My Journey Through Linux: A Tale of Learning and Fun
I am a tinkerer. Especially when it comes to computers. No more so than in my early days of computer usage. At the time, I would spend hours typing in Basic programs from magazines into an Atari 800 and later an Apple IIe. Only to end up troubleshooting syntax errors because of my poor typing skills. Little did my 8 year-old brain realize that I was learning not only how to troubleshot computer problems properly, but gaining a passion that has followed me ever since. When I built my first computer in 1996, a Pentium 200 with 16mb of RAM running Windows 95, this need to tinker came back with a vengeance. Soon afterwards, I heard about this operating system called Linux. At the time, I did not give it much thought because I was content creating custom boot menus to maximize the performance I getting on the games I was playing. However, Linux remained in the back of my mind, and in 1999 when on a trip to New York City, I purchased a retail copy of SuSE Linux 6.1. Little did I know that this would start an 18 year journey of joy, frustration, and learning.
SuSE Linux 6.1
SuSE Linux, now called openSUSE, was my first exposure to Linux. Since I was new to Linux, the SuSE Linux 6.1 package I found was perfect. For $45, I received a package of five CD's for the Operating System, a 3.5" boot floppy for install, a 440 page manual, a version of Corel WordPerfect 8, and most importantly, 60 days of free technical support by phone. Believe me when I say, I used the heck out of the tech support! After a long install process, I was presented with the beautiful, for the time, KDE 1.1 Desktop Environment (DE). It felt so snappy on my Athlon 600 machine compared to Windows 98SE. Everything was great until I went to reboot. No matter what the technical support people and myself did, we could not get the machine to boot into Linux without using a bootable floppy. After about two weeks working with me on the problem, SuSE Linux sent me a refund, and I went back to Windows 98SE. While my first foray into the Linux world was a failure, some good did come from it. Remember I mentioned that 440 page manual? Well I ended up reading that manual several times. This manual kept my interest in Linux alive until I had the urge to try again.
Mandrake Linux 9.1 (2003) - Mandriva Linux 2007 (2006)
I did not use Linux for about 4 years. Because of my previous experience, I wanted to wait until I had a second computer to use. In 2003, I was able to purchase a Dell Inspirion laptop for cheap, and decided it was time to play with Linux again. A friend of mine was using Mandrake Linux and suggested that I give it a shot. So I installed Mandrake Linux 9.1 and was blown away. The change in KDE from version 1.1 to 3.1 was amazing. It felt so much faster than Windows XP. It was stable and battery life was great. Using Mandrake Linux was a dream. I liked it so much, that I used Mandrake Linux for the next 3 years. As with everything, all good things come to an end. In 2005, MandrakeSoft, Mandrake Linux's parent company, acquired a company called Conectiva. This acquistion and a lawsuit by the Hearst Corporation over the use of the name Mandrake, MandrakeSoft changed their name to Mandriva. With this name change, came a change in philosophy. While the distribution itself was free, access to their software repositories required a subscription. Soon they started to charge a subscription fee for their distribution as well. At the time, because the experience I was having with them was so good, I was willing to buy a subscription. It wasn't long before security and software updates were either lagging behind other distributions or were buggy. Because of this, I started to look at other distributions. My only requirement was that it had to use the rpm package management system. I was also ready to move over to a more "advanced" distribution. So I decided on Fedora.
Fedora Core 6 (2006) - Fedora 9 (2008)
Fedora, then as today, is a Linux distribution that resides on the "bleeding edge", and is not designed for your average user. At the time I switched to it, I felt I was ready to learn more about the nuts and bolts of Linux, and boy was I in for a ride. With a change in distributions, came a change in Desktop Environment (DE) from KDE to Gnome. Yes, even then I knew I could change the DE to KDE, but I was willing to try something new. At the same time I switched to Fedora Core 6, I had purchased a new laptop. This laptop had an ATI graphics card. The very first thing I learned how to do was install this driver from source. The sense of accomplishment when I successfully installed the driver was awesome. Because of this success, I started to use the command line more often for system maintenance. It became second nature to install software from the command line. I actually preferred it to the GUI install. Fedora, while not as lightweight as other distributions, was fast and responsive. The problem came with stability. Fedora Core 6 and Fedora 8 were very stable for me and provided a pleasant user experience. Whereas Fedora 7 and 9 were very unstable. This lack of consistency and a change in my computing habits slowly eroded my enthusiasm for Fedora. The end came for me with Fedora 9. In order to install the ATI driver, it was necessary to "downgrade" the Linux Kernel. After several failed attempts to install the driver and get the stability my computing habits needed, I decided it was time to switch distributions.
