I spotted this over at Scot’s Newsletter Forum and I thought I would share this with you. It is one man’s adventure going from Windows to Linux and where the adventure has taken him. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.

This was posted by V.T. Eric Layton:

Well, my fellow adventurers…

It’s been just a few days short of a year since I was liberated from the MS technical prisoner concentration camp, Stalag Luftwindow XP. I have some thoughts to share on this experience…

Toward the end of last June, an XP patch broke my system. That was the fourth time in three years that this had happened. It was the proverbial straw… I had been considering GNU/Linux for quite a few years already. I even had a friend who gave me a bunch of Mandrake floppies back in ‘02 sometime, but I never had the disk space to install them.

After this last catastrophic failure, Urmas, Frank Golden, and Sweet Lou from over at my forum, The Cabin In the Woods, goaded me into downloading and installing a GNU/Linux distro on my system. Urmie and Frank were for Ubuntu. SL was for Debian. Ubuntu won out because Debian’s Sarge installer scared the heck out of me. My only regret is that they hadn’t goaded me enough a lot earlier.

Through many trials and tribulations (mostly user error), I finally managed to get Ubuntu to work as I needed it to. After a little more experience under the belt, I began the distro farm. In a matter of a few weeks, I had installed and removed numerous distros. Some, like PCLos and Gentoo were troublesome. PCLos didn’t cause any damage, but it never would install. I gave it up. Gentoo totally trashed my system, requiring a complete reinstall of all my distros. It was UGLY.

After a year’s worth of learning and burning, I’ve come to the conclusion that I am just much more impressed and comfortable with two specific type distros… Debian-based and Slackware-based. For this reason, I have today decided to focus on those distros. Currently, I have four Deb-based distros and three Slack-based on my system. And as wonderful as those distros all are, I have to admit that my favorites are the parent branches themselves… Debian and Slackware. I guess that makes me officially a GNU/Linux geek, for sure.

After today’s install of Zenwalk, I will probably leave my system alone for a while. It will look like this:

Ubuntu Dapper Drake 6.06.1 (Deb) w/ Gnome

Debian Etch 4.0 (Deb) w/ Gnome

Linux Mint 3.0 (Ubuntu) w/ Gnome

Vector Linux SOHO 5.8 Final (Slack) w/ KDE

Slackware 11.0 (Slack) w/ KDE

Mepis 6.5 (Kubuntu) w/ KDE

Zenwalk 4.6.1 (Slack) w/ XFCE

They’re posted here in the order they are installed on my hard disk.

I’ve also noticed something else during my Linux adventures. I have come to the conclusion that KDE ROCKS! I used to be a hardcore Gnomie, and while I still enjoy its simplicity, KDE is just the cat’s meow when it comes to desktop management applications. There is no better. Sorry Gnome.

And speaking of KDE apps… MAN! You gotta’ try k3b! That is a fantastic CD/DVD application! I LOVE IT!

In closing, I would like to post a long list of folks who’ve helped me along the way with my adventures:

Urmas, Frank Golden, Sweet Lou from The Cabin In the Woods. They got it all started.

Scot Finnie, Bruno, Striker, and MANY, MANY other folks from ATL and the “less active” areas of Scot’s Newsletter Forums. You guys made my search for knowledge much less difficult than it could have been.

LinuxQuestions.org Forums. A veritable bottomless well of knowledge, tips, and tricks. You don’t even have to join, just search their site.

Numerous miscellaneous GNU/Linux and distro-specific forums and websites from around the world.

And lastly, GOOGLE! Google is your friend. Don’t you forget it!

I’m off to go install Zenwalk… Ahhhhhmmmm… Ahhhhmmmmm… it’s a Zen thing, you know.

If you would like to read some of the comments you must register first. Full posting here.

I wish I had the guts to switch. Someday, just maybe, I’ll take the plunge.

Comments welcome.

[tags]linux, windows, forum, posting, interesting, switch, [/tags]