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OSCP - Critique
I'd read a slew of reviews about the course before signing up but what I read and tried to prepare myself for just did not match the reality. Sure, there's a ton out there warning that this course requires a ton of extra work, self study, and is intense, etc. But really, does "Getting shot really hurts" or "Rectal examinations are really uncomfortable" adequately describe the real thing?
I spent a couple of months working through the labs. I work full time so almost every minute I wasn't at work was spent on my computer, in the labs. Weekday evenings? OSCP. Weekends? OSCP. Kid's activities? Sometimes. House maintenance? Television? HA! OSCP was present in damn near every waking moment of my life. As I waited for my exam day, I looked forward to getting my life back.
The OSCP doesn't so much teach you as it tests you. Based on my experience, I would say that OSCP was 50% instruction, 45% learn on your own, 5% getting hints from other students. Something that occurs to me is that most books I've used to learn the subject matter are high on content but low on the ability to apply/practice that knowledge. That is, most of them gave me a wealth of info/techniques but no practical/legal way to practice. OSCP is the opposite. You have a great playground but need to find/develop the info/techniques yourself.
I learned a ton. Enough to make my eyeballs explode out of my head; I can thank Offsec for that. I can also say that there's room for improvement. (I am kind of surprised there was no student feedback form after my lab/exam, I thought that was pretty standard for most courses/certs.) Anyway, there are so many positive reviews out there, 99% probably, so my review points out things that I didn't like or think need improvement. For that reason, it may come across as overly negative and/or critical but I want to state unequivacably that this is not a bad cert. IMHO, it's just not for everyone.
This cert was particularly challenging for me because I'm not a pentester and this is only my second security cert (the other being CEH). I do have a lot of coding experience and have worked with/around computers since graduating college but I had to work my ass off for the OSCP. Anyway, for someone looking at the OSCP for the first time, there are tons of positive reviews out there, don't base your opinion on my experience, check the others out.
I pulled this from the OffSec website:
Penetration Testing with BackTrack is an entry-level course but still requires students to have certain knowledge prior to attending the class. A solid understanding of TCP/IP, networking, and reasonable Linux skills are required.
I think when most people hear "entry level" they think of their grade school algebra course, or beginning physics, or something similar. For me, the OSCP was about as entry level as Calculus & Quantum Mechanics are entry level mathematics & physics. Really, the first clue should be: 24 hour exam. I initially thought this course was for the neophyte pentester, someone who wanted to break into the field. However, as I progressed through the material and labs, I started to wonder. On one hand, much of the material and some of the lab machines require experience/knowledge far beyond what it provided by the training. Conversely, in other cases the instructions seem very much geared toward a novice pentester and were presented in a very simplistic, detailed, and easy to follow manner. Again, and I'll probably repeat this many times, a pentester might have looked at stuff I struggled with and said, "Everyone knows THAT!!!!"
For an entry level course, the OSCP is decidedly uneven, instructionally speaking. Initially it starts out very basic going so far as to tell you how to start an FTP server. Progress through the buffer overflow section is equally precise and easy to follow. One big help is your own box to experiment on, one not accessible by anyone but the student. That way if something doesn't work, you can rule out another student or leftover exploits. However in the latter modules, the instructional quality falls off dramatically as does the ability to practice techniques using the XP client you're provided. For example, the port forwarding section isn't covered well at all and you're given no ability to practice outside of the student lab machines.
Next, while the course covers most of the stages of penetration testing individually, it's up to the student to put them together. This means the student has to feel his way though the labs on his own. The danger in this is that the student may be learning things in a less than correct manner. Maybe it's just me, but "I learned most of what I know on my own through blogs and wikipedia," is NOT what I want to hear from my doctor or financial planner.
The labs are the shining part of this cert. A veritable playground where you can hone your skills without fear of the FBI or other law enforcement agency banging down your door. It's easy to freeze a service or machine as you sling exploits at it and being able to revert a particular server to its original state was critical. I wish that we were given more than 6 reverts in a 24 hour period. One thing I discovered while rooting boxes is that other students failed to clean up after themselves. So I'd get on a box and discover left over exploits or services open that weren't intentionally left open. So I got into the habit of reverting a box before I started to really work on it. Problem was, if I used a revert or two on it as I worked it (easy to do on some of the more fragile services), I'd be out of reverts in no time.
Another problem I had with the labs was that there was no clear route to what is attainable at a given stage. Realistically, most working folk will probably only be able to complete 1-2 modules per week. So your average student will be able to start getting shells and rooting machines by the 3rd week or so. So I'm banging my head against one machine - you know "Try Harder" - for hours, days even, only to find out (thanks to a helpful student on IRC) that I'm not going to be able to get that machine until I get through module X. Great.
Also some of the servers seemed spookily unaligned with a 101 class. Say you're in Algebra 101 and at the end of Chapter 5 they tell you to do the exercises but, by the way, to make things challenging, we threw in some Geometry, Trig, & Calculus questions. Good luck! The big problem is that you don't know if the machine you're banging your head on is an Algebra question or a Calculus one. Try Harder will likely not cut it either. I can throw a 5th grader a Quantum physics question and tell him Try Harder all day but it ain't going to cut it.
The training also lacks a full on end to end example. You're given the basics of each fundamental step of the process (scanning, enumeration, etc) but never given a run through of the getting into a box, why this exploit was chosen over that one, why this payload did work while that one didn't, etc, etc. Unfortunately, what ended up happening with me, at least initially, is point-shoot-miss, point-shoot-miss, point-shoot-hit. Battleship anyone?
The Muts videos were excellent. The problem I had was that they often were used to supplement the PDF rather than complement it. Early on, I found holes in the manual that cost me hours, only to find out that the video got it right. I find it easier to reference a manual than a slew of videos so I wish the manual were a bit more thorough and the videos were used to add that extra bit rather than fill in the gaps.
I was disappointed by the number of errors in the lab manual. For example the manual is all about using Ollydbg but in the exercise lab provided, it's Immunity Debug. Are they similar/same? Yes. But for the amount of money it costs, is it too much to ask for updated screen shots in a PDF? I could see if they referenced a tool from BT 4 that changed in BT 5 or if we were shipped a printed manual...but a PDF? Case in point, a line of python code from the book:
And the (supposed) corresponding output:
Doesn't take a programming genius to see there's something not right here. These admittedly minor quibbles are quality control issues that I wouldn't even bring up if it were a $30-$50 textbook, but for a $800 class? One thing that could alieviate these issues is if Offsec were to implement system where students/instructors could post errata to the manual/videos. Might save some questions in the IRC as well.
As I've repeated over and over, I'm not a pentest professional and a lot of networking concepts were foreign to me. What I did have going for me was a strong programming background. I think that's the key to getting through this course and the exam: being strong in a key discipline. It doesn't necessarily have to be programming or networking or pentesting. But if you just learned that python wasn't just a big snake, Bourne Shell isn't the name of the next Ludlum movie, and SQL isn't someone's misspelling of a movie follow-on...Pain X 1000.
I cringe when I read posts/hear from people who think that OSCP is Intro to Hacking where they will come out like Neo or the guy in Swordfish. Again, this is largely a self-taught class that requires you to learn so much on your own, primarily using the web as a resource.
Another thing that helped me was having taken the CEH. While I'm the first to point out the negatives of CEH, it did at least introduce me to some of the basic points of the field. I'd recommend anyone taking this course to at least get a Intro to Ethical HAcking book first.
No, not the $$. I'm talking about the personal toll this class took on me and my family. (Again, a pentester probably wouldn't have to devote as much time, so my experience might have been on the extreme side.)
I'm normally pretty active, but at the end of this cert I'd gained 6-7 lbs. Not surprising since weeknights and weekends were spent in front of the computer and when it came to eating I'd typically shove whatever was handy down my piehole. Who has time to cook? Did I mention I was spending 20+ hours a week on this cert? Also, midway through, I started to break out and developed a cold due largely to the aforementioned eating habits & inactivity coupled with loss of sleep, and stress. Obviously my work suffered - when you're staying up until 1 or 2 AM working a server or waking up at 3 - 4 AM thinking about a server...concentrating on your day job is difficult.
Because I found it impossible to concentrate with the usual household noises, I had to closet myself in my office at home. So for more than 2 months, I barely saw much less spoke to my family. When my folks would call, I was usually distracted, tired, and/or busy. Family get-togethers, weekend BBqs? Ha, don't make me laugh. And when they did see me, I was often grumpy from lack of sleep or frustration. Of course this all did not make the spousal unit happy. You can only say, "It'll be over soon" so many times.