Ubuntu 8.10 (2008) - Ubuntu 12.04 (2012)
While I was using Fedora 8, I had heard rumors about this very user friendly distribution called Ubuntu. So when I decided to move on from Fedora, I decided to give it a try. It truly lived up to the rumors I had heard. It was very stable. The graphics card drivers were very easy to install. It even used Gnome as its DE. The biggest adjustment I had to make was with the use of "sudo". In every other distribution I used, "sudo" was used very sparingly. For example, to add a repository and install software on my Fedora 8 install, I would type:
"sudo" was only used for quick installs where we did not want to type in a password. This was because your credentials were listed in the "sudoers" file. So using "sudo" and having to type in a password was a change in work flow for me. To this day, I sometimes find myself typing "su -" instead of "sudo" when working in with the command line! This change in work flow aside, I absolutely loved Ubuntu at the time. Because of its stability and ease of use, I started to recommend it to users new to Linux. Life with Linux for me was good, then Ubuntu and Gnome decided to throw a wrench into the works. The first wrench was Gnome. They decided it was time to update their DE. When I first saw Gnome 3, I thought, "Why do I want my computer to look like a smart phone?" It was so different than Gnome 2, that many users, including myself, did not like it. Then Ubuntu threw the second wrench. They released the Unity DE. Initially, I disliked it because it made my Linux machine look like a Mac. In the end, I decided to give it a try. The problems soon became worse. From the menu bar being locked to the top panel instead of the program window to needing third-party software in order customize Unity's behavior, I was not impressed. After a year fighting with Unity to complete basic computing tasks, I decided to switch to Linux Mint.
Linux Mint 13 Maya (2012) - Linux Mint 18 (2017)
Since I had become comfortable with how Ubuntu handles tasks, I wanted to use a distribution that was based on Ubuntu. I decided to give Linux Mint a try. With Linux Mint, I felt I was using Ubuntu before the release of Unity. Everyday tasks were easy to do and I really liked the looks of the Cinnamon DE. Linux Mint had the stability and usability that I felt Ubuntu had lost. Soon I was using Linux Mint on not only my laptop, but my Home Theater PC as well. Linux Mint used all the same commands in the command line as Ubuntu. So the transition for command line work was not that hard. Because of its stability and use of a more traditional style DE, Linux Mint has become the distribution I recommend to new users. With the release of Linux Mint 18, I decided to give the Mate DE a try. I found that I liked it even better than Cinnamon. Mate felt more responsive than Cinnamon, and I had grown to like its "sparser" default look.
Ubuntu Gnome 17.08 and beyond
Currently, I am using a customized version of Ubuntu Gnome 17.04 on my laptop as shown in the above screenshots. When Ubuntu announced that they were abandoning the Unity DE and switching to Gnome 3, I decided to give Gnome 3 another look. It has really matured since its initial release. Using extensions, I can customize the look and feel of Gnome to match my computing needs. While I am happy with how my current setup feels, I am always looking at expanding its capabilities through these extensions. I look forward to seeing what happens when Ubuntu finally makes the switch to Gnome 3 with 17.10. I foresee myself using Ubuntu again in the future.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this romp through my experiences with Linux as much as I enjoyed sharing it. Even though I have used Linux for a long time, I am still learning about it. Each time I discover something new, it brings back the joy of my first working install. I look forward to seeing what the future holds for Linux. Below are the links to the various Linux Distributions I talked about. See you all again with my next post. Cheers!
