XPost: alt.os.linux.mint, alt.os.linux.ubuntu   
   From: thorongil@telenet.be.invalid   
      
   On Monday 15 July 2013 02:47, Chris F.A. Johnson conveyed the following   
   to alt.os.linux.mint...   
      
   > On 2013-07-14, Auric__ wrote:   
   >> D?nk 42? wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> I never regret switching to Linux, especially now that I know what   
   >>> Microsoft has been up to!  Thanks, Clem!   
   >>   
   >> That's nice. I've been using Linux for about 14 years now. I'm stil   
   >> using Windows. Shrug.   
   >   
   >    I've been using Linux for almost 14 years.   
      
   Likewise.   
      
   >    Before that I used an Amiga.   
      
   Right before I started using GNU/Linux, I was running NT 4.0, which I've   
   run for about two years.  I chose NT because, before that, I had been   
   running OS/2 for nearly six years, but I needed a new machine, and what   
   I really wanted was UNIX, which was hard to come by in those days and   
   which was very expensive for private use.   
      
   I did not have an Internet connection yet at the time - nor any other   
   network connection for that matter - so file transfer was always via   
   sneakernet, and all my friends were running Windows 95 on their machines   
   of the time.  Coming from OS/2 - which was a real 32-bit operating   
   system, but its popularity was weaning - I didn't want to settle for   
   something based on DOS (and especially not on a Pentium II) so I   
   compromised and chose NT instead.  I didn't /completely/ like it, but I   
   wasn't particularly bothered by it either.  It was a standalone machine   
   anyway, and it was the only computer I owned at the time.   
      
   I did however have the experience that software which wasn't explicitly   
   written with NT support in mind would often throw up errors, and I was   
   slightly irritated that NT didn't support Ultra-DMA access for my hard   
   disk.  I was even more irritated that I needed to install Service Pack 3   
   first in order to get NT to recognize my AGP bus, and installing the   
   proper graphics driver and the proper sound driver was quite annoying as   
   well, particularly as I had to redo the whole thing after the hard disk   
   in my computer broke down only a few weeks after I had bought it.   
      
   Yet, when I switched to GNU/Linux, I didn't do so because I would be fed   
   up with NT or anything.  I simply wanted to explore GNU/Linux and   
   immediately found that it was everything I had been looking for in an   
   operating system.  It was a UNIX family system, and the GPL and other   
   Free Software licenses appealed strongly to me, as did the wealth of   
   software which was all installed together with the base operating system   
   in one go, and fully integrated with it.   
      
   My first distribution came with StarOffice - the predecessor to what   
   would later become OpenOffice - and StarOffice didn't have the ability   
   to produce MS-Office documents yet at the time, but also included in the   
   distribution was a native GNU/Linux version of WordPerfect 8, and that   
   was definitely enough for me on account of being able to produce   
   documents which were compatible with DOS and Windows computers.  After   
   all, my friends weren't making any particular efforts at producing   
   anything compatible with /my/ software either, even back when I was   
   still running OS/2, so why would _I_ need to run software which was   
   explicitly compatible with their systems?  WordPerfect was definitely to   
   my liking, because I had been involved in teaching WordPerfect - the 5.x   
   versions, for DOS - and even typing up the WordPerfect courses in the   
   past, so I knew WP pretty well.   
      
   I ran a dual-boot installation of GNU/Linux and NT 4.0 for about a   
   month, during which I found myself booting more into GNU/Linux than into   
   NT, and when NT then finally refused to boot on January 1st 2000 in   
   spite of having installed the official Microsoft Y2K Pack and the latest   
   NT Service Packs, it only sped up my decision that GNU/Linux was the   
   operating system I was going to stick with.   
      
   I was already exclusively running GNU/Linux for four months before I got   
   a cable Internet connection at home.  Prior to that, if I wanted to surf   
   the Web or engage in some IRC conversations, I would go to a cybercafé.   
   That gave me a chance to socialize a bit while I would be doing my   
   Internet-related stuff, albeit that I did find the Windows 9x   
   installations there rather irritating, and so when I finally got an   
   Internet connection at home, I was then able to go on the Web and on   
   IRC, and to send and receive e-mails and participate in Usenet   
   discussions, all from my own GNU/Linux machine.   
      
   Having an Internet connection at home certainly changed my life, and I'm   
   guessing that this applies to most other people of my generation as   
   well.  Suddenly your connectivity with other people - even in remote   
   locations - improves immensely, and secondly, if you want information on   
   any given subject, it's all there at your fingertips, albeit that I must   
   admit that I was somewhat disappointed in the way the Web quickly got   
   transformed from a gigantic library into an even more gigantic   
   marketplace.  If you're simply looking for information on something   
   nowadays by way of a search engine, then instead of finding the   
   information on what it is or how it works, you are presented with   
   information on where to buy it albeit that "at what price" is usually   
   conveniently left out.  Well, in a manner of speaking, of course.  But   
   you know what I mean.   
      
   Kids these days grow up entirely differently.  I'm only 50 years old now   
   as of a few months ago, but when I was a young boy, we didn't even have   
   a TV set at first, and when we then finally got one, it was black &   
   white.  Kids these days grow up with color TV, gaming consoles, MP3   
   players, laptops, cellphones and Facebook.  They've never known it to be   
   any different.   
      
   They don't go and play outside on summer days, building camps from   
   trees, branches and old linen, and pretend that they are medieval   
   knights, or cowboys and Indians, or cops and robbers, or Captain Kirk   
   and Mister Spock for that matter.  They just pull up the laptop and chat   
   on Facebook while listening to droning music.  Their whole psychological   
   development happens in a very different way.  In the old days, drivers   
   would be careful when there were kids playing football near the road -   
   that's "soccer" for US Americans :p - because the ball might go off the   
   field and onto the road, and a small kid would be running after it,   
   unaware of traffic.  Nowadays, as a driver, you have to be extra careful   
   not to run over the kids crossing the street while texting, and who   
   don't hear your car approaching as they're wearing earphones to listen   
   to their MP3 player.  It's like they're connected to everything in   
   existence, except for their actual physical environment.   
      
   Was it better in "my time"?  I don't know.  Some parts were definitely   
   better, yes.  At least kids of my generation had imagination.  In other   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)