[gentoo-user] OT: Linux as a first platform? Was: Abut smb:// aware tools

[Stroller]

In separate posts, Harry Putnam wrote:
> I started my computer life on linux 1996.. only moved to windows for
> some things when editing video (I like the adobe tools... and linux
> just doesn't have anything remotely comparable.)
> ...
>
> I knew nothing whatever about a computer in the 90s you are talking
> about. My only knowledge of a computer came from things like seeing
> the girl at the unemployment office bring up my records.  And not even
> all unemployment offices had computers yet.
>
> My first encounter with a computer or home computing started in
> 1996. Right from scratch.

Hi there,

Out of curiosity, why did you choose Linux as your first platform?

I ask this not to criticise, or anything, but I'm just really curious  
how you heard of it.

My family had a BBC Micro as a home computer when I was a kid and then  
later (but still late 1980s) a 286 or so running DOS, but I returned  
to computing at around the same time, 1996. Someone gave me an old PC  
which I got running and I then did my first self-build of a c 150mhz  
Pentium-class system.

At that time it seemed "obvious" to me to install Windows 95. I had  
used Windows 3.1 at the mother-in-law's on a handful of occasions, and  
seen it in other people's offices. Win95 had been released with  
fanfare the previous year.

I can only guess that you had some previous background in electronics,  
because I did not learn of Linux until c 2000 (although I was inactive  
in computing for a couple of years 1998 - 1999). Until then (pretty  
much) as far as I was concerned, "all PCs run DOS or Windows".

Could you possibly explain what led to to choose Linux as your first  
platform? I would love to hear from anyone else who has managed to  
completely skip the mainstream o/s (by which I mean Windows and Mac).

Cheers,

Stroller.