[LONGISH] My Linux Journey

Up until 2002 I was a dedicated Windows user. It hadn't always been so. My
first computer was a Sinclair ZX81, then a Spectrum and finally I migrated
to a Sinclair QL. The amount of money these cost to buy and upgrade was
frightening even at the time. I had heard a lot about PC's and in 1992 I
bought one. A 386 with 4MB Ram and a 26MB Hard drive, it came with Windows
3.0 and I experimented with it until it broke. It broke frequently so I
learned to reinstall it frequently. Then came a succession of increasingly
powerful machines, 166Mhz, 750Mhz, 1.25Ghz until now I have a 2.5Ghz
machine with 1GByte of Ram, 2 x 500Ghz SATA drives, multiformat dual-layer
DVD drive, and all the toys that go with it (Printers, scanner, card reader
etc), and a development machine with almost exact specs.

The operating systems on these systems were always Windows, after all what
else was there? I had migrated to Windows 2000 Pro and that worked well
enough. Then in 2002 the British magazine PCPlus gave away the SOT Linux
distro on their cover disk. I was curious so I installed it on a partition
on my hard drive. This was a major disappointment. I couldn't get it to do
anything and I was stuck on the command line with no idea what to do. So I
got rid of it. Six months later PCPLus gave away Mandrake 8.0. I tried
again. What a revelation. It installed no problem and suddenly I had KDE
working with applications I had never heard of. My scanner didn't work
however and my printer, at that time an Epson Stylus ColorIIs would only
print basic files but it worked!

My modem was a problem. I bought an external serial modem and then I had a
connection to the internet as well. No broadband in Cornwall at that time
so I was stuck on dial-up. No matter I had a connection.

Since then I have gradually upgraded my Mandrake version until now I run
Mandriva 2007.1 Spring. Every piece of hardware I use works and works well
with no problems. With a broadband connection through a router and a switch
I connect 4 PC's, a print server(with 2 printers connected) and a 250GByte
NAS server. Samba supplies my networking needs, OpenOffice for necessary
business stuff and Kontact for email, newsreader and RSS news feeds from
the BBC and Slashdot, and there is so much more available.

I still use Windows, all be it a LOT less than I used to. I use Lazarus, an
Object Pascal RAD and develop apps for both platforms. Java is no problem
on Linux, Netbeans and Eclipse work well and even faster for me in Mandriva
than Windows XP.

My wife is resistant to changing over to Linux though. She knows what she is
used to and that is what she wants. I keep mentioning Ubuntu 'Feisty Fawn'
and show her it running on my development system but so far no go. Time is
on my side however, time is on my side.

On Wed, 25 Jul 2007 12:04:42 +0100, SomeBloke <stuff.TakeThisOut@stuff.com> wrote:

>Up until 2002 I was a dedicated Windows user. It hadn't always been so. My
>first computer was a Sinclair ZX81, then a Spectrum and finally I migrated
>to a Sinclair QL. The amount of money these cost to buy and upgrade was
>frightening even at the time. I had heard a lot about PC's and in 1992 I
>bought one. A 386 with 4MB Ram and a 26MB Hard drive, it came with Windows
>3.0 and I experimented with it until it broke. It broke frequently so I
>learned to reinstall it frequently. Then came a succession of increasingly
>powerful machines, 166Mhz, 750Mhz, 1.25Ghz until now I have a 2.5Ghz
>machine with 1GByte of Ram, 2 x 500Ghz SATA drives, multiformat dual-layer
>DVD drive, and all the toys that go with it (Printers, scanner, card reader
>etc), and a development machine with almost exact specs.
>
>The operating systems on these systems were always Windows, after all what
>else was there? I had migrated to Windows 2000 Pro and that worked well
>enough. Then in 2002 the British magazine PCPlus gave away the SOT Linux
>distro on their cover disk. I was curious so I installed it on a partition
>on my hard drive. This was a major disappointment. I couldn't get it to do
>anything and I was stuck on the command line with no idea what to do. So I
>got rid of it. Six months later PCPLus gave away Mandrake 8.0. I tried
>again. What a revelation. It installed no problem and suddenly I had KDE
>working with applications I had never heard of. My scanner didn't work
>however and my printer, at that time an Epson Stylus ColorIIs would only
>print basic files but it worked!
>
>My modem was a problem. I bought an external serial modem and then I had a
>connection to the internet as well. No broadband in Cornwall at that time
>so I was stuck on dial-up. No matter I had a connection.
>
>Since then I have gradually upgraded my Mandrake version until now I run
>Mandriva 2007.1 Spring. Every piece of hardware I use works and works well
>with no problems. With a broadband connection through a router and a switch
>I connect 4 PC's, a print server(with 2 printers connected) and a 250GByte
>NAS server. Samba supplies my networking needs, OpenOffice for necessary
>business stuff and Kontact for email, newsreader and RSS news feeds from
>the BBC and Slashdot, and there is so much more available.
>
>I still use Windows, all be it a LOT less than I used to. I use Lazarus, an
>Object Pascal RAD and develop apps for both platforms. Java is no problem
>on Linux, Netbeans and Eclipse work well and even faster for me in Mandriva
>than Windows XP.
>
>My wife is resistant to changing over to Linux though. She knows what she is
>used to and that is what she wants. I keep mentioning Ubuntu 'Feisty Fawn'
>and show her it running on my development system but so far no go. Time is
>on my side however, time is on my side.
>
Sounds like Linux is working out well for you.

I had the same problem with my wife. Then one day, by the hand of God I think,
my primary XP machine went belly up with a failed motherboard.

The power supply on my XP backup machine had failed a few days earlier
and was awaiting a new power unit from newegg.

So with both XP machines out of service, she had no choice but to sit down and
use the Ubuntu machine. I setup her email account on Evolution and loaded her
digital photos and documents from backup. Now she owns the machine. She's even
learning how to use Gimp. I had to build another machine for testing Linux
because I'm no longer allowed to tamper with her "baby". End of story.

Hope I'm not giving you any diabolic ideas.....good luck to you.