What got you into UNIX/Linux/BSD?

Grell

Grell

What first got you using UNIX or UNIX-type OS? I know for me I got interested in computer hacking when I was about 14 years old. The first thing any basic hacking tutorial will tell you is to use Linux (or BSD) and start programming, which I did. My first Linux was Red Hat 7.0 I believe. Shortly after I bought my first FreeBSD from CompUSA which came packaged with a big FreeBSD reference book, in the Walnut Creek days. It took a lot of frustration and trial and error but eventually I got used to UNIX and have not looked back since.
 
A somewhat geeky GF persuaded me to replace OS/2 Warp 4 with Fedora 2 back in the day. Never looked back, even though my JFS partitions got hosed in process. ;)

At the time, I had a website hosted at pair.com hosted on a shared server running FreeBSD, and subsequently at one point I thought to myself: I want my own FreeBSD server.
 
I taught myself to use the computer on an Apple II in the early 90's and always thought "real computers" used a terminal as an interface.

The first one I owned used Win98 as an OS and it seemed like a toy compared to the Apple. It had a 100MB Zip Drive and in 2005 Puppy came out with a version that would fit on it, I tried it out, and knew that's what I was missing. I bought a CD burner for it and started downloading different distros till I came upon PC-BSD v0.7.5, which at the time was using FreeBSD 5.3, stayed with it till PC-BSD v9.0, and switched to FreeBSD earlier this year.
 
Windows98 needed a usb driver (an upgrade, in other words). The store had a dark blue CD set 5.x on sale... two of the four filesystems went into space within the extended FAT-XX partition using shareware BootIT NG which does 165/a5h formatting... root and another fit into their own partition.
 
At work, ages ago, scored a full set of docs and diskettes for a 16 bit UNIX system called IN/ix that ran on a non-IBM PC. Learned the system and ended up being the Dept UNIX 'expert". Notice the quotes, expert is quite relative :)

So had to replace DOS on my home 286, picked up coherent/286. As time when on, found Linix and FreeBSD.
 
Played with it a bit in my spare time when I was younger, also my Grandfather use to talk about it quite a bit (Linux).

First real introduction was at University using a SunOS group Server (around 2007) and doing some of the Unix/Linux based courses. Now a Jr. Unix/Linux Administrator :stud
 
What got you into UNIX/Linux/BSD?
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I was sick and tired of lack of quality, reliability and stability of the Windows platform. After several years of UNIX I would add lack of flexibility ;)

As I already knew UNIX I tried Mac OS X, but after of year of trying to work there I went back to FreeBSD workstation.
 
DOS/Windows 95 -> DOS -> Windows 98 -> DOS -> Windows XP -> Windows Vista -> Lots of Linux'es -> Windows XP -> DOS -> Windows XP -> Arch Linux -> Windows 7 -> Windows 8 RP -> OpenBSD -> FreeBSD (now) !
 
I had a Packard Bell 486DX known as Hank, that I had got when I started college...i think it was like 10 years into having this and I could no longer stand the pain of trying use windows on it and just one day searched for "free dos operating system". First hit I got was Debian so I downloaded and installed it.

After almost a year of using it, I came to the conclusion it was not better than windows for me...so one day while reading some of the source code I kept noticing FreeBSD in the copyright...so I thought if they are taking the code from FreeBSD why the hell am I not using that...so I downloaded FreeBSD.
 
I was bored one day when my wife suggested I create a web site for her sister's jewelry store. I had been approached about doing such things in the past but had no interest at all but this time it was closer to home. Her sister's son-in-law worked at a Microsoft shop and sent me a whole bunch of Windows software and .NET stuff as I struggled to get the simplest things working but, one year later, it was working fairly well.

And then, Microsoft changed the way .NET worked which trashed everything I created. Don't ask me the details because I don't remember.

Furious himself, her son-in-law suggested I switch to Linux. I had already been reading about FreeBSD and its advantages over Linux so I tried that first. It only took me 2-3 months to accomplish what took a year with Windows and .NET.