I have to give my spouse & kids credit - they were very understanding and supportive. But there were of course several times when being ignored for several months caused some spousal tension. More than once, pleas for attention from the wife turned decidedly frosty when met with, "Hold on, I've almost got this server." And there's no guilt trip like having your kids tell you, "Daddy, we miss you" and your wife say, "I want my husband back"...I owe them - my wife in particular - big time.
The challenge in any course is finding the right balance between hand holding and letting the student work things out for themselves.
spoon feed <--------------------------------------> here's the book, exam in 8 weeks, later!
I think most people will agree that the OSCP falls closer to the right than the left.
IMHO, too much to the left doesn't benefit the student because you're not engaging any brain cells. Too much to the right...there's more of a chance that a key concept or skill is overlooked. Let me clarify that.
For me, figuring stuff out on my own improves my retention; it does not equate to learning "better", i.e. a thorough understanding. I think getting trained by an expert typically beats the learn on your own method. Whatever I did in the labs, I know there are probably easier or more efficient methods, things I didn't think of. There are a couple of services that I was never able to crack...does this mean they just weren't vulnerable or did I miss something? No idea.
I once missed a week in my college statistics class and ended up having to teach myself a chapter over a weekend. What I discovered the next week was that assumpions I had made (or divined), even though I got the right answer, ranged between inefficient and incorrect...thankfully, there was an instructor there to correct my shortcomings. This is why I feel the OSCP wasn't an ideal fit for me.
Learning any skill can be made difficult; I could make learning the alphabet difficult. And none of what I learned in the OSCP (either from the materials or on my own) qualifies as rocket science. But the amount of training is nowhere near what I needed in the labs - I estimate I got less than 50% of what I needed for the lab machines. I personally think a little more instructional information ("Try harder" does not qualify) would improve the quality of the student. Not only that, it might result in an increase in enrollment.
It would be interesting to find out what percentage of OSCPers take the OSCE/EE. My guess is it's around 15% but wouldn't be surprised if it was actually < 10%. Based on my canvasing of OSCPs at work, 1 in 8 (and he was a maybe) would consider the OSCE due to the impact it takes on the individual, his family, time, personal life, work...all of the above. Most give me an unequivicable "NO" (usually preceded with "H3ll" and "F@cking") re. OSCE or higher. The irony here is that the very thing that makes the OSCP so sought after also seems stunt enrollment in the other courses.
I am still interested in ethical hacking but count myself in the "Hell No" category when it comes to continuing the Offsec curriculum. Personally, I prefer something closer to "taught" than "tested". I want something where core concepts/methodology are stressed and there's more of a balance between spoonfed & "you're on your own". Until then, I can teach myself using the web/blogs/books/sites (like EH.net)...just like I did with the OSCP (only minus the labs.) So unless there's a pervasive reason to obtain the cert - Maserati/G6/magic genie - I can't justify putting myself much less my family through another round.


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Defecating over the side, the gunwale (pronounced "gunnel"), of a boat so as to avoid unnecessarily stinking up the head (the boat's bathroom). The gunnel hunch is considered simple good manners as odors linger on a boat and nobody likes cleaning the head.
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by LuvMyRedDog December 15, 2008


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AMPHENOL INDUSTRIAL MS3106F18-10S Circular Connector, MIL-DTL-5015 Series, Straight Plug, 4 Contacts, Solder Socket, Threaded, 18-10
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Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Why have you switched to GNU/Linux?
Everyone has a different story why they switched to Linux. I would like to hear your story and why you made the switch. Was it financial, political, technical or other? Are you using Linux on a Server, Desktop, Laptop, Netbook, Tablet or another device? Please leave your comments below and tell us why have you switched to GNU/Linux?
61 comments:
- AnonymousAugust 23, 2011 at 3:55 PM
My story began in 2005. I was a typical Windows user; constantly vigilant with updates and virus checkers and backups to avoid becoming infected with malware and viruses and/or losing data; it was a losing battle. One day our antivirus detected a problem with our laptop. After "cleaning it" the computer would no longer boot. After hours of troubleshooting I made the drastic decision to reinstall the OS - Windows-XP. Unfortunately I did not have the activation code handy (case was missing) and could not use the OS without it. I searched for an alternative and found ubuntu. I have to admit in 2005 GNU/Linux was challenging to install and use (X-server configuration, Wifi, mounting hd etc.) but in 2011 it's an absolute breeze and makes installing Windows from scratch seem like step back in time (searching for drivers + constant reboots + waiting.....without a dialogue box). Now I run all my computers using GNU/Linux (ubuntu and derivatives (Mint, xubuntu) or debian). Also administer webservers with debian/ubuntu; I wouldn't consider anything else.ReplyDelete
Its not that I dislike Windows. I actually think Windows 7 is pretty good and use it occasionally.ReplyDelete
Its just that I do nothing in Windows that I can't just as easily do in Linux. So I though why pay the registration fee for Windows then?
Running Ubuntu 11.04 happily right now
- AnonymousAugust 23, 2011 at 4:14 PM
I was on Windows 2000 four years ago. I had tweaked and customized it the best I could inside the limits imposed by the system, and like everybody else my machine was loaded with anti-this and anti-that softwares. Although it worked fine, I used to say to my friends that I didn't like it one bit that I couldn't do whatever I wanted with my machine, that the company behind it was basically deciding for me. Then I discovered Linux. MacOS was not an option, being proprietary like Windows and definitely beyond my means.ReplyDelete
I installed Ubuntu on my machine and the freedom the system gave me was, dare I say, magical and exhilarating. Here was a system that let me tweak and customize it to my heart's content, that provided softwares from a trusted repository, that updated said softwares and their dependancies intelligently, and last but not least, that provided stability and security.
I've switched from Ubuntu to Mint over a year ago. I don't really like where Canonical is going and Gnome 3 on other distributions didn't impress me, so I'll stick with Mint for now.
Linux rocks!
- AnonymousAugust 23, 2011 at 8:45 PM
I BOUGHT A NICE HP LAPTOP WITH VISTA INSTALLED, AND UPGRADED TO WINDOWS 7. FOUND SOME TECH MAGAZINES ON THE INTERNET, AND DECIDED I NEEDED TO LEARN MORE ABOUT COMPUTERS. THE MORE I LEARNED, THE MORE IT COST ME FOR SECURITY ETC, AND THE MORE FRUSTRATED I BECAME WITH WINDOWS. CAME ACROSS AN ARTICLE ABOUT UBUNTU, DID THE RESEARCH AND DUAL BOOTED. AFTER ABOUT 3 WEEKS, I REALIZED I WAS ONLY USING WINDOWS FOR ZUNE. HAVEN'T LOOKED BACK SINCE. FASTER, MORE SECURE,ReplyDelete
- Jake MooreAugust 23, 2011 at 8:52 PM
Being a trained sound engineer i was used to very expensive hardware/software and vendor lock-in traps. since completing my study in 2009 i have used GNU/Linux exclusively. Thanks to fabulous apps such as Jackd and Ardour, i will never again be limited by or dictated to by software or hardware vendors.ReplyDelete
That said, it was a political choice for me. I choose to be a free person.
I've heard about Linux for several years (probably first heard of it around 1995 or 1996, when I was still in college), but didn't have the ability to give it a try. In the meantime, I was a solid Windows user.ReplyDelete
But, while I liked Windows, I didn't care for the other software put out by Microsoft (Microsoft Office, Microsoft Internet Explorer, etc.). So I used a lot of "alternative" software (WordPerfect, Netscape, etc.), and I wasn't afraid to experiment with software... particularly software that I didn't have to pay for.
Then three things happened pretty closely together. First, I got a new harddrive for my computer, and after moving all my stuff from the old drive to the new drive, I had a drive that fit in my computer but I didn't have any pressing use for it. Second, a friend brought me his computer to look at. He thought he had a virus on it. His 60-day anti-virus trial that came out with his computer expired nearly two years previously. He didn't have a virus... he had 94. Cleaning that up corrupted Windows, and I had to pretty much reinstall the OS and programs for him. And I couldn't help but think that there had to be a better way.
And the third thing was the realization that many of the programs I was using on Windows were available for Linux. I was already running Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice.org, GIMP, VLC Player, Gaim (now Pidgin), Nvu, Filezilla, and others.
So I figured it was time to jump in to this Linux thing I've heard so much about. I did some research on the various distros and ultimately decided to try Debian 3.1 Sarge (then still "testing", but a few months before going "stable").
