Finally made the switch

The Water Cooler
,
1

Heyhey, name’s bifutake (not what my mother calls me tho). I’ve been a Windows user since version 3.11, when it was entirely optional if you were gonna use it or just hang out in Norton Commander with your filesystem. If you wanted to install something, you had to do it through DOS. It was on a crappy second-hand machine with 2 MB of RAM (upgraded to 4 and then 8), and a 50 MHz 486 slc CPU. It died within a couple years, just when I was playing Warcraft 2, somewhere mid-campaign, I’ll never forget it.

Went a few years without a computer, and then got a properly store-bought AMD Duron 700 MHz, 128 MB of RAM (DDR1), 32 MB VGA card, 20 GB HDD, 17" CRT and my first 56k dial-up modem. That was in 2001, and yeah, I still have the receipt. Went through a few more PCs till today and a few OS’s too: Windows Millenium, Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 10, Windows 11 and in January 2025 I finally made the switch to a full time Linux user (Ubuntu 24.04, at first).

I had some previous experience, mostly with Mint and Ubuntu (starting with Linux Mint 8 Helena, IIRC, which I’ve dual-booted next to my Win7 back in '09 or '10), a few months with Manjaro (virtual machines, work laptops) but turned Fedorian just last month (Feb 21st). Started with the Workstation Edition but couldn’t stomach the Gnome 3 environment, even after I heavily modified it through Tweaks and Extensions. It just looked wrong. So I made some further research, tried KDE Plasma as a VM first and was simply blown away. Made a fresh install the same day (Feb 26th).

Wasn’t too sure if this was “just a phase” till I saw the difference between Ubuntu and Fedora (dnf was a revelation to me, compared to apt where all dependencies had to be resolved manually). And when I finally found a desktop environment that pushed all my buttons, I knew it was love at first sight. I honestly think F41 KDE Plasma is the best OS I’ve ever used. No going back now!

Sorry for the long post.

Cheers!

EDIT

Btw. I made my first post here, showcasing the look of my desktop with conky:

I know it’s old but I really like conky’s simplicity, unobtrusiveness and its lightweight character. Besides, I’m not (yet) familiar with any other way to display all that information in as little space.

15 Likes
2

Welcome, I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying Fedora KDE! :slight_smile:

2 Likes
3

Yeah. Running KDE too. I run it on so many devices, I decided to make yearly donations. Its that good. And it keeps getting better with each update.

Welcome to Linux BTW!

1 Like
4

Dos? Welcome, ancient one. Jk. Same as you started with trying all the ~buntus and other distros. Fedora feels home. Full time linux user since windows 8 blessed my eyes.

2 Likes
5

That was a funny time :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: following a link to the sound such a dial-up modem made. For the younger once, inpatient users, to show with what speeds we had to deal … or when the phone line was occupied …

2 Likes
6

Welcome! We have similar beginnings, although I had the unfortunate privilege to try Linux much earlier (90s Linux was not very fun, lots of kernel compiling :sweat_smile:).

Like you, I started with DOS/Win3.11 on our family’s 486. Norton Commander was the bomb of course, as well as other Norton Utilities at the time - Norton Disk Doctor was equally impressive with its text-mode GUI and graphical mouse cursor. Norton AV was actually decent, and Norton CD (NCD) allowed you to change directories by just typing the partial name, regardless of which folder you were in. Norton Speed Disk was the best defragging tool (also, does anyone else miss defragging?) Anyways, I digress. DOS was pretty fun, and because we were poor at the time, we couldn’t upgrade our RAM from 4MB, so Win95/98 was out of question. So I lived in DOS / Win3.11 for a long time, even browsing the early Internet using a monochrome monitor and a DOS-based web browser called Arachne!

Arachne browser for DOS
Arachne browser for DOS800×600 161 KB

I loved that PC to bits, had many fond memories playing games like Prince of Persia, Dangerous Dave, OMF 2097, Jazz Jackrabbit etc.

Jazz Jackrabbit, a Sonic-like game for DOS.
Jazz Jackrabbit, a Sonic-like game for DOS.764×510 66.6 KB

In 1999, I finally built my own PC - a Pentium III 450MHz with 32MB SDRAM, an APG graphics card called “Riva TVT” from this little-known company called nVidia, and a COLOR monitor! Browsing the web in color was fun, but playing my old DOS games in color… not so fun (too many games were in shocking pink and garish colors). But it was also when I had my first tryst with Linux - it was Red Hat 5.x, and it wasn’t very fun. Too clunky, too much kernel compilation. Later Linux distros like Mandrake made it a bit better, but still very janky. Actually around that era, I was more impressed with other alternate OS’s such as OS/2 Warp, BeOS and QNX. QNX was super polished and way ahead of its time, it’s realtime kernel and scheduling made the desktop very responsive even under heavy load, something even modern Linux struggled with until recently.