OpenSUSE: OpenSUSE is the consumer version of SuSE Enterprise Linux. You can find more information about it and download it here: https://www.opensuse.org/
Mageia: After Mandriva Linux went bankrupt, some of its developers started Mageia. You can find more information about it and download it here: http://www.mageia.org/en/
Ubuntu: You can find out more and download Ubuntu here: https://www.ubuntu.com/
Linux Mint: You can find out more and download Linux Mint here: https://www.linuxmint.com/
SuSE Linux 6.1
SuSE Linux, now called openSUSE, was my first exposure to Linux. Since I was new to Linux, the SuSE Linux 6.1 package I found was perfect. For $45, I received a package of five CD's for the Operating System, a 3.5" boot floppy for install, a 440 page manual, a version of Corel WordPerfect 8, and most importantly, 60 days of free technical support by phone. Believe me when I say, I used the heck out of the tech support! After a long install process, I was presented with the beautiful, for the time, KDE 1.1 Desktop Environment (DE). It felt so snappy on my Athlon 600 machine compared to Windows 98SE. Everything was great until I went to reboot. No matter what the technical support people and myself did, we could not get the machine to boot into Linux without using a bootable floppy. After about two weeks working with me on the problem, SuSE Linux sent me a refund, and I went back to Windows 98SE. While my first foray into the Linux world was a failure, some good did come from it. Remember I mentioned that 440 page manual? Well I ended up reading that manual several times. This manual kept my interest in Linux alive until I had the urge to try again.
Mandrake Linux 9.1 (2003) - Mandriva Linux 2007 (2006)
I did not use Linux for about 4 years. Because of my previous experience, I wanted to wait until I had a second computer to use. In 2003, I was able to purchase a Dell Inspirion laptop for cheap, and decided it was time to play with Linux again. A friend of mine was using Mandrake Linux and suggested that I give it a shot. So I installed Mandrake Linux 9.1 and was blown away. The change in KDE from version 1.1 to 3.1 was amazing. It felt so much faster than Windows XP. It was stable and battery life was great. Using Mandrake Linux was a dream. I liked it so much, that I used Mandrake Linux for the next 3 years. As with everything, all good things come to an end. In 2005, MandrakeSoft, Mandrake Linux's parent company, acquired a company called Conectiva. This acquistion and a lawsuit by the Hearst Corporation over the use of the name Mandrake, MandrakeSoft changed their name to Mandriva. With this name change, came a change in philosophy. While the distribution itself was free, access to their software repositories required a subscription. Soon they started to charge a subscription fee for their distribution as well. At the time, because the experience I was having with them was so good, I was willing to buy a subscription. It wasn't long before security and software updates were either lagging behind other distributions or were buggy. Because of this, I started to look at other distributions. My only requirement was that it had to use the rpm package management system. I was also ready to move over to a more "advanced" distribution. So I decided on Fedora.
Fedora Core 6 (2006) - Fedora 9 (2008)
Fedora, then as today, is a Linux distribution that resides on the "bleeding edge", and is not designed for your average user. At the time I switched to it, I felt I was ready to learn more about the nuts and bolts of Linux, and boy was I in for a ride. With a change in distributions, came a change in Desktop Environment (DE) from KDE to Gnome. Yes, even then I knew I could change the DE to KDE, but I was willing to try something new. At the same time I switched to Fedora Core 6, I had purchased a new laptop. This laptop had an ATI graphics card. The very first thing I learned how to do was install this driver from source. The sense of accomplishment when I successfully installed the driver was awesome. Because of this success, I started to use the command line more often for system maintenance. It became second nature to install software from the command line. I actually preferred it to the GUI install. Fedora, while not as lightweight as other distributions, was fast and responsive. The problem came with stability. Fedora Core 6 and Fedora 8 were very stable for me and provided a pleasant user experience. Whereas Fedora 7 and 9 were very unstable. This lack of consistency and a change in my computing habits slowly eroded my enthusiasm for Fedora. The end came for me with Fedora 9. In order to install the ATI driver, it was necessary to "downgrade" the Linux Kernel. After several failed attempts to install the driver and get the stability my computing habits needed, I decided it was time to switch distributions.