So February, 2005, I downloaded 6 install CDs and gave it a try. And I must say, it was a disaster. The computer was unbearably slow, none of my USB devices were recognized, occasionally the mouse would just stop responding, and it would lock up whenever I tried to shut it down. I knew it wasn't the computer, because I was dual-booting Windows on the same system. I spent two weeks searching Google, reading forums, and reinstalling trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, because I knew this couldn't be the system I kept hearing about.
Finally, someone on one of the forums suggested I try an older version of the kernel. So I pulled up Synaptic and started looking for the older kernels. And that is when I discovered that, while it wasn't a download option or an option during install, there was a specific kernel for 32-bit AMD processors, which is what I had. So I installed that kernel, forced a restart of the computer, and crossed my fingers.
The computer absolutely flew. Just like that, I fell in love with Linux. I quickly found myself using Linux more than I was using Windows. Still, that install process left a bad taste in my mouth, so I ended up switching to Ubuntu that November, and have been with them ever since.
I'm currently running Ubuntu on my desktop (single boot... I took Windows off it a few years ago). My wife's laptop is dual-boot Windows XP and Ubuntu (she hasn't fully embraced Linux yet, but she's working on it), and I have dual-booted my office laptop with Ubuntu (they won't let me get rid of Windows on it, but I use Ubuntu as much as possible).
I don't know at what point it became more important to me that software be free and open source software and not just freeware, but over the last six years, I've come to realize the importance of having that source code available... even though I can't write code myself. I trust the system.
Linux does everything I want it to do. I'm constantly amazed at the quality, and other than those first two weeks, it has never let me down.
I experienced a lot of frustration because of malware, but I paid my licenses of Windows since Win98. However when Vista got out, I thought that it had been enough.ReplyDelete
Two years ago, I bought this Asus netbook preinstalled with Linux. The machine rocked, but I removed Linux and tried to install XP to it...Terrible mistake. Then I thought, "If I have to use Linux, I'll find one that I like", so, without knowing anything about Linux, I downloaded several distros at random and tested them on my netbook. I settled with Mandriva and never went back to Windows.
Back in 1999 Microsoft called every initiative they had dotNet. DotNet was the future of HotMail and MSN. DotNet was the future of Microsoft Passport so you could trust Microsoft with your login credentials. DotNet was the stuff that would be in the next WindowsOS. Anything and everything Micorsoft did or would do, might be dotNet.ReplyDelete
One of the many "possible" dotNets out there was to try and move Windows users to renting software. Microsoft has been waiting since 1999 for people to have enough bandwidth to run Office over the internet.
If it had come to pass the way Microsoft saw the future. Every time you ran office, it would download from the cloud to run on your computer. All of your documents would be stored in the cloud as well. Instead of Microsoft making $150 on Office 1997 and you running it till 2005 ($18.75 per year), you would rent Office and access to your documents for $10 per month ($120 per year).
I did not like the looks of that future. I did not have money for a Mac. At that point I became very interested in giving Linux a try.
Due in large part to the way Microsoft handled security for the last 10 years AND Linux being out there in the wings the DotNET Office being rented out to you has not come to pass.
By the time the threat was gone. I had fallen in love with Linux. It does everything I want to do and many thing windows can't.
Example: My wife runs Linux. If she has a problem with her computer, I ssh in, start a background X session, tunnel it with x11vnc and troubleshoot and fix her problem. She is able to keep using her computer while I work in the background.
You just can't do that on Windows.
The reason I ended up with Linux? Most likely because I had used so many different OS's since my first computer, the Radio Shack Color Computer in 1984. I used DOS, Windows 1.03 (and other MS versions up to Vista), DRDOS, GEOS. I was 'programmed' to try new, different things.ReplyDelete
It was after a painful recovery in late 1999 from virus infestations in XP that I realized that I had already made a turn to the Free and Open Source world. I was running Firefox, Gimp, Audacity, Star Office. I began investigating Linux. But I had a phone modem connection in those days, and my modem was dependent on Windows and the Linux distros I tried just couldn't work with it. But by Sept of 2000, I had purchased a Sharp Zaurus PDA which ran Linux. Wow, what freedom! I was able to load other ROM bases rather than that supplied by Sharp. I could change so much - looks, speed, application.
By late 2005, I realized the limits which MS put upon my computers, especially my new laptop. Because this laptop only had an 80 Gb harddrive, the hidden recovery partition (as the manufacturer did not and would not supply a windows install CD) and its recovery images soon took up 20 Gbs of space. Since windows and the apps also required about 20 Gb, I was limited to only 40 Gbs of storage.
Hmmm, with a Linux install, all I need is 4-10 Gb for root and the rest is mine! As a trial, I was brave enough to dual-boot with Ubuntu on my laptop. By February 2006 I had only booted Windows a few times, so I entered Linux and using Gparted, made my machine totally Linux.
I have used Debian based distros, Ubuntu and Kubuntu for about 3 months, elive for a year, PCLinuxOS for about 2 yrs and now Mint for over 2 1/2 yrs. In fact, my last laptop purchase came with Linux installed! Out of 10 computers in my immediate family, 5 run Linux exclusively (4 Mint and 1 Bodhi Linux). 2 others are dual-boot, although one is in Mint most of the time. the other 3 are XP, Vista and Win7. The age range? 10 - mid-60's.
- AnonymousAugust 24, 2011 at 12:45 AM
I switched for the customizability I guess - I'd tried it on and off since about 1997, but it took the ability to stick everything on a giant cube and rotate it with four wallpapers and a backdrop several years ago to make me stick. Then, I got more interested in trying out different distros and other things like BSD which I would experiment with on a laptop - I soon started using gentoo, compiling my own kernel etc. I went through many iterations until I ended up with something that was to me at the time, perfect. While doing so though, I kept finding helpful documentation to solve my problems from a project called Arch linux, so I decided to give it a go and dual booted it with gentoo. Suddenly, I found I had the power and speed that I previously had, but with a fraction of the effort. Arch stuck and there hasn't been anything better since.ReplyDelete
At some point during this I learnt to program as well, started working in terminals full time and eventually switched to a tiling window manager to help with this. I now find my ability to solve problems (work or otherwise) and make tools by just typing absolutely indispensable, and it is this that will probably mean that I never go back. Also, the speed and the lack of antiviruses etc (also to do with speed) and the single software repositories so there's no need to go freeware hunting amongst thousands of different alternatives all over the internet from various sources. The freedom aspect became important too, of course, once I actually educated myself about it and moved on to working professionally. My job lets me dictate what I use, and it's all FOSS.
I installed my first server running Ubuntu 4.04 in 2004 after laughing at my dad for installing Red Hat a few years earlier. I kept using XP on my desktop.ReplyDelete
With Ubuntu getting worse with every release in April 2006 I changed everything from Ubuntu/XP to Debian Testing.
Since that day nothing else has touched my hard drives. No dual-booting or virtual machines. Just Debian.
I looked at live CD's for various other distro's and have looked at Ubuntu's progress but for me, everything pales in comparison to the mighty Debian!
- AnonymousAugust 24, 2011 at 1:11 AM
I played with PCDOS, DRDOS and PCtools in the early 90s on a 2 FD Amstrad, then loved OS/2 until I did a re-install and found that FD No.7 of 30-odd was faulty. IBM refused to replace, or reload it, so I gladly left them moved to Windows 95, which I tolerated for only 6 weeks before dumping it, too.ReplyDelete
Gael Duval had just released Mandrake with KDE. He was generous with his on line help and I loved it. I've used linux ever since and am now totally unfamiliar with Windows and Macs, as I have all I need with Debian sid and KDE, maintained with smxi.
If there's anything better for a simple 83-year-old user like me, I haven't found it and don't need it. I'm grateful to and in awe of all the clever, generous linux/GNU developers. I wrote a couple of short navigation programmes in basic when we circumnavigated in the late 80s, but have not otherwise moved beyond bash for things that are quicker or easier with the command prompt.
