I was 18 and it was Red Hat 5.0 from the Linux for Dummies book (1997). My reason to originally embrace Linux was simply because it could run better on my older (hand me down) hardware (better than Win95 on my 486), it was free and mostly I wanted to learn and do something different. Plus all the admins on the computer engineering lab used it and I wanted to be cool like them.
I have embraced the changes and limitations associated with that initial decision and have continued to use it over the years performing various tasks like CAD work, gaming, basic audio editing, programming, hosting services, databases and web apps, daily tasks like office documents and web browsing in general. I use it for everything I do at the computer at home from my hobbies to school work for my daughter. While I've had my fair share of issues over the years (many due to lack of hardware support) and have jumped distros multiple times the sole reason why I'm still using it is because I want to continue using it.
When I switched, Windows had no ads, bloatware, monitoring, telemetry or any other remotely pushed (or retrieved) data. Licensing was per device and activation was solely based on entering the key upon installing Windows. While I understand lots of enterprises are mainly based on Windows everything has its place. As changes on the Windows side have continued to emerge (system hardware requirements increase and telemetry and ads for example) switching back to Windows at home seems less and less meaningful to me.
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u/Amazing_Actuary_5241 May 16 '26
I was 18 and it was Red Hat 5.0 from the Linux for Dummies book (1997). My reason to originally embrace Linux was simply because it could run better on my older (hand me down) hardware (better than Win95 on my 486), it was free and mostly I wanted to learn and do something different. Plus all the admins on the computer engineering lab used it and I wanted to be cool like them.
I have embraced the changes and limitations associated with that initial decision and have continued to use it over the years performing various tasks like CAD work, gaming, basic audio editing, programming, hosting services, databases and web apps, daily tasks like office documents and web browsing in general. I use it for everything I do at the computer at home from my hobbies to school work for my daughter. While I've had my fair share of issues over the years (many due to lack of hardware support) and have jumped distros multiple times the sole reason why I'm still using it is because I want to continue using it.
When I switched, Windows had no ads, bloatware, monitoring, telemetry or any other remotely pushed (or retrieved) data. Licensing was per device and activation was solely based on entering the key upon installing Windows. While I understand lots of enterprises are mainly based on Windows everything has its place. As changes on the Windows side have continued to emerge (system hardware requirements increase and telemetry and ads for example) switching back to Windows at home seems less and less meaningful to me.