Diary Of A Linux Newbie: The First Year

"Just a year ago -- April 21, 2010 to be exact -- I installed a Linux distribution. I installed it from a DVD of Ubuntu 8.10, Intrepid Ibex, that came with an issue of Linux Pro magazine I bought from a news stand, and I put it on a hand-me-down eMachine with 384MB RAM (the other 128MB being dedicated graphics). It was the first time I had ever installed an operating system. In fact, it was the first time I had ever installed anything at all, anytime, anywhere. I had always just called for (and paid for) professional help from a neighbor who extended me rates more favorable than his enterprise customers paid. Raised at IBM, he had become a born-again Microsoft True Believer and wanted to keep us all happy Windows users.

"I had wanted to do something with Linux for quite a while. The idea of a whole new approach to computers, one that allowed someone without formal training to explore the way computers ran, fascinated me. I was much too timid to leap into action at once, risking my one and only machine (2002-era Compaq, Windows XP Home) that contained several years' worth of writing, notes, and comparable trivia. Instead, I did what every ex-academic would do, I read up on the subject."

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