- AnonymousAugust 24, 2011 at 1:55 AM
I've bumped into Linux a few times starting back with Knoppix 4. I kept it at a playful distance, using it for very select applications and never installing. At some point in time, around Ubuntu 7.10 I had to replace my desktop computer's hard-drive and noticed that I could save a lot of time if I install Ubuntu because it had most of the software I needed installed and I could get the rest from one location.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 24, 2011 at 2:10 AM
I fell in love with GNU/Linux when I discovered Knoppix,then I've used Ubuntu 5.10 but when I've installed Debian sarge never looked back,my 11 years old son uses a dual boot xp with mandriva 2008.1(fantastic version,the best Mandriva IMHO).We are happy with GNU/Linux tho my 22 years old son uses vista and he's not interested in giving it a try....ReplyDelete
- rishidevAugust 24, 2011 at 2:25 AM
every damn device i own and the people i know use linux for every purpose as you mentioned above. Too many BSOD's, crashes and instability and hopelessness has me chanting linux. The "only" reason for using windows is for crysis 2 and upcoming 3 and doom 4.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 24, 2011 at 2:39 AM
There was no single reason that I switched. I was tired of crashes because Windows allows system files to be overwritten. I was tired of the need for anti-virus and anti-malware/spyware software and the constant updates this software required, I was tired of M$ tryi ng to lock me into their expensive software, of them changing file formats with every new version of a program, of their unfair, deceitful, downright dirty corporate tactics. I was just tired of everything that was and is wrong with Windows. Being an electronic tech with two degrees in computer science, I knew that (cr)apple haedware was vastly overpriced, cheaply made junk, and their OS and software was no better than Windows.ReplyDelete
I tried various distros before finding Knoppix, then Kanotix, sidux, and now Aptosid. I recommend Simply Mepis to new Linux users.
My name is Nonya F. Biznes
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Address: 123 Nostreet
Notown, FU 77342-090
You are all newbees... :-)ReplyDelete
I started with an Apple II in 1979, but two years later went to CP/M. In 1985 I joined the MS-DOS crowd. Mind you: I programmed a lot in those years, both in assembly and higher languages.
In 1992 I wanted to experiment with the venerable SMART IR program, but that was Unix only. So I installed a weird new unix clone that just was emerging on the internet (new enough in itself then).
In the following years I had an excellent opportunity to compare 'my' Linux with the different flavours of MS-Windows, and I never really was tempted to make the switch back to the commercial systems. In those years I also had to write more and more papers, and most of you know how superior LaTeX is above all shiny WYSIWYG trash.
Linux is not perfect. Every onced in a while I am driven to foamning rages by an update of my favorite distribution that suddely refuses to recognize various features of my hardware. And I am saddened by the fact that my students willingly throw away at least half of the effectiveness of their PCs by hanging on to Microsoft. Worse, their Microsoft experience from childhood on, already did a lot of damage to their understanding of computers and programming. Ah well...
- AnonymousAugust 24, 2011 at 3:36 AM
Simple, I was given the chose of installing linux or paying many thousand's of dollars to install MicroSoft Windows XP professional and AutoCadLT. Being retired (disability) I had no reason to install XP, so I installed OpenSuse9 (I think) and have been happy ever since.ReplyDelete
The story for me goes like this: When I started to study I have seen this unknown looking desktop at some x-students laptop. So I asked him what it was and so I learned that this was KDE on Linux. Back then (2004) I didn't know much about Linux. I knew about open-source and just heard a bit about Linux. So he started to explain to me more about Linux and KDE and demonstrate it and I was amazed that it was so great looking and powerful and flexible. So naturally I wanted to also try it out on my laptop. With his help I managed to install it (we had a lot of problems with WiFi) and so my path of discovering Linux began. After about two years I have grown so comfortable with it and liked it so much more than Windows that I completely stopped using Windows and about a year later (in 2007) as I was low on disk I decided to just delete Windows from laptop. And since that day I'm not looking back anymore and am extremely happy with Linux. So to make it short, Why I switched to Linux was just curiosity and better technology that is offered by Linux. But during the past years of using Linux I've learned that there is much more to this. There is also the free(dom) software philosophy behind it and the spirit of openness, learning and cooperation. And as days go by this free software philosophy is growing just stronger and stronger in me and is becoming one of the main reasons keeping me on Linux. At this point I can only wonder why our educational system doesn't teach us about this gem of technology. World would be a lot nicer place if people used more Linux and free and open source software, but the prerequisite for this is that people know about it and here our educational system fails completely.ReplyDelete
- alex_from_belgiumAugust 24, 2011 at 4:16 AM
It's funny. I don't really remember how I became interested in linux... I know I downloaded ubuntu 9.10 once, but never really used it. I did use 10.04, so...ReplyDelete
What I do know is how I got interested in operating systems. I bought a macbook in early 2009. I bought it a bit impulsively. I immediately regretted it. I ran windows 7 as my main os for months. But then I must have switched to os x a few times and realized it's not bad.
I became a bit of a mac-fanboy and started researching a lot of it. And just like that, I was on my way to discovering the extremely under-appreciated os that is Linux.
What can I ad that the authors above have nót said already? Working with pc's since 1988, and being the problem solver for all these colleagues with corrupted XP-pc's, I switched the moment M$ started their Vista-marketing campaign. I discovered Ubuntu and PClinuxOS, there was a period I tested them all, but always, Mint was the final winner. I still install and maintain XP-systems (that's what people ask for...) but always dual-boot them. I make people discover the possibilities an alternative can offer. People sáy they like change, but really, most of the time they don't.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 24, 2011 at 5:15 AM
After losing a lot of valuable data on the Windows platform, I thoght there had to be a better way. I tried SUSE-linux ten years ago, and have never looked back.ReplyDelete
Now I run openSUSE 11.4 and handle dokuments, photo archiving and editing as well as HD-Video and Audio recording and editing on the KDE desktop. I really love it!
If I very seldom need to run a Windows program, I do it in a VirtualBOX installation of Windows XP. So I get the best of both worlds.
I have also installed openSUSE on the familys Laptops and a lot of friends as their Windows machines crashes or get infected. They are so relieved when I can tell them that all their files are intact and can be used in their new linux os.
Linux Rocks!
I had a small business and started using computers to assist it. Unfortunately I started with windows 98 which always crashed. It forced me to learn more about computers than a trade worker should. I had learned to repair The windows OS's and then learned how to build computers. I soon was using Knoppix to reclaim data for other people, and learned how to use it to remove virus's. That was it, I soon found Ubuntu and was using it for everything. Wow! what a powerful and customizable OS (Linux in General). Now its all I use! All I can say is "Thank you!" to all the linux developers and programmers which make Linux and it's software possible!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 24, 2011 at 6:14 AM
I'm an academic, which means I do a lot of writing and a lot of reading. I switched from Windows to Mac around 2000, and this worked great for me until 2008, when I finished my PhD and started working much more seriously. Then I switched to Linux.ReplyDelete
Linux isn't perfect, but it's so much closer to perfect for me than either Windows or Mac. Initially, I had two main reasons for switching to Linux. I do all my writing in emacs using latex and org-mode, and linux is their natural home. With these apps, Linux is the place where "it just works".
My second main reason for switching to Linux initially was that I find the Mac OSX window management is terrible for getting real work done. All the new features in Lion can't hold a candle to my preferred window manager in linux which is... StumpWM! For those who don't know, Stump is minimalist, keyboard driven WM, written in Common Lisp and highly configurable. It's basically like a mashup between the customizability of emacs, where everything is customizable in lisp, and the minimalism of GNU Screen.
However, since I've switched to Linux, I've discovered all sorts of other benefits too. For example, on my laptop I run 3 different versions of Linux. For my work I run Debian Testing, but I also have a partition devoted to Debian Stable - just in case! I can't afford to lose a day (or more) of work, and with Debian Stable, I don't have to.
Then I also have a partition devoted to Ubuntu - for watching films, BBC iPlayer. I could do this on Debian, but I don't want to message around with my work config too much, whereas on Ubuntu, I can try out new software, install plugins, etc, and not worry about screwing up my work system.
So those were my main reasons for the initial switch. But, I can now add a huge third reason - freedom. Everybody is in love with Apple right now, and as a long time Apple user, I can understand where they are coming from. But it's been a growing concern in my mind for a long time just how restrictive Apple's software is. With Linux, I just have more freedom to do the things that I want.
I've a million smaller reasons for sticking with Linux, but these are the main ones for me.
My reasons were both technical and economic. The price of a Mac was prohibitive, and my computer guru refused to reinstall Windows again after I complained about it's slow speed. He said, "You're not ready for Linux, kid," but after a few months of carefree, trouble free Linux experience, he was like, "Stick with Linux then, kid. You're not ready for Windows yet."ReplyDelete
I can't make this stuff up.
After two major BSODs in a week that lost important work in 2005, and seeing this thing called Linux on a disk named "Slax: Kill Bill Edition" I downloaded it for the humor. I already ran Firefox and Thunderbird. When I booted the LiveCD I was amazed at the number and quality of programs. Burned several CDs that day. Found one with Open Office pre-installed.ReplyDelete
So I put an old drive in an old test box I had, and installed it. So fast and painless to install (no driver searching, Microsoft should really centralize that data themselves, but too bad). I ran that older machine, that was only 50% the CPU speed of my main box, for two weeks. Amazed.