Ubuntu 8.10 (2008) - Ubuntu 12.04 (2012)
While I was using Fedora 8, I had heard rumors about this very user friendly distribution called Ubuntu. So when I decided to move on from Fedora, I decided to give it a try. It truly lived up to the rumors I had heard. It was very stable. The graphics card drivers were very easy to install. It even used Gnome as its DE. The biggest adjustment I had to make was with the use of "sudo". In every other distribution I used, "sudo" was used very sparingly. For example, to add a repository and install software on my Fedora 8 install, I would type:
su -
(type root password)
rpm -ivh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release.rpm
rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-livna
yum install vlc
"sudo" was only used for quick installs where we did not want to type in a password. This was because your credentials were listed in the "sudoers" file. So using "sudo" and having to type in a password was a change in work flow for me. To this day, I sometimes find myself typing "su -" instead of "sudo" when working in with the command line! This change in work flow aside, I absolutely loved Ubuntu at the time. Because of its stability and ease of use, I started to recommend it to users new to Linux. Life with Linux for me was good, then Ubuntu and Gnome decided to throw a wrench into the works. The first wrench was Gnome. They decided it was time to update their DE. When I first saw Gnome 3, I thought, "Why do I want my computer to look like a smart phone?" It was so different than Gnome 2, that many users, including myself, did not like it. Then Ubuntu threw the second wrench. They released the Unity DE. Initially, I disliked it because it made my Linux machine look like a Mac. In the end, I decided to give it a try. The problems soon became worse. From the menu bar being locked to the top panel instead of the program window to needing third-party software in order customize Unity's behavior, I was not impressed. After a year fighting with Unity to complete basic computing tasks, I decided to switch to Linux Mint.
Linux Mint 13 Maya (2012) - Linux Mint 18 (2017)
Since I had become comfortable with how Ubuntu handles tasks, I wanted to use a distribution that was based on Ubuntu. I decided to give Linux Mint a try. With Linux Mint, I felt I was using Ubuntu before the release of Unity. Everyday tasks were easy to do and I really liked the looks of the Cinnamon DE. Linux Mint had the stability and usability that I felt Ubuntu had lost. Soon I was using Linux Mint on not only my laptop, but my Home Theater PC as well. Linux Mint used all the same commands in the command line as Ubuntu. So the transition for command line work was not that hard. Because of its stability and use of a more traditional style DE, Linux Mint has become the distribution I recommend to new users. With the release of Linux Mint 18, I decided to give the Mate DE a try. I found that I liked it even better than Cinnamon. Mate felt more responsive than Cinnamon, and I had grown to like its "sparser" default look.
Ubuntu Gnome 17.08 and beyond
Currently, I am using a customized version of Ubuntu Gnome 17.04 on my laptop as shown in the above screenshots. When Ubuntu announced that they were abandoning the Unity DE and switching to Gnome 3, I decided to give Gnome 3 another look. It has really matured since its initial release. Using extensions, I can customize the look and feel of Gnome to match my computing needs. While I am happy with how my current setup feels, I am always looking at expanding its capabilities through these extensions. I look forward to seeing what happens when Ubuntu finally makes the switch to Gnome 3 with 17.10. I foresee myself using Ubuntu again in the future.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this romp through my experiences with Linux as much as I enjoyed sharing it. Even though I have used Linux for a long time, I am still learning about it. Each time I discover something new, it brings back the joy of my first working install. I look forward to seeing what the future holds for Linux. Below are the links to the various Linux Distributions I talked about. See you all again with my next post. Cheers!
OpenSUSE: OpenSUSE is the consumer version of SuSE Enterprise Linux. You can find more information about it and download it here: https://www.opensuse.org/
Mageia: After Mandriva Linux went bankrupt, some of its developers started Mageia. You can find more information about it and download it here: http://www.mageia.org/en/
Ubuntu: You can find out more and download Ubuntu here: https://www.ubuntu.com/
Linux Mint: You can find out more and download Linux Mint here: https://www.linuxmint.com/
I startet out with SuSE 6.1 too. Along with Debian 2.1, Mandrake 6.0 and Caldera Open Linux 2.2.
ReplyDeleteA friend and I was creating a support tool for a company we were working at. He was covering RedHat, Slackware and another I cant remember. SuSE became my favourite back then.
Cheers.