That was eight years ago and now I have a thriving little web dev company that doesn't use Windows for anything but a little box sitting in the corner for testing IE (the worst browser on the planet).
 
I had used Red Hat back in the late 90's and didn't think it was bad, but software/drivers seemed lacking.

A friend of mine was always praising his FreeBSD servers, but I hadn't spent more than a few minutes logged on to one.

Then Vista showed up and I decided that if this was the direction Microsoft was heading, I should re-evaluate the alternatives.
 
My first taste of UNIX came from a system admin course in college. We used Solaris at school and I took an interest in it. Started using Linux at home and found I enjoyed it. From there I slowly moved from a DOS/Windows at home set up to using Linux/BSD full time.
 
Im sick of conformity and cause im a rebel. In doing so I tend to find better quality things in life; like everything else, I did some digging which eventually led me to BSD and Slackware. If I want to indulge myself in something, it has to be (1) fitting for me and (2) down to the grit and grind of the system (top quality).
 
After my first year of university, I moved into an apartment with a few other classmates and we needed to share an internet connection. Of course we had almost no money, so we got a hold of a very old, nearly-free computer. I think it was a 386 and the second network card cost more than the whole system. It first ran IP masquerading with some Linux distribution I don't recall. The university system administrator suggested natd on FreeBSD would work better, so we tried that and it did. This was around 1997 so it must have been 2.something. Around 2003 I was tired of the poor organization and stability of Windows and I wanted a challenge, so I started running FreeBSD as my desktop. I started with a very Windows-like desktop running KDE, but eventually found, with a bit or work, the very simple window managers suited my style much better.
 
I started in mid '80 as firmare developer and hardware designer (digital only) on custom Mostek Z80, 8088/86 and several microcontrollers hardware for a small company, using 80x86 DOS PC (nc/xtree, assembly/C compilers and schematic/pcb). When I left the company to work as consultant, my knowledge of Windows API was good, when Windows 95 was out I made few works in Windows but still in micro/fw world.
At the time, I tried to install Linux with no success (no distributions), I left for time-out, too much work to do, I thought it was not worth for my needs. Linux popped up again when I beat networking and web, then I decided to give it another chance. I thought it was better to learn a bit more about Unix, after that my choice was BSD, and inside BSD my choice was FreeBSD for its popularity. I skipped Linux.
 
I remember just over 3 years ago reading on Slashdot that the "worlds most secure operating system" had just been updated. They were referring to OpenBSD. I thought it strange that I had never heard of OpenBSD despite my intense interest in all things security related. After much reading about OpenBSD I came across FreeBSD too. I was going to install and configure an OpenBSD server but didn't really like the lack of good books and material available to learn this OS. I then looked into FreeBSD and read Absolute FreeBSD 2nd Edition and Building a Server with FreeBSD 7 A Modular Approach. The rest as they say is history! I've been running my FreeBSD server at home for over 3 years now and think its the greatest OS ever. I'm sure OpenBSD is great too but I'll tinker with that one day too.

I'd really like to move from Windows to a FreeBSD/GUI desktop but to date have just found that it doesn't work for me yet. I hope that changes one day!
 
I had 3 reasons:
1. I wanted a proper terminal/shell.
2. I wanted updates/installs with a single command.
3. I wanted security.

First started with Linux 5-6 years ago, nowadays running both Linux and FreeBSD on my machines. (Hopefully) on my way to becoming a sysadmin.
 
I didnt want to be tied down to someone elses server so linux package management or Microsoft's DRM was not acceptable for me.

FreeBSD and ports give me my independance ;)
 
I needed a web server for a domain I had purchased in the late 90's. A friend recommended FreeBSD. I set up a phpnuke/bbforum site which in it's time was a popular choice. FreeBSD was at 4.2 release at the time.
 