Then put a new drive in the main machine, fresh install of the latest Linux at the time. Haven't been back.
After being free, I found I really disliked vendor lock-in (Microsoft and Apple) with forced upgrades and avoiding the whole anti-virus cpu sapping parasitic drain.
I even carry a Linux LiveUSB now for when friends mention, 'hey can you help me rescue my system? Some virus has it locked up'.
I switched in 2000 after I found five PCs running Lose '95 would not stay running for an hour-long class. I ran for six months with no problems with GNU/Linux. Since then I have used it in many schools and found it works much more reliably than that other OS on old machines and new ones. I like to use the really old machines as thin clients so students can get the benefit of speed from a GNU/Linux terminal server.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 24, 2011 at 8:13 AM
Back in 2007 it was offered to me a desktop (P4, 512ram, 64mb video dated from 2001) with a pirated copy of Win XP. My old desktop was dead a few weeks before and I was looking for something to replace it but I did not have money to buy a new one. With the advice of my friend (a truly Linux user from the beginning), Ubuntu was installed on that machine and my following questions were the obvious one for a Win user (anti-bla bla bla needed). What I basically do is internet, email and documents, so I had everything on hand after 20 minutes. I was reluctant but I had no choice so I gave an effort to learn how to use the system and it payed off. At work I still had Windows just in case I needed something. However, using GNU/Linux gave me a strange felling of freedom that I could not explain and I began to be even more interested on it, so I kept reading information about it and learning its past, present and future. I learned to use the programs, GIMP and INKSCAPE (I work professionaly with Adobe Photoshop and Corel Draw), Mandvd, Cinelerra and Openshot and I became dependent on them. Nowadays I have the same desktop with Ubuntu 10.04 installed (next will probably be Xubuntu) a laptop and a netbook both dual booting. My wife does not like computers that much but uses GNU/Linux pretty well. My 8 year old daughter began to see GNU/Linux as the only OS and when she went to school, she was forced to learn Windows and it was a real pain (she was used to another OS that did not require such attention to threats and a lot of things made no sense to her like installing programs - Ubuntu Software Center fault), My parents only know GNU/Linux (my fault) and at work, my boss learned that the safest way to check on-line backing accounts was through GNU/Linux, so he learned how to use it and forced his daughters to learn it as well (again.. my fault).ReplyDelete
In conclusion, I use Linux because it's easier, safer and more productive, has its problems as well, might not be suitable for everybody's needs but my advice is try it first, if it suits you, you're done, if suits you partially, don't stop using it because it might fully satisfy you in the future, if it doesn't at all, then use something else.
- AnonymousAugust 24, 2011 at 8:25 AM
I was a Microsoft-hater in the mid-90s, and followed their anti-trust lawsuit with great interest as a young man. I didn't want to be forced to used the software of a company that clearly demonstrated authoritarian tendencies, and no doubt would serve the US or Chinese governments in repressing and spying on its own citizens and inhibiting their liberty.ReplyDelete
I started with Mandrake 9.2 and learned that if I wanted to watch video I had to learn to compile all of the necessary libraries to do so. Since Linux was so new, there was a whole lot of documentation out there and so you have to learn what to do from the man and info pages. This was a great learning experience.
In 2000 I bought an old Toshiba satellite laptop with a 167MHz processor and 64MB of RAM. After installing Redhat I put the laptop on my bookshelf to serve as a terminal-based jukebox system, accessing my Mandrake server upstairs. That laptop ran for 9 months straight without requiring a reboot. I was amazed and soon after got Windows entirely out of my house.
And I'm still Windows-free to this day.
- AnonymousAugust 24, 2011 at 8:50 AM
I got myself a shiny new PC in Summer 2007 after my 5 year old Windows XP system started to grind to a halt. I cleaned the hard drive on the old system, reinstalled XP and gave it to my brother in law. The fresh install resulted in it running far faster than by brand new Windows Vista system.ReplyDelete
After struggling with Vista for around 12 months, I came across an article about Ubuntu, tried the live CD of 8.04 and after a few weeks installed it as a dual boot system. I have to say that it was only after I had already installed it that I started to educate myself on the benefits of open source software.
I found that I had the software to do pretty much everything I needed to and more and have never looked back. I eventually did a fresh install of Ubuntu and removed Windows completely. The PC still runs very happily and far faster than more modern PCs running proprietary operating systems. It is stable, free from viruses and endlessly customisable.
I now run Kubuntu 11.04 on my netbook. It came with Windows pre-installed which I have left on for simply to update my satnav and programmable remote control (not found a reliable way of doing this in Linux yet). The difference in speed between the two systems is, frankly, astonishing.
- AnonymousAugust 24, 2011 at 8:56 AM
I use it because I used Amiga's in the 80's/90's (500 + 1200) and I knew what running a stable,fast OS was meant to be like...ReplyDelete
Going from an Amiga 1200 to a Windows 95 PC was the worst day of my life...
In 1996 I got a Windows PC that cost 4 times the amount had 16 times the RAM and was about 50 times time faster in CPU speed (in Mhz) but was about 1000 X slower in doing anything, it was so unstable, all software cost lots more but did not have the capabilities of software on the Amiga (untill about 1/2 decade later) and the entire OS actually crashed (all the time) - with the Amiga crashes (guru mediations) nearly always occurred only ever in games.
I was never satisfied with Windows so was always looking for an alternative - in 2001 I installed Mandrake Linux (which in some ways beats modern desktop distros....) and never looked back (I use Arch linux now though)
I have been completely windows free for about 10 years now, I feel lucky I only every suffered 6 years of Windows abuse - most people did not have the joy of running a non windows system and think that it somehow normal.
I am a christian and back in '99 when I received a computer (486) everybody was using pirated software in my country. I did the same thing, until someone told me that the os I'm using is not for free (I was stealing), and there is an issue when push the "I agree" button if I actually don't agree (I was lying). Back then it was very difficult to move away from windows, because the only alternative I had was a slackware CD with fvwm. Buying software was something I rarely considered due to the fact that I was just a kid. Since then the financial side is not an issue anymore, but Linux has matured so much, that I do not need anything else.ReplyDelete
I started using Debian in 2004, in college. I was already unsatisfied with Windows, which was, as many of the previous comments said, full of bugs, viruses and limiting.ReplyDelete
I wanted to try Linux earlier, but I used to live with my parents so we had a family PC and I was afraid because people said it was CLI only and required programming skills (lol).
Anyway, I immediately fell i. love as soon as I tried it. Not only was the CLI was faster than the GUI, it had a better GUI than Windows. Everything was easily configurable. And I could have multiple desktops and up to 6concurrent CLIs and 6 GUIs. The filesystem was incredibly well organized. I didn't have to find my files somewhere lost in a C:\ directory, it was all in the home folder. And files had permissions, so I couldn't change a system file inadvertently. This would also protect the system fro viruses.
I was sold. I tried a few distros like Slackware, Red Hat and Mandrake before finally settling for Ubuntu in 2006.
- AnonymousAugust 24, 2011 at 9:52 AM
In 1999 I was running Windows 98SE when I heard about Linux. I bought a second PC and started experimenting, first installing Red Hat Linux (version 6), then installing Debian (2.2). Both had issues, mostly with some of my peripherals, a scanner and usb hard drive enclosure. During this time, I still used Windows 98SE as my main OS.ReplyDelete
Then in 2001, Windows XP was released. I had planned to buy it, but waited since some device drivers I needed weren't available yet.
I found myself in the interesting situation where Microsoft and the peripheral vendors weren't releasing drivers for XP, at least for my devices. While at the same time, Debian starting supporting those older devices. That was the tipping point.
I installed Woody on my main PC (while it was still in testing) and kept Windows on a partition as a fallback.
When I built my next PC, it had Debian as the only OS.
Later, in 2005, I switched to Ubuntu for my main desktop.
Currently, my home network consists of the following;
- Wife desktop, Ubuntu 10.04LTS
- My desktop, Ubuntu 10.04LTS 64bit (plus several virtual machines)
- Wife netbook, Ubuntu 10.04LTS
- My laptop, Linux Mint 11, dual boot with Debian
- File server, Ubuntu server 10.04LTS
- Mythbuntu 10.04 LTS server
- Linksys router running dd-wrt firmware
For stable, trouble-free systems, Linux has been my solution.