QNX Neutrino 6.2.1
QNX Neutrino 6.2.1800×600 37.2 KB

BeOS had impressive multimedia functionality and was my OS of choice for media playback. However, it wasn’t until I tried SuSE that I finally started to like Linux. I loved their YaST control center, and how easy it was to use, and how polished everything was.

SuSE Linux 10.0
SuSE Linux 10.0800×600 337 KB

Even with all these operating systems, I still used Windows as my main OS, simply because of the greater software availability. Lots of cool utilities were being made for Windows that I missed on other OSes (such as Naviscope, OnSpeed, Admucher etc).

It wasn’t until Windows 7 came out that I switched to Linux full time. I was a student at the time, but for some reason I could not get a student discount for a Windows licence. I was really disappointed too, because I really liked the Win7 beta and was keen on buying it legally, but the price put me off. I then formatted my drive, loaded Fedora Core 11, and haven’t looked back since.

1280×1024 309 KB

7 Likes
7

Ah. The good old days! I miss those times. Luckily I still have my unused IBM Aptiva, and Amiga 500, and 600 to go back in time for a short while.

People who are new to Linux often mention that they miss this sense of discovery when computing and the Internet where new things. And that they find this sense of discovery again with Linux. I kinda get that.

2 Likes
8

That’s what I call an intro! (And one I can relate to!)

Since you’re into Fedora and KDE, you should check out Universal Blue—it’s closely tied to Fedora and built for customization.

Universal Blue images are great for tinkerers who want to build their system their way, but they also offer a ready-to-go, batteries-included version based on Cloud Native technologies, aiming to be a next-gen Fedora Kinoite: Aurora.

Plus, it takes care of things like video driver updates for a hassle-free experience. :wink:

1 Like
9

XFS can do it :stuck_out_tongue:

I paid $80 for a PCI modem thinking 56KB would be way faster than what I was getting with the mobo modem. It didn’t make a difference (I don’t think I understood kb/kB/KB casing back then and just threw money to try to make it faster :p)

I remember having a CompuServe trial disc that when doing the initial sign-up, would connect to the internet. It disconnected every 2 hours but it was free internet :stuck_out_tongue: I had AOL, EarthLink, and NetZero.

I had this computer with Intel 810 or 845 graphics and Windows 98; wheel, CDs and all:

bddOBAFBQqtz80IWFac0vGoNCfbOfkTEiZ8a9l7lXgQ-1617269680
bddOBAFBQqtz80IWFac0vGoNCfbOfkTEiZ8a9l7lXgQ-16172696802592×1944 682 KB

I tried to improve graphics for Crimsonland (top-down shooter) one day; my friend had a SIS GPU and I thought I could just install SIS drivers on Intel :stuck_out_tongue: my local computer repair shop got a few trips. I eventually figured out how to install Windows 98 just to avoid needing to take it to the shop when I broke something :stuck_out_tongue:

I mainly played Diablo 1 and 2, and Hexen on it. I wasn’t too-into the wheel for racing (it was non-FFB and rotates so far before flinging back).

I paid $200 on Newegg for a Windows XP Home Edition disc during SP2 or 3. Then eventually got an Acer TravelMate 2480 with Intel 950GMA and got into some fun:

  • I was a part of the Intel 9xxSSF graphics driver modding group; I provided Intel Embedded Graphics Drivers (IEGD) that were interesting on Vista/7 for not supporting WDDM/Aero (iirc IEGD ran StarCraft 2 faster on 7). Others did cooler stuff like bringing Software TnL to 950GMA (default Vertex Shader 3.0 support at software was bs since nothing used VS like that; 950 had no hardware VS, only PS 2.0, and technically no Shader Models without VS); I also tried CoD MW2 with SwiftShader :stuck_out_tongue:
  • My first Linux distro was Ubuntu 6.06 (advertised in a PC gamer magazine) on this computer, and also where I experienced Compiz cube and wobbly windows
  • Ran OS X Tiger-Snow Leopard hackintosh (VoodooHDA was pretty interesting)
  • This laptop had launch Vista; I was into WoW pre-TBC, played hours daily, and remember random BSoDs. It had 512MB RAM that later was upgraded to 2 G.SKILL sticks (I still have the sticks and the blue power brick for the Hotwheels PC speakers :stuck_out_tongue:)

LimeWire and FrostWire were involved at some point too :stuck_out_tongue:

I think that XP disc I bought covered 7, but I remember having to call up MS activation several times (reinstalls and mobo switches) and eventually found some solution to that that’s been working since 8 :stuck_out_tongue:

3 Likes
10

… I remember “The Good Old Days” a bit differently … like bread-borading OPAMPS and using signal generators to input various waveforms that were processed by the circuit and the results displayed on an O’scope … I think they call this “Before the Epoc” LOL!!!

