💾 Archived View for whitemercury.ddns.net › linux.gmi captured on 2022-03-01 at 15:03:04. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2021-12-03)
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I'm guessing most people on Gemini use Linux or at least have given it a go.
I first found out about Linux in 1998ish. I had been buying computer parts from a catalogue. Where you had to phone or post a paper form and give card details. How lo-tech! I built my computer, it wasn’t amazing, but I was proud I’d made it. I had DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11 from an old 2nd hand computer my stepdad had rescued from his work, they were selling off their old computers and I got one. I quickly realised I needed a newer OS for my computer and used a “backup” version from my parents computer of Windows 95 (“Start it Up... 🎵”) which did fine for a while. I did eventually get Windows 98, which was quite an improvement.
In my computer catalogue they had Linux. I didn’t have internet at home, so there was nowhere to download it. They had two versions, SuSE and Red Hat. I had no idea what differences there were, so I went for the one with the highest version number (not kernel or any software - just that it was a higher version of that distro). So I didn’t get Red Hat, I got SuSE. I probably still have the original discs, it was 3 or 4 installation discs and a live one. SuSE used Red Hat’s RPM packages, so there probably was very little difference in reality.
I installed it as a dual-boot and used it a little on and off. I was fascinated by how it worked and was different to Windows. But, I was working a lot after college and didn’t really get into it as much as I could have. Also, I think it would have been more fun with internet access. There’s only so much fun you can have with Netscape 4 in a disconnected computer.
Moving on a few years, after meeting my now wife. We still had those 2 same computers. I somehow got relegated to the old, slow, 486 and she had my one. It was really quite dated by then itself. I got interested in programming again and wanted to learn Perl to have a CGI part to a website I was making, so people could register and log in etc. The 486 just about managed this and I learned to use Perl for my website, I mostly tested it in Lynx for functionality and occasionally Netscape to check it looked OK. I used vi (it was probably vim) to edit the files and did it all on the console, except occasional Netscape testing. It was very slow for that!
When I did get a better computer I mostly used Linux at this point. A few times I’d have a dual boot with windows and a few times I’d use one or the other in a virtual machine. At one point I solely used FreeBSD, but had it running in a virtual machine in Windows XP - I can’t imagine why I’d have done this; possibly just that I had FreeBSD set up how I liked after testing it and I didn’t want to reinstall anything. And at some point I saw no point in Windows, I suppose it was when I gave up playing windows games, and had just Linux.
I’ve used and tried quite a few distros over the years.
SuSE, just because it was the one I bought Slackware I used for ages, really liked it Linux From Scratch I enjoyed but never used properly, just as a “hobby” Arch Linux I have used for the last few years and can’t imagine stopping Debian was also a favourite for quite a while Ubuntu, were posting out free DVDs for a while and I gave it a go. It’s also the one I put on my wife’s laptop at one point. It’s on my “server” laptop, my old one that barely works, it’s a server for a few things and has a big USB drive attached for backups and storing big stuff Pop_OS as I was lead the believe it was amazing. It was OK, but not any different to Ubuntu. Vector Linux, never really got into it FreeBSD I used for quite a while, liked it NetBSD, was OK, I used for a bit OpenBSD was OK, used for a bit BeOS I gave it a go and occasionally give Haiku OS a go
I know the last few aren’t Linux, so shut up.
Oh, and I suppose my RPi’s both have Raspbian (Raspberry Pi OS), too and I tried RiscOS
So, basically I’ve enjoyed Linux for over 2 decades and have no intention of turning to the dark side. I used Windows 3.1, 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP and have not used windows since. And I’ve never used a Mac.
The reasons I’ve preferred Linux are many: It’s faster. I’ve always found the same computer to be faster with Linux. Without compromising on “features” it flys! (Partly down to:) There’s choice. I can use a feature full desktop like Gnome or KDE or I can use something small and fast like SwayWM or anything between. I’ve chopped and changed regularly over the years, even more often than my distro hopping. More secure. I understand windows has improved over time, but Linux started and remained much more secure. Installing things is easier. RPM, Pacman, apt, yum, etc each distro has it’s package manager and it downloads, installs and configures software. But if you want it done differently, you can manually do it, or even compile the source. Problems seem easier to fix. It’s unlikely you are the first to have a problem, search for it and you’ll find a solution. And because things aren’t hidden behind Windows’ control panel, you can edit text files, make a copy, try several possible options and always put it back to how it was before you fiddled with it. And finally, it doesn't add to Microsoft's already enormous oligopoly market share
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