- AnonymousAugust 24, 2011 at 10:20 AM
In the past I had run many different operating systems on many different computers. Trying to stay legal at home is tough but doable. Maintaining privacy is even tougher. The two reasons I made the switch were primarily for those reasons. It was two incidents which convinced me to make the change to go from Windows to Linux permanent.ReplyDelete
The first was when I bought a DVD burner and wanted to get some software running on it. Using CD-RW media is a good way to make backups after all, At the time I was running Windows ME on a particular computer. I made it a point of NOT allowing an internet connection. (ME was perfectly fine as long as it was not connected to the net.) As soon as I installed the software my internet connection was enabled and configured without my consent and knowledge. For the next two weeks the machine would crash on average every half hour. Eventually I figured out the problem and blocked access at the router.
The second incident was when I was working for a government. They had an excess number of licensed copies of M$ Office. Since I was partially working from home (I had better tools there) I was told to install the package and use it instead of Star Office (the precursor to Open Office). Big mistake... Star Office was removed each time I started M$ Office. I had a habit of storing the data on my D: drive. The first time M$ had a severe crash it took out only the C: drive. Since the data wasn't there (at least not the data I was working on) reinstalling all the software wasn't too bad. It took me a Saturday afternoon and evening to get it back the way I had it. A month later the same thing happened. This time it took out the C: drive, D: drive, and my Linux partitions. I lost a months worth of work and my contract wasn't renewed.
It was then when I realised I was paying M$ to abuse me. Sorry folks... I'm not into that sort of thing.
simply becuase I have saved money and also keep all of my old machines alive with linux. When I made my first cdustom pc it was 2007. Once it was setup and I was ready to install an OS my dad had heard of linux from a work freind. After I obtained a "free" copy of xandros, I installed it. I saved about $100 dollars (back when xp was THEE OS). I setup a webserver and stuff and I realized I also saved money with the office suite, servers, webpage editors, secuirty suites, etc. I later installed. After a two years I was 14 and I got a laptop (thinking I would need to replace the pc soon). I again saved about $100 dollars and along with the other stuff I got for "free" from the linux community. Only difference between my laptop and desktop was that I was running ubuntu 8.04 (or 7.10 I forget). So finally the pc broke down (the integrated NIC and VGA actually were damaged). At this time it was 20010 and I was working with pc's and even macs. So then I got a pc from the year 2000 from a customer, he said it wasn't working and windows wouldn't even run on it (xp, vista, and 98). So then I said let me try this and wouldn't you know I found that xubuntu and even regular ubuntu (alebit sliggish; xubuntu ran fast tho) could run and install on this thing and as of recently this pas summer the GPU and the bus actually got fried (beucase I left it on all day and night in a dusty area while I used it as a torrent/file/web/datbase server).ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 24, 2011 at 11:17 AM
I switched away from Windows world in 2004 when I went to college. I bought a shiny new Powerbook G4 and loved it... for a while. A year later I realized how little control I had over it. I heard about Ubuntu and started trying out their powerPC versions. It was real buggy, lots of wifi issues and poor graphics support. That was my first taste. When my powerbook died in a tragic accident, I bought a laptop sans-OS and decided to try out linux as sole, fulltime OS. Ever since then I've been hooked. Now I only use Win7 when I want to game or use Creative Suite.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 24, 2011 at 12:10 PM
I switched because of my parents. Spouse is a Sys admin and very familiar with the corporate unix/linux world. At home, he wouldn't allow Microsoft on the machines beyond the OS itself.ReplyDelete
Mom and Dad are retired and on a very fixed income. Mom was getting fed up with XP's oddness on updates and noticed Linux mentioned on some news shows. She asked if Linux was ready for her. So, spouse installed Opensuse 11.1 on my machine in dual boot mode. I was now the linux guinea pig. He would come home from work and be faced with a legal pad of questions I came up with using the computer during the day. I gradually learned the answers for repeat questions and even learned how to find my own answers. After a few months, we installed Linux (open Suse 11.1) on my parents' computer in dual boot. The biggest question she had: how do I empty the trash? What they missed the most- magazine or book on all the goodies on the new OS. I created a notebook with pictures of the software and what it does. I added some basic directions for more complex tasks as well. Also have a GEEK section for scripts, connection settings and other things for troubleshooting by Spouse or my brother-in-law.
Dad was so used to pulling out the wallet and handing over a card to cover office software, anti-virus, firewall, and on and on, that his face was priceless when he realized the new operating system had all that included and even more than one option, free of charge. We had installed the a/v software (clam) and spouse setup scripts to automagically fetch the updates and then scan her system on the same days and times as the o;d XP versions did. We did this for her because all of her friends still used Windows in one form or another and she didn't want to unknowingly pass on problems via email. Plus, the SysAdmin spouse is well aware it pays to be proactive on computers.
Mom was amazed at the variety of free software a download away. Science materials, languages, art, music, games. She loves the pysolFC card game with extra card packs, extreme tux racer, and the palapeli puzzles we make for her from our own photos. She chose the theme and wallpaper for her system. She uses thunderbird/penelope and the libreoffice suite most often. She made the spouse speechless when she asked the weekend of the install right before we left to have the linux partition boot first instead of XP. She doesn't miss the black screens, forced changes to her computer setup or the other hassles.
Since then, they've updated to OpenSuse 11.2 and we plan on giving her the usual choice of distro upgrade as 11.2 is deprecated. Will likely be 11.4 and choice of Mint this next time.
Me? I've become brave enough to install some packages on my own via one-click install or yast. Still need the spouse to walk me through the make, build, install from source. I do enjoy trying new software again.
Mom's comment on OS: "I'd like to think I'm not so old that I can't get out of a rut.I used several versions of AppleOS on the IIe, IIGS; MSDOS, then windows 3.1, and on up to XP. What's another operating system?" "Hey, I don't have to reboot after every single update!?"
For me, the Linux community is as caring and sharing as the Apple Community from my childhood. It also seems more inclusive for kids, accessibility, and education. I feel at home again.
I switched to Linux, not GNU/Linux. And I did it in 1994; switched from SCO Unix.ReplyDelete
I've been using computers since 1980. Since then i used Apple II+, Commodore64, Amiga (remembered fondly), and finally the PC.ReplyDelete
Since Commodore died i had to move over to the PC which i felt was the better decision as i didn't want to be stuck with hardware that was controlled by one entity (like Apple or the defunct Commodore).
Using Windows was like taking a step backwards for me, after using the Amiga for so long. I hated everything about the OS. At every turn Microsoft and other software developers seemed to be leaning in a direction to control how i use my computer and what i can do with it. Demanding my first born for the mere priviliage of using my own computer.
I knew of GNU/Linux but hadn't realized that it was useable yet. The FUD was and is pretty thick about it so my ignroance was understandable. I decided i would take the plunge and try out GNU/Linux.
I was at first intimidated by all the distributiuons available, but after a little research i found Ubuntu, Feisty Fawn. Tried it out by using WUBI to install it into Windows. I found it to be pretty bland, but after learning how to tweak my system, i knew this system was for me. After 6 months i removed the WUBU install from Windows and dual booted Windows and Ubuntu.
After another 6 months i realized i hadn't logged into Windows in months, so i decided to reclaim my hardrive space and reformatted and removed Windows altogether. I was happy for a time but hated the 6 month upgrades which never went cleanly, and also i found i didn't really like Canonical, and the direction of Ubuntu.
I searched around for distributions, but all seemed to be just variations of Ubuntu/Debian and i didn't want to go that route. Redhat/Fedora looked like a complete mess to me. Novell/Suse was tainted by Microsoft. Slackware and Gentoo looked like too much work. Then i came upon Archlinux.
Archlinux seemed to have everything i wanted. Binary packages, but with a great build system (ABS). Rolling release with cutting edge packages, and the Arch User Repository which seems to put Arch on equal footing in terms of diversity of software packages. No more 6 month upgrades. Nobody forcing me to use any software i didn't want to use out of the gate. The system i wanted was the system i built.
All isn't prefect of course, but for me it's better than the control freak proprietary alternatives, and i'm the one in control of my computer. I can truly say that I own my system.
- AnonymousAugust 24, 2011 at 2:19 PM
Sometime during my Sophomore year of college (1997) I became interested in Linux. I think I was just interested in learning more about computers and Linux seemed to really let you get your hands dirty -- especially in those earlier days of Linux. I first tried RedHat, which was followed by Slackware, Mandrake, Gentoo, SuSE, Ubuntu, Mint -- and now back to Fedora (RedHat)!ReplyDelete
What I like about Open Source and Linux:
- Fun, free and available to all!
