Life With Linux

Some time back I was a self proclaimed computer whiz kid, I was proficient in using windows, could format and install any version from 95/98 to XP/Vista and i was very happy. But an year back in third semester at college we had a paper on UNIX a strange operating system that had only a command line. I came back home and decided that I'd need to install something on my PC with which i could practice UNIX commands and scripting to help me with exams and Google pointed me to linux. I'd heard about this strange OS that was often distributed with the computer magazines but never quite understood what it was. There were questions i had in my mind that made me almost certain that it was inferior to windows like

If its as good as they say then how come so few people use it ?

How can an OS be free, I must certainly lack some features ?

How can it not get affected by viruses ? After all nothing in the world is fool proof

It must only be for geeks, As it doesn't have a good GUI

The list could go on forever with me championing the cause of windows, the greatest OS ever created( or so i thought then )

After a couple of failed attempts and complete destruction of my partition table i was able to install linux for the first time, Mandriva One Spring 2008 KDE was what I had installed from a live cd that I'd downloaded off the internet. It did look good and i could do almost everything out of the box namely web browsing, listening to music and watching movies but i couldn't play the windows games that i loved.

I was fascinated by this new operating system, by how much you could do with it and at no cost and was immediately attracted to the Open Source philosophy. After all they do say that the best things in life are FREE and why shouldn't software be too.

During this past year I've experimented with a huge number of distro's before finally deciding to make my own system by reading the linux from scratch. I've made many mistakes made my computer bootable on more than one occasion but each time I've learned something new and now I'm quite comfortable with different distributions from Ubuntu to Zenwalk.

I've found alternatives for everything i could do in windows except for playing games ( yes i know about wine but the performances don't compare) and now I rarely ever use windows. I'd say that linux is an OS that every one should try after all what have you got to loose ( all your data if you don't back it up ) its free, its efficient, its secure and extremely reliable. Go on take the plunge if you haven't already you won't regret it. Let me know of how you first came across linux.