How I discovered Linux
It was year 2002, I needed to learn Unix basics as it was part of my syllabus for the semester. At that time I did'nt know anything about operating systems other than Microsoft Windows. I only knew vaguely about Macintosh and Unix. I had never seen those operating systems in action.
So I turned to Google inorder to find some information about these other operating systems. I entered the keyword "Unix operating system" and I was surprised at the results. A lot of stuff came up, like BSD, SCO, FreeBSD, Solaris, etc.,. I came to know that all of them are Unix or Unix like operating systems . Most of them were downloadable fro free aswell. It was something new to me since, I did not know until then that whole operating systems are available absolutely free of charge and we can even make copies and distrubute them. But, sadly downloading was not an option for me since I had only dialup connection at that time.
Then I noticed a link for "RedHat Linux 8" and clicked on it. It took me to RedHat's homepage. They had a small flash demo of the operating system they called "RedHat Linux 8". So I clicked on it. It was awesome, a treat to watch. I have never seen any desktop like that in before. The look of the OS was very cool. I said to myself, I have to get this somehow. But how ? I did not know anybody who could help. I went back to google which pointed me to linux.org. This site provided a lot of basic info about gnuLinux and how to get it.
It also advertised a book called RedHat Linux 8 Bible ,which also contained the operating system cds. I decided to buy the book.
The book was my first step towards an entirely new world in software. The world of free software (free as in freedom) . It generated a lot of interest in me regarding free software movement.
I read some articals about RHL 8 on some sites which i dont remember now. They were not really encouraging. But I decided to take the plunge anyway.
It was time to install and I had no clue on how to do it. The book haddetailed instructions in it but I didnt really know anything about installing two operating systems on the same machine. Anyway I popped in the cd and booted from it. First few screens were no problem. I just had to press next, next and next since, the defaults were good enough. Then came the partitioning part. I had a 40GB harddisk but, the book only explained the process for 20GB harddisks. And I didnt even understood the way linux presented the partition information. hda, hda1, hda5 and so on. So I did the unthinkable, I selected the automatic option and went ahead. I got through the remaining screens and finished the installation. It was time to reboot.
After rebooting I have realised what I have done. There was no sign of the other os I had. It simply booted in to RedHat linux. I realised the mistake of not getting enough information. Ofcourse it wasnt too bad since I backed up important files.
Everything was working fine except for mp3's and my internal modem. The book talked about mp3 and some other stuff which were taken out of RedHat 8 due to licensing issues. But there was no help on the modem I had. Since internal modems are cheap they were common. But they only come with drivers for the other operating system. It was then that i realised the true value of the internet and ofcourse google. It searched and searched until I got everything working. In the process I realised that there are user groups for linux (and just about anything for that matter) and joined the local user group. In the mean time I cracked the partitions lingo in linux and installed both the operating systems. I needed the other os simply out of necessity rather than choice. As time went by my knowledge about linux and computers as a whole improved greatly. I started talking about it with some friends and helped them install it on their systems aswell. Suddenly I became the linux guru in my college. There were people comming to ask me doubts about computers, programming etc. I became well known in the college. Although some never realised full benefit or value of free software there were some who were impressed by its realiablity. Especally since there were no blue screens on death. Absence of good support for multimedia was dissappointing for a lot of them as it is such an intricate part of a desktop system.
After few months I borrowed cds of both RedHat 9 and Mandrake 9.1 from a guy I came to know through user group. Mandrake was very good for a desktop system. But I loved Redhat. I never got off the infatuation with Redhat and I still use it to date, ofcourse its Fedora now (but,they are thing anyway. Aren't they? ).
So thats how I started off with linux. Linux has come a long way from were it was when I started.
Installations became much easier and there is good support for multimedia now in some distros.
" If only people could realise what freedom really means there could be more using linux."
Well that all for now, in the future I will post some useful tips on using linux. Until then good bye.
So I turned to Google inorder to find some information about these other operating systems. I entered the keyword "Unix operating system" and I was surprised at the results. A lot of stuff came up, like BSD, SCO, FreeBSD, Solaris, etc.,. I came to know that all of them are Unix or Unix like operating systems . Most of them were downloadable fro free aswell. It was something new to me since, I did not know until then that whole operating systems are available absolutely free of charge and we can even make copies and distrubute them. But, sadly downloading was not an option for me since I had only dialup connection at that time.
Then I noticed a link for "RedHat Linux 8" and clicked on it. It took me to RedHat's homepage. They had a small flash demo of the operating system they called "RedHat Linux 8". So I clicked on it. It was awesome, a treat to watch. I have never seen any desktop like that in before. The look of the OS was very cool. I said to myself, I have to get this somehow. But how ? I did not know anybody who could help. I went back to google which pointed me to linux.org. This site provided a lot of basic info about gnuLinux and how to get it.
It also advertised a book called RedHat Linux 8 Bible ,which also contained the operating system cds. I decided to buy the book.
The book was my first step towards an entirely new world in software. The world of free software (free as in freedom) . It generated a lot of interest in me regarding free software movement.
I read some articals about RHL 8 on some sites which i dont remember now. They were not really encouraging. But I decided to take the plunge anyway.
It was time to install and I had no clue on how to do it. The book haddetailed instructions in it but I didnt really know anything about installing two operating systems on the same machine. Anyway I popped in the cd and booted from it. First few screens were no problem. I just had to press next, next and next since, the defaults were good enough. Then came the partitioning part. I had a 40GB harddisk but, the book only explained the process for 20GB harddisks. And I didnt even understood the way linux presented the partition information. hda, hda1, hda5 and so on. So I did the unthinkable, I selected the automatic option and went ahead. I got through the remaining screens and finished the installation. It was time to reboot.
After rebooting I have realised what I have done. There was no sign of the other os I had. It simply booted in to RedHat linux. I realised the mistake of not getting enough information. Ofcourse it wasnt too bad since I backed up important files.
Everything was working fine except for mp3's and my internal modem. The book talked about mp3 and some other stuff which were taken out of RedHat 8 due to licensing issues. But there was no help on the modem I had. Since internal modems are cheap they were common. But they only come with drivers for the other operating system. It was then that i realised the true value of the internet and ofcourse google. It searched and searched until I got everything working. In the process I realised that there are user groups for linux (and just about anything for that matter) and joined the local user group. In the mean time I cracked the partitions lingo in linux and installed both the operating systems. I needed the other os simply out of necessity rather than choice. As time went by my knowledge about linux and computers as a whole improved greatly. I started talking about it with some friends and helped them install it on their systems aswell. Suddenly I became the linux guru in my college. There were people comming to ask me doubts about computers, programming etc. I became well known in the college. Although some never realised full benefit or value of free software there were some who were impressed by its realiablity. Especally since there were no blue screens on death. Absence of good support for multimedia was dissappointing for a lot of them as it is such an intricate part of a desktop system.
After few months I borrowed cds of both RedHat 9 and Mandrake 9.1 from a guy I came to know through user group. Mandrake was very good for a desktop system. But I loved Redhat. I never got off the infatuation with Redhat and I still use it to date, ofcourse its Fedora now (but,they are thing anyway. Aren't they? ).
So thats how I started off with linux. Linux has come a long way from were it was when I started.
Installations became much easier and there is good support for multimedia now in some distros.
" If only people could realise what freedom really means there could be more using linux."
Well that all for now, in the future I will post some useful tips on using linux. Until then good bye.
posted by Rajesh at
6:53 PM
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