Linux.com: Just How Does a Guy Get Into This Linux Thing?

"I don't even know when I had first learned about Linux. Perhaps it was by clicking a link on C|Net's Download.com site. But whatever the case, I had owned my computer for about a year, Give or take a couple of months."

"It looked promising, yet extremely complex, and I didn't think it had all the software I needed. Would it print? Would I be able to edit graphics? Would I be able to even install it?"

"A few months later, I had installed AT&T @Home broadband Internet access at home, and was much more capable with my computer than when I started."

"I downloaded a copy of PhatLinux, because if I didn't like it, I could always stop using it. The problem with Phat was that I was unable to configure my soundcard, or start the X Window System. My soundcard was a Yamaha DS-XG and I had guessed (incorrectly) that it was Sound Blaster compatible. Since I couldn't start X, or configure it, I thought that Linux was not capable of meeting my needs. Rightly so; it was not ready for me.'

"Over the next three or four months, I would download and try to install various other distributions that "worked on DOS/Windows partitions," and had about the same amount of success. Some of them would not be able to mount the VFAT filesystem, so they wouldn't load at all."

Complete Story

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