- Freedom -- No licensing issues
- Challenges and improves quality of commercial software offerings
- Variety and ability to tweak and customize
- Ability to participate in development / improvement
- Community support
- Fewer threats from viruses and worms
- Cold_techAugust 24, 2011 at 2:29 PM
I started playing with Linux in 1998 for fun but never really could make the break. About 5 years ago I came home from work and sat down to do some remote admin work and got bluescreened. An hour of fighting later I gave up, booted into Fedora and did the tasks I needed to for work. The eureka moment was there. I was sick of working to fix windows problems all day and then come home to maintain yet another windows machine. I have transitioned my whole house to Linux and as a result I get to come home and work with my computer.ReplyDelete
I use Linux for more than 2 years. I tried Ubuntu 9.04 because I got soooo bored with Windows XP. And when I tried Vista, it was just plain awefull. So I had to seriously think about switching to Linux (there were several half-hearted attempts before).ReplyDelete
Ubuntu just did it. Killer feachers for me were: the dialog for starting applications (Alt-F2), several desktops (on a Compiz cube, which seemed so cool at the time!) and the most favorite - APT! And certainly, the command line, that actually worked.
Main advantage of using Linux, I think, - it's just so interesting! You always can learn more about the OS, customise it the way you like, write some useful scripts. And youre free! The programms I use do not tend to become awkward monsters.
Currently I use Arch Linux (openbox) on desktop and Debian stable (fluxbox) on netbook. What a blissfull life: no viruses, no BSODS, no bloatware.
Thanks to all GNU/Linux devs!
When I was running for office -- I was the Green Party candidate for Insurance Commissioner in 2006 -- I used FOSS instead of spending campaign funds on proprietary software (Greens don't take corporate contributions, hence I didn't have the megabucks Democrats and Republicans had to throw at software). During the campaign I kept thinking about this great paradigm of free-as-in-freedom software and, as a result, I've been a FOSS user and advocate ever since.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 24, 2011 at 3:12 PM
I started using Linux 9 years ago with Red Hat Linux 6. The way Microsoft's OSes work and operate always bugged me. I wanted a window manager that I could configure so that I could move windows that were the parents of modal dialogs without closing the dialog. I liked the ability to run "live" discs that perform specialized tasks (e.g., run OS on a crashed PC, perform a virus scan, run an A/V distribution that is tweaked to work "just so," and be able to try out lots of open source software easily and uninstall cleanly without lots of registry tedium). So, it was choice for me: the choice to do things differently and more effectively. Today, most of my machines have either Fedora or Ubuntu and those that have Windows are always dual-booting. Unlike Windows, I can keep upgrading. The RH 6 machine is now running Fedora 14, which is more than 17 minor upgrades in 10 years. For machines that need more stability, I use Ubuntu's LTS. For me, it is about freedom. Freedom of choice.ReplyDelete
I have been a Linux user at home since 2004, with some interruptions to check out FreeBSD and PCBSD. I have stuck with it because of reliability, hardware support, and the choices that Linux affords. If MS-Windows ever comes close to offering these, then I will give Windows another try, and I have spent some time using Windows 7 at a family member's house.ReplyDelete
From the mid-'80's until 2004, I used only MS-DOS and/or MS-Windows, with tiny bits of RDOS, Mac, and VMS thrown in. In the mid-90's, though, I started to be disappointed when Windows seemed to be embracing Apple's drive for a monocultural experience, albeit without the reliability. Until then, the need to tweak was more than offset by the ability to choose from a reasonably diverse group of offerings for most applications and a far, far wider range of hardware choices.
In 2003, though, we purchased an XP-SP2 family computer, and, in my book, XP was an unacceptably poor performer. It did not reliably support hardware, from the Western Digital IDE hard drive to the network card (I later found out that Fedora supported this PC amazingly well). For a lot of repetitive operations, the 'are you sure' window kept coming up no matter how many times I checked the box for 'do not ask me again.' There were also multiple 'My Documents' folders and, even though I only logged in as myself, trying to find where files were saved was a constant ordeal. There were other frustrations, but, after a year, I decided that the problem was not the learning curve; I had had enough and, no matter how much I'd heard about the difficulties of Linux, trying it was justified, if it had any chance at all of being better than XP.
We had put the previous 5 year old computer in a storage nook, and I dragged it out for experimenting with different operating systems. After trying a few distros, Fedora 2 hooked me. The old computer was a far faster Internet surfing machine, after 15 minutes on Google, the wireless card worked, and another 15 minutes gave me Flash, multimedia, etc. That began an infatuation with Fedora that SELinux quickly killed in either F3 or F4.
A few of years later, when we upgraded, I bought two identical whitebox computers. Since the kids insisted on playing The Sims and that one hadn't yet been conquered by Wine, XP went on one computer and Ubuntu went on the other. The Ubuntu PC was up and running in about a half hour. The XP computer took about 4 hours, mainly because of support issues with the on-board audio. I ended up buying a PCI audio card to take care of the XP computer without using up more time.
For now, I won't allow Windows back onto my home computer. From the time perspective, it is just far too expensive; I simply do not have the time to invest in learning enough the ins and outs of Windows to get it to run reliably. I'm running Kubuntu with four or five additional desktop managers installed … just because I enjoy mixing things up. The computer works, I can depend on it, and it lets me surf, play games, pick through thousands of applications with synaptic, edit documents/spreadsheets/presentations, and not have to deal with the frustrations of Windows' fragile, temperamental nature. If XP could have had solid hardware support and/or the ability to listen to user preferences, I would never have tried anything else. In a way, though, I'm glad it sucked so bad, since that was the kick in the pants I needed to see what else is out there.
- AnonymousAugust 24, 2011 at 7:50 PM
1998 - I started a new job at a place that used a lot of unix (AIX). Started with Red Hat 4 as a way to learn without risking real machines at work. I'd heard of linux a year or two earlier, but it didn't seem too viable at the time.ReplyDelete
Had also been toying with OS/2 - dual-boot with Windows. OS/2 would 'mysteriously' get corrupted on a regular basis - apparently an accidental flaw in Windows updates. Started to dislike Microsoft.
Continual changes to MS Office file-formats & difficulties reading them with anything other than the latest release did nothing to endear me. In the meantime Linux got much easier to install & use.
At home I switched to linux full-time about 2003. Debian & derivatives mostly - Red Hat & SuSE always seemed to break during upgrades. Ran Ubuntu for several years, but don't like Unity at all & when my hard drive died a few weeks back I switched to Debian-Mint.
Main reasons for using Linux:
* Stable O/S
* *nix power that GUI can't match
* Don't need to play Microsoft's game of forced upgrades
I was using Solaris (can't remember what version) at work, I'd tried OS/2 at home which wasn't really what I was after. A guy at work said he'd heard about this thing called Linux. I can't remember when that was but it was the last 1.?? version. From memory the there wasn't a cdrom driver so I had to wait for 2.0.ReplyDelete
I started with slackware, then redhat, then debian, then ubuntu and then back to debian. I really don't see any reason to move away from debian, maybe Gentoo but probably not.
I've never owned a machine that runs windows. And I'm rather proud of that fact.
- AnonymousAugust 24, 2011 at 8:41 PM
A friend recommended RedHat 5.0 in the late 1990s, so I gave it a try and have not left since (migrated on to Fedora, of course).ReplyDelete
I had been tired of all the blue screens in Windows, the constant rebooting, the perpetual system lockups when installing software and hardware, and the fact that every little thing required another program that you had to purchase. The Windows environment forces you to become a pirate and criminal, against your will.
In Fedora, it is all included: I update my system daily and have no costs, yet have a state-of-the-art system. If I want a new program, need some new functionality, or get new hardware, I simply install the appropriate software from the repository and I'm done. No law-breaking involved.
