Dave Heinemann

My History with Linux

I've long held an interest in Linux. I didn't have access to the Internet until I was about 12 years old. For a long time, Linux was this mythical alternative operating system outside of my grasp. I knew it existed, but didn't have the resources to experience it for myself.

Then one day in 2002, PC User magazine came bundled with a copy of Lycoris Desktop L/X, an obscure newbie-friendly distro in the vein of Mandrake. I remember being blown away by the fact that it let you play solitaire during installation (something I have never seen since). However, this was soon met with disappointment. Lycoris Desktop L/X came with a fairly basic set of packages; without Internet access, there wasn't much to do besides play around with KTuberling, and I soon went back to Windows 98 SE.

A few years later, I saw a copy of Debian Sarge at the news agency, complete with a 100-page book explaining everything from installation to general usage and games—all written for newbies like me. I think it must have come on multiple CDs because I remember it including thousands of packages. This was perfect for me because I was limited to 56k dial-up Internet at the time. I had a blast trying out all the games. Fish Fillets was my favourite.

Eventually I got ADSL and was able to start exploring Linux distros for myself. I think maybe Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) was the first of these. For a long time I used CrunchBang. Other than short stints with Slackware, Arch Linux, and OpenBSD, I've largely stuck with Debian and Debian-based distros, perhaps out of familiarity.

These days I'm using Fedora. I was using Debian beforehand, but it's always a little bit janky. Fedora has been perfect from the start for me, and I don't see myself changing distros any time soon. It has a high level of polish, and packages receive frequent updates despite not being a rolling release distro. For me, this achieves the perfect balance of reliability, and up-to-date packages. I recommend giving Fedora a shot!

Do you have any thoughts or feedback? Let me know via email!

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