"This was the year of Linux on the desktop, at least for my family. I've been using a succession of free systems for years, switching at a whim between FreeBSD, Gentoo, and Debian; I'm the household geek though, so that doesn't mean much. However, the real turning point came when we decided to build a little computer out of spare parts as a Christmas present for my in-laws. Rather than giving them an old licensed version of Windows, or shelling out much more than the value of the computer for a new copy of XP, I decided to install Ubuntu.
"Since they were upgrading from a WebTV and would be starting from scratch anyway, this seemed like an ideal time to try something different..."
