When I got my first Personal Computer long time ago (in the 20th century), it was running MS DOS. I remember being fascinated by the “realistic” computer games of that time, especially Doom and Dark Forces 3D action games. Oh, sweet times indeed…
Then Windows 95 came. At first, it felt somewhat uncomfortable, because I was already used to MS DOS, which was fine to me, and didn’t want to learn something completely different. But time passed by, and I started to use Windows 9x exclusively, and in fact I didn’t even know that an alternative (Linux) exists! But Windows just got worse with every new version, and it reached an apogee with the release of Windows ME (“Mistake Edition”:) ). Yeah, I really hated that OS. It was VERY VERY buggy! But everyone around me used Windows, so I just thought that issues with Windows are inherent to computers in general, not to this particular OS. So I thought…
When I started to use Windows XP, it turned out to be more stable than Win 9x family. But still I was having issues quite often with Explorer quirks and famous Blue Screens Of Death. Only with the release of Service Pack 2, Windows XP became a stable system. But still it had issues with security, and generally one with an Internet connection should use at least a decent firewall and antivirus scanner, constantly running in the background and using computer’s valuable resources, otherwise Windows PC can be easily infected with some virus or a spyware!
Naturally, I became tired of all of this. And when I first heard about Linux (it was Redhat Linux 9.0 back then), I decided to try it out. It positively surprised me! It showed to me that a viable (and FREE) alternative to Windows exists! It was quite easy to install and use. But unfortunately, it missed some features I needed, and was not mature enough, in my eyes. So, I decided to switch back to Windows XP, but keep an eye on Linux development…
At that time, as I remember, Firefox web browser first came to the scene (it was 2004), and I started to use it in Windows XP. It has radically changed my web browsing experience and habits! Tabbed browsing is definitely a very good idea.
Later in 2004, I got (from my friends) CDs with Mandrake Linux 9. I immediately fell in love with it!!! It was MUCH better then Redhat9, to my mind! It was so user-friendly, easy to use and stable, that I was converted! I started exploring the Linux world and learned a lot of new things. Especially I liked the fact that there are plenty of different compilers, IDEs and other tools for the programmers in Linux. Since I am a programmer myself, I felt like a child in a candy store 
At that time I had only programmed in Turbo Pascal for DOS and Borland Delphi for Windows. But today I am familiar with more than 10 different programming languages (C, C++, Perl, Python, PHP, Bash shell scripting, etc), thanks to Linux 
So, Linux makes an excellent platform for a software developer… And Vim is the best IDE, of course
After some versions with Mandrake (before it became “Mandriva”), I switched to Gentoo Linux, to learn more about Linux internals. It was the first time I compiled a Linux kernel from the source code myself! Well, it was pretty simple and straight-forward to me. And I was impressed with the sheer power of the Portage software management system in Gentoo Linux!
But later, since I was learning Computer Science in the university, I didn’t have enough free time to wait for programs to compile in Gentoo, and to maintain the system in the up-to-date state. Life is too short, and I realized that I’d better spend it on something more creative and valuable, than wasting it on constant compiling and other time-consuming activities…
So, now I’ve found the Linux distribution (“distro”) that is very simple to use “out of the box”, and has a decent package management software, which is quite fast, stable and reliable, and doesn’t require compiling from source. What is that distro, you ask? Ubuntu, of course! Try it – it’s free, and most likely you’ll love it!
PS: Some people complain that there aren’t many games for the Linux platform. While this is mostly true, I don’t care much, because I don’t play computer games these days. Some time earlier (before I started using Linux) I was addicted to them, I could play Serious Sam for many hours straight, for example. But Linux (due to the fact there aren’t many games for it, and I spent time quite nice learning the internals of Linux anyway) saved me from that addiction . How do I relax, you ask? Well, I like to listen to my favorite music, watch movies and chat with friends, for example!
To learn more about myself, read the “About” page of my blog!
Sincerely yours, Michael.
