OSNews: Linux ‘Just Works’ For Me (Or, How I Came to Love Red Hat and Gnome)

“My first playful encounter with Linux was in 1999, I think it
was Red Hat Linux 5.x. I got as far as installing it on some old
and abhorrent IBM PS2 486 complete with MCA architecture and 16/4
token ring. After configuring network connectivity and using
Netscape for a bit I git very bored and began tinkering. Naturally
I broke something and (shock!) Linux crashed, dead. Nothing for it
but a hard reboot. This was before Linux used a journalled
filesystem and the box never recovered. It took me a long time to
forgive Linux for that.

“In 2000 I was a well paid IT contractor and I came across a
security consultant who ran Windows2000 atop Red Hat Linux 6.2
using VMware workstation. I was impressed, albeit confounded by the
seemingly pointlessness of the exercise. Until I saw tools like
Nmap, Ethereal, Etherape and Samba. Tools like that could cost a
fortune on the Windows platform, certainly at that time. I wanted
to know more about Linux. I still considered myself an utter newbie
and began researching for the easiest to use distro. I considered
at the time that Red Hat Linux was for experts so it didn’t really
get a look in. All reviews and personal opinions seemed to point to
Mandrake 7. I don’t remember using it for long–just long enough to
break it through my own mix of exploration and stupidity. It’s very
true that a little knowledge is a very dangerous thing!

“Another contract later and in 2001 I kept reading great press
about SuSE 7.1 and how it was a ‘Windows Killer’. Well, if nothing
else that must mean it’ll be easy for a dumbass like me to get it
up and running. And it had ReiserFS! Hurrah! I began running my
business on SuSE/KDE–webserver, mailserver, desktop (I used
Smoothwall on my ADSL/USB connection). At client sites I would fire
up VMware on my laptop (running at 500MHz) and boot into Windows
for the daily chores while all the time trying to make the most of
my SuSE Linux experience…”

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