- AnonymousAugust 24, 2011 at 8:41 PM
i never swithced to gnu/linux. i swithced to linux. there is no gnu/linux it's just in fanatic's headsReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 24, 2011 at 8:59 PM
I built a new computer from stratch. Thought about putting XP on it, but tried Ubuntu first. It just worked, and I slowly ported more and more use over from my older computer is a fixed configuration issues and such. Eventually I got everything I really needed working. I had tried it before (RedHat 6) and FreeBSD, Debian, puppy, dabbling for years (since 2002) off and on, but it didnt' stick till recently. Now all I hardly ever boot into is gentoo, and XP is relegated to a rarely used virtual machine.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 24, 2011 at 9:00 PM
Had a friend show me his Slackware box in 1998. That got me started. Learned the true power of Unix from my CS professors a year later. Used FreeBSD as my main OS for a few years, but eventually got lazy and switched to Debian. Been using Debian as my main OS ever since. My strong belief in the open source philosophy and the power and flexibility of GNU/Linux is why I continue to use it. While things have gotten a lot better, I always feel constrained and limited when using Windows.ReplyDelete
I started with Linux as a hobby in 2001. Loved it from the get-go. However, I kept using Windows as my primary OS because that's what my clients' used, since the ERP system I consult for runs only on Windows. I figured I should use what my clients have to use. As the years dragged on, though, I got soooooooooo tired of fighting with Windows. Things that take less than 3 minutes in Linux can take 30 or more in Windows... sometimes HOURS... Finally I said, HECK WITH IT, and went totally Linux - relegating Windows to VM's that run on Ubuntu - so I can still do what I do for a living, but at least Windows is now isolated to VM's...!!! Ubuntu is a great cross over distro for people wanting to try Linux. I use 11.04 and am thrilled with it. YES I LIKE UNITY WHAT OF IT...??? lol And I thought I would hate it, being a gnome die-hard, but Unity stole my heart when I wasn't looking... :) Since I have gone 99% Linux, my blood pressure has dropped, my productivity has gone up, and my skill set has increased exponentially. I knew I had reached that point when I set up a headless server to host all my email and websites... I thought to myself after I did that, and with resounding success, "I have arrived" lol...ReplyDelete
I switched to Linux because I find it sleeker, smoother and faster than any other operating system. To me, fonts looks more smoother than any other operating system which improves readibility in computer monitor. :-)ReplyDelete
I never followed the Win95 disaster, but stayed with DOS and Win3.11. The latter wasn't very reliable, but when you pushed the reset button not too much was broken and if it was, DOS helped you out.ReplyDelete
Around 2000 I was contemplating a new machine and wondered what could be installed. My old tandem wasn't gonna make it, because very little software was released for that platform. I also wanted a Unix clone like Coherent to play around with. But I also needed a workhorse. WinNT4? I really thought of that. I even had taken care of a pirated copy (700 bucks for an OS? Never!)
Then I found out Linux had enough functionality to fill that workhorse gap. Not through the Dutch press, but the German press, PC-Praxis to be exact. So I dropped the WinNT4 and dual installed my old DOS/Win3.11 tandem and Linux.
After the first day, around 80% of the work was done by that OS, which slowly increased to a massive 100%, so four years later I could say bye-bye to DOS and dual booting.
That's about it. Nowadays when I have to work with Windows, I install FOSS equivalents. Some rare exceptions remain, but they are handled nicely by DosBOX, QEMU, ReactOS or Wine.
Nice touch: I still develop (also) for Windows and DOS, but these are cross-compiled on Linux. Even the installers are built on Linux!
I find the business practices of Microsoft and Apple very anti-competitive, anti-user-friendly.ReplyDelete
One day I decided that I will not support such companies with my purchases unless it cannot be helped.
Since than, I have been using Ubuntu as my primary OS and I have to say I will not go back to Windows.
Apple's walled garden is also out of the question.
You see, only Linux remains for me as a multi-purpose (desktop/server) operating system.
I actually was introduced to Linux accidentally. A math teacher at my high school mentioned that OpenOffice.org was a free office suite that could be used to submit certain typed or graphical assignments, so I downloaded that. I recognized the Windows and Mac download options on its site, but there were several others I didn't recognize. I got curious, poked around for a bit, and eventually installed Ubuntu 8.04 in a dual-boot setup with XP on my tower. I never did make much use of Ubuntu, since I could never get it configured to use our dial-up connection, but it struck me as a very nicely designed system and stayed in the back of my mind.ReplyDelete
A few weeks later, I bought myself an old ThinkPad T22 for roughly US$80, but the laptop just didn't have enough power to run any recent form of Windows- or the big Gnome Ubuntu, for that matter. I looked around for a few different lightweight versions of Ubuntu until a classmate caught wind, snorted in playful derision- "Ubuntu! Hmph!"- and gave me a copy of DSL. While didn't find Damn Small to be to my liking either, from there I stumbled across Puppy Linux 412, and that suited me just fine.
The more time I spent tinkering with Puppy, the more enamored I became with the system, and the more shocked I was that what seemed to me to be a band of eccentrics could collaborate over the Internet to best the efforts of enormous, wealthy software corporations.
So I suppose I kind of stumbled into Linux, but the control I can exercise over my OS, the (potentially) low system requirements of Linux systems, and the overall robustness of the OS if properly configured have kept me on it.
The ethical arguments for free/open standards and software didn't draw me in, but I do find myself becoming more invested in those concepts over time. I have the technical merits of the software to thank for the introduction. :)
- AnonymousAugust 26, 2011 at 2:57 PM
I started playing with Linux and trying to install Slackware with about 30 floppy disks back around 1995. I was 15 at the time. Well once I got it installed I realized that I couldn't do all the things I wanted to do so I reverted back to MS 95'. 3 years later MS 98' came out and I upgraded to it. I didn't like it that much so I tried installing Debian Linux. I loved it. I used Debian for about a year. Then I had heard of Mandrake. So I bought the Mandrake PowerPack in 1999. I was in the Army at the time and stationed in Korea. It took a long time for those disks to get to Korea. The funny thing is, I didn't even have a computer with me in Korea. So my Mandrake disks came in and I wanted to try it out. I went to a local internet cafe in the town I was stationed in. I sat down at one of their computers, one where they couldn't see the screen, and started to install Mandrake. I stayed there playing with Mandrake for about 8 hours straight. It was a lot easier to install and configure than Debian at that time. Since then I have used Slackware, Mandriva, Debian, Gentoo, Ubuntu, Mint, Sabayon, ArchLinux, and a host of others. I never even touched Windows XP until 2009. My mom needed help with a virus, I told her I had never used XP but I would figure out a way to clean the virus. All I did for her was to format the drive and install Ubuntu. She has been in love with Linux since then. I use Ubuntu at work because I don't have to do any up keep on it. At home I have a Debian server, an Arch Linux desktop and netbook, my wife has a laptop with Ubuntu, my daughters netbook uses Ubuntu, and my brother in-law that lives with us has now graduated from Ubuntu to Arch. We are a house full of Linux users and no one ever seems to complain about virus or spyware. I often wonder how people put up with this crap from MS, but at the end of the day, I know it is because they don't know there are better alternatives out there.ReplyDelete
I started using Unix in 1978 at work and really liked it. But I couldn't begin to afford the hardware or software. In 1998, I read "Close to the Machine" about putting the fun back in computers. Linux was a Unix I could afford and it was fun. Same reason I started using Ruby in 2006, it was fun.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 27, 2011 at 4:39 PM
I tried to delete a file under XP & I couldn't because the file was busy or in use. I thought about the sysinternals process explorer, then just rebooted. Tried to delete the file again, still busy or in use. Disabled AV software, still busy or in use. Reboot with AV disabled, still busy or in use. Uninstall AV software & reboot, still busy or in use. Safe mode, still busy or in use. Uninstall Windows, install Linux, & the problem was solved.ReplyDelete


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Viewership of the progressive Internet talk show TYT otherwise known as The Young Turks. Hosted by Cenk Uygur. Referred to as the 'TYT Army' for their ability to organize support for the TYT program and spread the message of TYT. Which is how TYT has become television newsworthy, hosting segments on MSNBC on nothing but word of mouth.
"They can't handle it. They're too strong. It's the TYT Army. And they're coming man...They're coming!"
TYT Army is going to release the motherfucking Kraken
TYT Army is going to release the motherfucking Kraken
by CommandoDude August 25, 2010
The vengeful act of crapping on a lover's chest while they sleep.Buy the plush


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Starting Position: Sit on the stability ball holding each dumbbell with your thumbs wrapped around the handles and your feet flat on the floor. Slowly begin walking your feet forward as you tuck your tail under, lowering your spine onto the ball as you walk your feet away from the ball until your head, shoulders and upper back are resting on the ball. Feet should be parallel and shoulder width apart. Knees are bent to about 90 degrees with your thighs and torso at or nearly parallel to the floor. Distribute your weight evenly through your feet.
Pull your shoulders down and back until you feel your shoulder blades hugging the ball. Position the dumbbells near your chest and armpits with your palms facing one another. Keep the wrist in a neutral position (straight, not bent).
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Downward Phase: Inhale and slowly lower the dumbbells in a wide arc until the dumbbells are level with or near the height of your chest. Try to keep the dumbbells parallel with each other, a very slight bend in the elbows and wrists in neutral position (straight, not bent). Your head, shoulders and upper back should be resting on the ball, and your torso and thighs should be parallel with the floor at all times.
Upward Phase: Return the dumbbells toward the ceiling following the same soft arc pattern of the downward phase. Avoid the tendency to thrust your hips upwards and arch your back. Your torso and hips should remain strong and parallel with the floor throughout the exercise.


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