Then someone talked me into bread-boarding an MK3880, doing the programming in a combination of machine code and later assembly just to get the output on a set of very expensive LEDs and relays through some line-drivers … welcome to the '70’s … and CPM was not quite there when I started this … LOL

Then along came a company that invented and produced the first intelligent hard drive controllers for IBM and I started designing circuits around a new (at the time) 8086 and NECV20 processors, using Z80s for the intelligence on the host controller … IBMDOS before anyone really knew about Microsoft … ISA BUS was king at the time … and it was a "flip the switches to provide the proper bitmask to address things on the BUS … so much fun … LOL!!!

Then came OS2 … “Hmmmm, what’s this???” interesting I thought … pretty much saw the products Microsoft was developing and distributing … was NOT impressed … and Windows made me a believer in “There just has to be something better!!!”

… and then along came Sun Microsystems and SunOS BSD based Unix and SunView … “I’m in LOVE!!!” … LOL!!!
… I loved Sun OS and hardware but was NOT in love with the cost … so, got various distributions of UNIX for the X86 … still not quite fixing the itch of “Is there something better that is either UNIX or UNIX Like???” that is a bit more friendly than Free BSD.
and then … “Slackware” … ok … getting close, but package management still left a LOT to be desired …

Enter Redhat and RPM … and the heavens parted and angles sung … I’ve been using Redhat distributions ever since :slight_smile: and Fedora is my favorite because it keeps me right at the edge of “Is it going to work after this update?” but not quite crossing the line of “OMG!!!.. EVERYTHING IS GONE!!!”

5 Likes
11

Unfortunately I made same experiences the last few month.

While reading in the Linux news also saw that there was again a big discussion about rust and c programming and that even a c programmer left because of discrepancies between the two programming languages ​​and their integration into the Linux kernel.

I think the last kernel earthquakes had their origin more upstream than with fedora it selves.
It just did hit us first again because the nature of Fedora is to be up front, using upstream more or less as it comes.

So I hope the rest of 2025 will bring better results and things get more stable again, without hitting us first :grin:

2 Likes
12

Given my roots in technology, I am still not convinced that rust is the “Magic Bullet” it is claimed to be. As far as I am concerned, rust is more of a crutch for those that can’t actually design, write and implement logical instructions to cause electronic circuits to perform a specific task correctly. Assembler/C/C++ is a language that real system designers use to make certain that the system is doing exactly what it is supposed to do … no guesswork involved and no forgiveness for crap logic. (man … am I ever a mean old off topic ogre today!!! … LOL!!!)

2 Likes
13

Welcome!

I have been using Fedora on my laptops for years, but I finally made the full leap around this time last year. I started to feel a pull towards the community, and I’m glad that I decided to wander in and start meeting people. The folks here in the Fedora community are amazing.

Again, welcome! I hope you get tons of enjoyment and fun out of your Fedora experience!

2 Likes
14

P.S. Water Cooler is off topic section … we are talking abou some switches happening in the Kernel Community :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Linus is also an older model of programmer and sees the situation so, that everything and everyone should get the chance to participate on the Kernel. I guess that’s why “Kernel next” has be created to do tests there. However it looks like that lately the meaning of this is quite divided and some shortcuts are made, while this causing hiccups, which are dividing the programmers even more in two sides.

Sadly seeing walking programmers away which could support the workflow as it was since beginning of the kernel programming was started.

1 Like
15

Hi LL,

Yeah … kinda sad that people are walking away instead of working through their differences. I am not completely opposed to rust for kernel development, I am just skeptical but willing to see how it works out. I even installed rust on one of my boxes to give it a go and see what it can/can’t do … there are some aspects of it that “seem” to be good tech but it still contend that when working so close to the hardware of the system, I would still rather use something that is very rigid with respect to control/transparency like ASM/C/C++. As for the Linux Kernel specifically, I do have other options that are not M$ so, IF I have to , I can just switch to BSD and go on with life :slight_smile:

16

… sorry … posted in wrong topic …