How many of u here are from a non CSc field, but got obsessed with GNU/Linux and FOSS,if so why?
I came into this bcoz of Kali Linux, jus was curious about the hacking stuff going on back in school and started looking into it and discovered this whole new world. But it was really after when i felt like shit ,knowing how big brothers where treating us, i was into all this privacy based and ethical things. What i mostly like about gnu/Linux or FOSS is that u can be part of the community and help each other. And you can pay each developer or community of developers and support them, so no single entity is bagging everything . If this was the way everything was, all the central power who have no moral or ethical vision for humanity would have never existed. So thats y i got so obsessed with all this even tho its generally considered irrelevant to a person from my field. Whats ur story?
I’m from the CS field, but my obsession is related to a general dissatisfaction with Windows.
I distro-hopped for a couple of years until I settled with Arch, which led me to discover how the community can provide a top quality product with 0 cost for the user. But my obsession didn’t really manifested until I discovered how easy it was to deploy practically ANYTHING with Docker and BOOM! I had access to my own services which worked as good, and sometimes even better, than propietary ones. And the support, oh my god the support was excellent in every sense of the word.
I mean, just look Arch, Void or Jellyfin: their community, their documentation, their effort for providing a quality product, is ten times better than their propietary counterparts.
My obsession comes not from the technical knowledge or the geeky side of it, but the fact that I have access to a plethora of quality services and products with minimum effort.
Edit: syntax
Know this is rather out of the blue, but I do appreciate the praise you lay on Jellyfin.
It’s not easy to build a community like we have and we almost failed a few times. Stuff like this makes me realize we were right to stick with it.
Glad to meet a Jellyfin collaborator here. Your work deserves the praise it gets, for real.
All my support for you guys!
i’m in CS now, but when i got into lignux i was just some dumb nerd. it was right around the time Valve ported Steam to lignux— this was the only thing that let me switch honestly. i’m not sure how exactly i learned about ubuntu, but i gave it a go— and i’ve been in love with UNIXish systems ever since. popped over to parabola for a couple years, then openbsd for a few, then haiku.
and now i’m studying CS, because of it.
EDIT: this is why i’m skeptical of the argument some free software activists make-- that proprietary software on lignux hurts the movement. it doesn’t. it brings over more allies who otherwise would’ve never switched to lignux, let alone heard of free software. someday the proprietary software on lignux will no longer exist, and it’ll be a beautiful day for sure. but for now, it is a necessary evil that’ll further our own interests.
Yeah I would never have switched if discord and steam and nvidia didn’t work on linux.
When I was younger and windows 8.1 came out I thought it was cool how it looked so different to windows 7, and when windows 10 came out I started to realize that operating systems were cool in how they changed the way everything looked and kind of how everything worked. I wanted to try MacOS for a long time because I wanted to see how different of an experience it was, but that never happened because MacOS is expensive as hell.
A couple years ago I learned about linux and got super hyped because it was another operating system that worked completely differently than windows. I wanted to switch for a long time but I was still super into video games, but last year I lost a lot of interest in them and that really helped me be able to move along with proton for games I do still like to play. Also I was starting to realize I wanted to stop being so dependant on big corporations for my day-to-day stuff.
I finally switched in january and never looked back. I hopped a little but once I landed on manjaro that was it for me. I can do everything I did on windows but better now. I actually am not looking forward to the beginning of school next year because they require windows on your laptop and windows is just a bit ugly now compared to linux lol.
A side effect of switching mainly for my love of operating systems is that while I thinks it’s clunky and a bit ugly I do not specifically hate windows or even microsoft, though they do a lot of shitty things. I equate windows personally with something like that juicer that only used proprietary packets or the new john deer tractors, I’m sure it has a place but it is not for me.
deleted by creator
I wouldn’t say I am obsessed with Linux, but I enjoy that Linux/FOSS is community driven and that shows in both the product itself as well as the development process.
Something about using Linux just feels more fun and engaging than trudging through installs/configs on Windows machine.
I think it’s the tendency for problems to get a response like “wait… what? That should work!” instead of “I get off work at 5, have you tried reinstalling Windows?”
deleted by creator
I’m dual booting rn with windows and Linux and honestly for everything else I just love Linux so much. Writing, researching, watching videos, etc. And then the privacy aspect of it and how much you can customize it! Not sure if I’m obsessed, but I do love Linux a lot.
