“I began what I like to think of as my ‘Linux Adventure,’ in
February of 2006 on a short, much-frazzled shoestring. I couldn’t
afford to buy a new, or even a late model second-hand computer to
use with Linux and I wasn’t prepared to give up Windows. Used
computers are comparatively easy to find but my choices were
narrowed down to what I could afford. My first Linux computer was a
266 MHz P2 with 128 MB of RAM. Of several full featured distros,
Debian 3.1 (Sarge) was the only one I was able to install on it
and, at that, I had to learn how to do some very geeky post-install
tweaking. I later acquired a 333 MHz Celeron with 256 MB of RAM and
it too seemed best suited to Debian 3.1. As time progressed I was
able to finagle and trade my way up to my current Linux machine
which is an 800 MHz Duron with 512 MB of RAM running Debian 4.0
(Etch). Debian Etch, by the way, didn’t require any geeky
post-install tweaking, although I did have to ascend a short
learning curve to give it multimedia capabilities, and is at least
as user friendly as was my first Windows 98 computer. In my
opinion, anyone who contends that Linux isn’t ready for the
ordinary desktop user hasn’t tried it and/or isn’t an ordinary
desktop user…”