After a company merger I was in the position of having written/managed a fair-sized software toolkit and applications that management wanted ported to Unix from proprietary DEC operating systems. We had Unix people on board, so there wasn't much fumbling around. So I got paid to learn Unix. This was prior to 386BSD and Linux becoming available, so when they did I was ready.
 
Dad got some disks of ASPLinux from some software confest back in 2004.
He was a hardcore UNIX user back in 80s/beginning of 90s, switched to windows in 98 and got back to unix-like in 2009.
Used it for a week, realized that games do not work, deleted it. Loved the iface of it (KDE 3.2 iirc).
Installed again (but Mandriva) in 2005 on a laptop for learning purposes. In 2007 installed on main PC cause almost lost interest in games.
In 2008 tried Fbsd for the first time, just to have a look at it, loved it but found Linux more satisfying.
Upgraded hardware in 2009, got 12309, switched to Fbsd.
 
Started working in a small ISP that had a Solaris 2.5 box (Netra, back in 1996). As we expanded, we needed a proxy server. Tried ISA on NT4 when it was brand new, and it failed miserably. We replaced it after a week (of crashes and poor performance) with squid running on Solaris x86 and never looked back.

As we needed new machines, we started using Debian (name servers, mail relays, web servers, etc) and eventually started supporting a few local businesses with locally hosted debian firewall/router/smtp/pop3 boxes.

Once I moved on, I tried FreeBSD and after a little while to get my bearings, preferred the level of documentation, "proper" Unix way of doing things and seperation of core vs packages.

Ran both FreeBSD and Linux on the desktop from time to time, but I've discovered OS X (was curious when it first came out and the intel switch prompted me to jump ship) and it just suits my purposes a lot better for a desktop.

I still run production FreeBSD servers though today.
 
I toyed with linux a bit with friends in the 90's .. then at my job (I believe end of 1999) I had to setup a web server .. had it on Windows NT and it would not stay stable -- kept crashing and was very frustrating. Having tinkered with Linux a bit, I threw on a distro called esmith that just worked (same hardware, very stable) ... Since that point, got more interested in Linux, setup my own Linux box to learn (doing the distro shuffle .. red hat, mandrake, slackware, gentoo, suse, rinse & repeat) ... decided to try out FreeBSD in 2004 and absolutely loved the system.. read the handbook, bought some books and since then migrated my systems over to FreeBSD and have been running FreeBSD boxes since (mail, web, dns, dhcp, file, print, proxy, firewalls, you name it..)
 
First I got my pc in 1995 when I got the admission for university entrance for engineering.

It was loaded with Windows 3.1, I accidentally deleted some files and Windows refused to load. I was playing with DOS for a long time (changing prompt styles and colours) and later got into Windows 95.

My introduction to Linux was in the Uni, where we used to do computer aided drafting, after the class we reboot the PC to log into Red Hat OS even without knowing it was the linux (this is the only way to browse the internet). All I remember is there was a red hat on the bottom right of the screen and a 'X' cursor.

After some time I heard about Linux and installed on my system (Red Hat again) and went through all the 'dependency hell' things. Later Mandrake and Ubuntu with the free CD delivered. From Ubuntu I migrated to Debian - my all time favorite desktop Linux to date.

And recently moved my server to FreeBSD - One of my best decisions.

Cheers,
 
Where I worked at the time, we needed a network monitoring tool. We had the software (I won't name the vendor), but when I told my boss that we needed to buy a real unix workstation (or server) to run that software on, he asked me to look at cheaper options. I found MRTG, and needed some unix-like os to install it on (we had access to lot's of x86 type hardware). My NX (next in command) suggested I try something called "Red Hat" (this was around 5.1 or 5.2, IIRC), so I downloaded it and managed to install it, but it didn't feel familiar at all (at a previous job I had been sysadm for some SysV-based systems). Later, I told the story to a colleague (the firewall admin), who responded by giving me a CD with FreeBSD on it (I can't remember if this was 3.0 or a later version). I installed that, and felt at home at once. The rest is history...
 
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