How I Got Into The World Of Linux
It has been years since I've started to use Linux 🙌 as my daily operating system. During these years, I have got the chance to try several distros.
A distro or distribution is a flavor of Linux. There are several of them to try out. Frequently switching/trying-out distros is called distro hopping.
DistroWatch is a website where you can learn & explore popular Linux distros.
In this article, I will share the story of how I got introduced to the world of Linux operating systems at the age of 11.
📺 The scene
The night before, I was tinkering with my dad's office laptop (Toshiba Satelite M200) when I suddenly found CDs of Windows 2000 Advanced Server.
My dad being a tech savvy person, usually allowed me to play-around & tinker with the laptop after he comes home from the office.
The excited me started formatting existing Windows 7 with Windows 2000 😅
Although installation was successful, after installing I was quickly bored with a laptop that didn't have internet working (the driver was incompatible 🤷♂️)
The problem started when I decided to go back to Windows 7 🙆♂️
I never got to know what the problem was, but the hard disk won't format in the Windows 7 installer. I didn't have a backup USB or another installer for Windows.
After hours of trying past midnight, I finally lost and slept 🥱
✨ First encounter
Next day, dad normally went to office with his laptop and I normally went to school.
It was December 21st, 2011 sometime after 9PM in the night, when I opened the laptop again I saw Ubuntu 11.10 for the first time.
This was the first time I had encountered something completely different from everything I knew till then.
🔭 The exploration begins
After exploring Ubuntu & Unity desktop for a few weeks, I found out several other distros of Linux with different desktop environments, look & feel and package managers.
This discovery made me download a distro every week and try it out for a week before moving on to the next flavour 🚀
This distro exploration went on for a few months before settling on Kubuntu as my daily driver.
📖 Conclusion
Arch Linux for desktop and Rocky Linux for servers is my preferrence. Along with that, I also love Debian and Fedora.
Linux has taught me a lot about how computers work and an operating system's role in creating the bridge between the user and the hardware.
I encourage you to explore the world of Linux operating systems, especially if you're a programmer Linux is something that is unavoidable.
Thank you 😊