Very interesting topic, I’m not from CSc but what you say makes sense, actually I have a cousin who knows about GNU/Linux thanks to his programming teacher. Before telling my story I want to say that I’m Mexican so my English is not perfect.
I discovered GNU/Linux when I was 14 years old (7 years ago); a Spanish YouTube channel made a video about Linux Mint, I was already so pissed at how Windows was mediocre in everything, windows 8 was such an unstable an eventually slow piece of software and it wasn’t even secure.
So I decided to switch to GNU/Linux but I was a stupid and reckless kid, I didn’t have an USB and I thought "if i upgraded my windows by installing the OS as an upgrade, I don’t need to have and USB, I just need to have the ISO file and my computer will handle everything right?.
There’s none of that lol…
Several months later our “OS teacher” presented us Ubuntu 09… in 2014 lol, with the purpose of installing it in our computers, I already knew some parts of GNU/Linux so I asked her if I could install Ubuntu 14.10 and she was like what? … oh yeah no problem.
I never looked back, my friends liked to play games on my computer using windows 8 but I personally never used it again, eventually i just reinstalled Ubuntu and it was a permanent bye to Windows.
Now I’m a fedora user with aims of using GuixSD in a future, and more in the “libre software” side of things rather than “open source”.
First time hearing about GuixSD here, and after reading a bit more about it, I need to give it a try.
My background is in finance and I just got accepted in to a college for hospitality. I noticed how bad windows 10 was getting and as a 22year old guy I had just discovered about Edward Snowden and the stuff that he exposed freaked the fuck out of me so I decided to care about my privacy and decided to switch to linux. This was in mid 2018 (around this month of that year). I browsed a bit, did some research and landed with ElementaryOS as my first Distro. It is very elegant and beginner friendly. I have distro hopped since. I am trying to use as much as open source applications as possible. Unfortunately, as a student in a different field I don’t have proper knowledge to contribute to the community nor do I have money to donate to the devs.
I am trying to switch to custom roms on android phones as well but I feel like they’re just not there yet. Too many bugs in them. microg is great but it looks like microg could use a lot of helping hand.
The whole Edward Snowden situation freaked me out too…It’s a shame what happens to whistleblowers. No wonder many people are afraid to speak out. My first distro was Linux Mint. I also installed it on my mom’s computer and she really likes it.
I never tried Linux mint or even Cinnamon DE. Recently, I was watching a youtube video and the youtuber was using Cinnamon DE. It looked clean af. I will definitely give Cinnamon a try (:
After Windows 2000 reached EOL I was not happy with the idea of going to XP. I wanted something that was server rock solid like 2k was. Enter Mandrake Linux. The Free Software philosophy struck a nerve. Since then I’ve been a true Linux fan. I’ve only been working in Tech for the last 7 years though. I’m a web designer not a programmer.
Watched video on youtube of someone using lubuntu then installed it
I installed Linux Mint on a refurbished ThinkPad x220 because I was broke as shit and had to sell my gaming computer to pay rent. Eventually life got better, never replaced the ThinkPad, traveled with it, distro-hopped a bit — and I’ve gained a love for decentralized and open-source software. Becoming more comfortable with the command line has led to plans for a career change as well.
I “dual booted” since the Slackware 5 CDs in the 90s but it was 2 consecutive virus infections installing legal XP, that made me switch.
I was on debian, ubuntu, mint, sabayon, chakra, but now I am with Manjaro plus Arco and Deepin as failsafes, and rarely need them.
I used btrfs, but gave me problems, EXT4 works but in summer I need XFS partitions for gaming or heavy HD use data or I have problems.
Non-CS here, I kept learning about all the different ways user data was being sold by different corporations like Facebook, Google, Windows, etc. When I started to delve into the privacy issue, I found out about Linux. Much like you, I also like how it’s more of a community/ by the people for the people type atmosphere. I would like to study more CS related topics to help but… I’m also kinda lazy and easily overwhelmed .____. At least I can support projects with monies c:
Got a new laptop, and was appalled all the ways Windows asks to advertise and track you when installing windows, an operating system I paid for.
I was vaguely aware of linux through developing, and decided that it was time to learn to use it, which took me down the FOSS rabbit hole.
