I now use Lubuntu 16.04 on that same machine and nothing has changed for the worse.
I teach English as a foreign language and lived in the South Pacific for a year. While I was there I became interested in starting a computer lab at my college because my students had never used computers before. This was a difficult situation for all of us because I had to teach them the basics of office software before they could write term papers. They needed a secure (not to mention free) OS so I began looking into Linux distros to use. I am on my way to starting a non-profit that will provide used laptops to the students in Chuuk State, FSM loaded with Linux.
I didn’t know much about computers and I even went so far in my school days as to write all of my graduate level papers by hand and then type them out because I didn’t like to use word processors. But, with a little web-based education I was able to begin purchasing used computers to load with Linux. I have installed Linux on five laptops as of this writing. It was a much easier thing to do than I first considered and I am now on my way to learning sysadmin work via YouTube. I can say that Linux is much easier and straightforward than it appears at first glance. Just use the internet (forums and YouTube) and you can find the answer to most of your problems.
– Jered
Came to Linux in early 2017 when my wife’s unused 2007 iMac could no longer receive Apple OS updates, install applications, etc. It was Linux or the trash for a still beautiful computer. With the help of EzeeLinux and others on Youtube, I went for it, installed Linux and never looked back. We have a new computer the runs fast and runs all the latest applications. Linux rekindled my love of computers, and I’m now working to go 100% Linux. Thanks!
– David Saenz
I started using Linux at 15 or 16 years old, I’m 31 now. I started using Fedora, when it was called Fedora Core 4 or something like that, I hated the change from Windows 98, then to windows Me, and then Xp, and the hardware I could afore at the moment wasn’t capable to run the programs I needed and search on the web, download music, games, content, etc. Since I started using Linux, I began to involve more and more people around me to use Linux and forget about Windows, I installed Linux for almost every girlfriend that I had until now, and started to install and teach how to use Linux to my friends and other people from other countries. That helped to recover the old hardware and give it a new life. I helped some kids on a Community from Nicaragua to learn the basics on writing a document on Linux, and I think that its awesome.
The community, opensource, opensoftware, open hardware and free software are the best way to recover freedom and to recover the sense of being humans, which is being on group an acting as a collective.
Greetings and Salutations from Chiapas, Mexico.
P.S. Forgive me if I made so many mistakes while writing on English, but I’m not a native Speaker…
– Jorge
My brother introduced me to the computer (Windows 95). Not long after I found an isp and spent a lot of time online using good old dial up. I have used just about every different Windows version since Windows 95 and i was happy doing so.
Then Windows 8 came out.
I tried it and i had some concerns relating to security so i stuck with Windows 7.
Then came along Windows 10 and with it a lot of hype as to Microsoft spying on users
and a lot of security issues as well. I wondered what could I use instead on Windows 10.
Then i came across Linux Mint and i was impressed. I have now been using Linux for only 2 years and have had some frustrations, however computers can cause those sort of problems. To sum things all up, i would never go back to Windows and if i had known about linux years ago then I would have dumped Windows back then. My wife also uses Linux now.
I will never go back to Windows,
– Dave Miller
I got interested in Linux back in 1999 with Mandrake Linux (I think it was 7.0). I bought a boxed copy from a computer store, and took it home, and installed it on one of my desktop computers. I was lost. I mean lost. It was so different from Windows, and the Linux community back then was very elitist and there was too much RTFM’ing, too much “you are just a (l)user because you cannot hack scripts, write code, cannot use the command line and install on bare metal. I was turned off. I was derided for using a “baby” distro like Mandrake, instead of Slackware, Debian, Red Hat or building from scratch.
I was actually banned from a Linux board for asking questions, and pointing out how they were turning off people like me who wanted to use Linux, but needed help. I remember I had a second hand 33.6K modem in my computer that a buddy had given me when he had upgraded to a bleeding edge 56k V.90 modem. I was using a Cyrix 6×86 chip a 166 mhz. After I had such a bad experience, I left Linux for almost a decade with the attitude of “F” those elitist people.
I was utter revolted by the super elite attitudes I encountered. Then I tried SuSE linux around 2009-2010 and was under impressed, so I left Linux again, but I had noticed that the communities were no longer so “L33T”, and much more willing to help newbies. So I had a better opinion of Linux. Then in 2012 or so, I found this thing called Ubuntu, and it was decent, I think it was version 11.04. Then I started seeing this thing called “Mint Linux. In the meantime I had updated to window 7, and loved it. But there was a void, I needed to have filled. I played with installing some of the BSDs, no love there. Then I installed Mint around 2014 and it was version 17.1. I used an old Compaq laptop, and it worked. It just worked! I felt like I was accomplished, I felt some of the thrill from booting up my very first computer using DOS 1.1.
Then I found Mint Linux and their forum, and to my utter amazement, not only were the people nice, helpful, and patient with me, there was no elitist stink, no RTFM, no “how dare you not use command line, how dare you not be able to write scripts to make things work!”. I felt like I could use Linux without having to RTFM and be a guru.
I also started viewing videos, and found this guy named Joe Collins, and he made sense! He did not make me feel like a (L)user, and did not come across as a “L33t H@x0r” so I subscribed, and now he is my go-to for linux. The community has gotten better, but they still have too many elite people who run off guys like me.
– Robert
My first contact with Linux was at the university, an old and slow machine running Open SuSe. That was roughly ten years ago. Elsewhere I was always running Windows and never really thought about because every computer came with it.
Now in 2018 my laptop from 2011 (a working horse from hp) started to have its issues, some freezing, some crashes of the graphic card. So I wanted something new but please without Windows (10). I had to work with it at the university and really got sick of it. Also I was still angry about the attempts for a forced upgrade from Windows 7 to 10 on my laptop. Well I always stopped it in time but anyway, that’s not the way I want the system (or a company) to behave.
So I started to watch some videos on Linux and quickly came across those by Joe. The video on the EULA of Windows ten opened my eyes, I never read through it but that assured me I didn’t want to use Windows any more.
So I watched more videos on different distros of Linux and the choice of hardware. Well, I love the idea that you can get everything from an easy to use, polished operating system to something you have to build on your own. Well, I ended up with Ubuntu Mate 18.04 and guess what. I love it from the first install – which took the time to make a coffee – to using it every day, which is ever since two months now.
The idea of using junk hardware is great but still I wanted something new. And I wanted to build it on my own. Still I stuck to Joe’s advice to do some research on the components, so I stuck to Intel, Gigabyte and Crucial. Now I’ve got a beast booting in less than 20 seconds and yep, I must have done everything right as it booted right away after putting everything together. Its just awesome and Linux doesn’t steal much of the resources, so I can use them for what I actually want to do. Still I will use junk hardware. Next up I will wipe out my old laptop, use it as my playground and give Linux Mint a try.
But that is not even the end of the story, the Linux experience made me want to use more open software. That’s what I’ll do now in the university when completing my PhD. I started to learn Python with the help of a friend, now the snake does all of the boring stuff for me, like converting and correcting data. Click and done. Or it creates awesome contour maps, plots, whatever. I never thought I could do that – well I should stop hesitating and just do stuff. Writing publications is more convenient with Latex and Inkscape is great for some artwork. Learning all of that stuff is fun.
Well that’s about it. It’s good to watch some YouTube every once in a while and now I’ll go and tell some friends, maybe they want to save the Microsoft fee as well =D
– Sebastian