It's been a while since I posted on here last, but with all the talk on here, I figured I'd pop in to give my personal opinion on some of the things said. Of course, I'll point out clearly, that this is ALL my personal Opinion, and so there isn't much in the way of technical reason for MY choices anyway
My start in Computers is much less than most around here. I didn't own one until VERY late 1999. That was when I got my very first computer ever. I'd always been fascinated with them, because whenever I saw one, I looked at the screen, and thought "Wow, this thing does SO much! It's nothing like what I've used, and I want one!".
Basically, all of two of my family members owned a Computer at that time, and the only other time I saw one was in school. These were Macs at school, and I didn't know a thing about them either. Well, I ended up being kicked out of high school for grades (They can do that, or at least they could then) because even though I'd been diagnosed with ADD, they couldn't get a medication to actually work. My teachers thought I was stupid, my family thought I was lazy, and it took years to find out that really, I had a very above average IQ (I have an IQ of 146, which when I read the results and the chart I got, is around Genius level) and so of course this was a shock and a half....
The teachers I had to deal with assumed I was stupid and that THAT was the reason I did poorly. My Family figured I was lazy and didn't pay attention, and it wasn't until some testing that the cause was found to be it wasn't that I was stupid, but in fact a Genius level IQ person, who oddly enough, will end up a lot like Bart Simpson....
Heh, if you guys ever watched The Simpsons, remember the episode where Bart is taking the IQ test in school, and switches his paper for Martin's? And the school finds out when the guy comes in and says "The reason BArt acts out and does so poorly is that he finds no challenge in his school work" and so on?
Well it was kind of like that. I ended up going to an adult learning center, and after about one semester, I learned that these classes were HALF credits... So it would take longer. I decided to try for a GED, because I wanted to have a diploma.
The State of Michigan at that time, was starting to change how those worked, and I had basically a month to start preparing myself for the tests, and pass them all, because the next month, they were changing how it all worked, and I'd have to start over again.
Well, I ended up going in when they had an opening, and to make it through, I'd do two tests each day. Not only did I pass, but I got such high marks that I got an equivalence instead of the standard GED.
A while later, I went to college, made the Honor's List, and became good friends with the Professor's in the Computer Science labs. I was part of the gifted group in the Computer Science department. All this within 4 years of turning on my first computer.
I think those of us with ADD for some reason learn through Computers better than other methods. But anyway, I'm rambling, sorry lol.
I personally don't like Ubuntu... But, at the same time, I have no issue with a Distro of Linux trying to be more like Windows. I don't care about that at all.
I've had very food experiences with certain versions of Mandrake / Mandriva Linux, and then some versions, were basically crap.
I haven't ever really liked Red Hat, or Fedora Core... But again, that's personal preference. I HATE Gentoo however.... I'm glad the people who like it found something they REALLY like and all, but I personally refuse to use it. I can't stand it Honestly.
The following, are the Distros I personally use and love:
SUSE / OpenSUSE
Slackware
Debian
NetSecL / The Security Enhanced Slackware
Mandrake / Mandriva (Depending on version of course...Some are just terrible)
A few smaller distros I've used, which I can't recall the names of... Mostly the Slackware based ones.
And of course FreeBSD, PC-BSD and all of them based on FreeBSD. I don't mind NetBSD, but I personally am more of a FreeBSD guy. OpenBSD... I don't like it, and I don't like the guy who makes it. I have no issue with his gigantic Ego, it's his personality and "We won't use ANYTHING that isn't open, even if it means being behind or our users suffering for it"... THAT bugs me.
As for Windows, and DOS, and all that... I do like Windows 2000, but don't use it anymore, and I do like Windows 7, which has a PowerShell which is a step in the right direction FINALLY. (Who here was EVER actually Happy Hacking in a DOS prompt? Heh).
Anyway, that's just my opinion, and I don't push my opinions on others, so you won't see me telling anyone here they're wrong in any way shape or form, unless they ask me what I think. That's one of the things people seem to like about me heh.