My first experience with Linux dated back in 2004.

I was using Windows XP and and was anything but a satisfied user. Mainly because my machine was an ancient Pentium III with 64 MB RAM. It was tedious even to run basic programs. It took at least fifteen minutes to boot up Windows (along with the Anti-Virus and ZoneAlarm).

Things were usual that day until I powered on my PC and was greeted by a blue screen of death. ‘That’s nothing’, I mused and booted in safe mode and it hanged after the login window. Utterly perplexed I tried booting in safe mode with command prompt, still no avail. Sweating and perspiring, I finally decided to reinstall Windows.

Fresh Windows! Fresh life! I booted Windows and logged in ten minutes faster. I wondered whether I should really bother with the anti-virus and firewall and ended up deciding that I will install neither and live a faster life.

Thing went good till I was browsing the net and was greeted by message Windows is shutting down, Save all your files …

This happened several times whenever I accessed the net and realising that it was a virus, I quickly installed Norton 2003. But Norton did not detect the virus and I realised that the version was too old and did not have latest definitions. Luckily through Google I found out the solution in a magazine and removed the virus using Stinger.

I vowed that I will always used an antivirus and a firewall to avoid such fate. But thing went to square one as the computer became a snail again.

Finally I upgraded my PC’s RAM to 256 MB and had a much better PC experience.

But things did not end there, Windows had the tendency to slow down with time and eventually become a snail in spite of my RAM upgrade. Reinstalling Windows was a routine and a severe backache owing to poor installer by Microsoft.

I have to mention that whenever such problems occured I always swore at my PC and its ’slowness’. It never occurred to me the possibility of the fault of the operating system.

Beetween all I heard of another operating system called Linux. It was curious to experience an OS other than Windows and brought a book about Red Hat Linux 8.0 with CD included and was surprised by the fact that installer was much easier than that of Windows. Only thing that spiked me was partitioning so I reinstalled Windows (it was slowing down as well), left considerable free space and installed RHL 8.0

I was even more impressed by the looks of RHL (a.k.a. BlueCurve) and tried running applications and even more impressed that it had an Office suite called OpenOffice which of met all my needs. Moreover installing software, configuration and its administration was a nightmare.
However the good things ended there, I was unable to connect to internet courtesy: dial up connection via a Winmodem and gave up removed RHL and left it as a reasonably unused second operating system.

It was 2005:

However the words ‘Open Source’ and freedom of use and the idea that it was good for geeky souls I was always awed by this OS. Moreover using RHL had affirmed me to the fact that Linux gave an immense power for configuration. All I hoped that it became a little easier to use. However I was unable to procure newer versions since I was on a dial up and unable to download 600MB ISOs and there was no Linux dealer or any new linux book near my locality.

It was 2006:

Then, I came across a magazine and heard that a distro called Ubuntu could be shipped for free.

This idea struck and I ordered Ubuntu Dapper at ShipIt and received it within 3 weeks.
In the meantime I got a broadband connection (which being limited 400 MB which meant I still couldn’t afford to download Linux distros.)

I tried the Live CD (it was awfully slow) and immediately liked it. Because I now had a broadband through ethernet I could access the internet.

I installed Ubuntu Dapper and was throughly fascinated by its community. OpenOffice and GIMP was there and its administration was far better easier than RHL. I liked it so much that it became by primary OS of use relegating Windows to playing FIFA 01 and viewing flash content CD-ROM.

In the end it was not my Windows dislike that made me Ubuntu user. It was Ubuntu’s speciality and my own admiration for Linux that I liked Ubuntu.

Linux is not for those who consider it as a replacement of an operating system, it is for those who want Linux themshelves.