Preface

I first came to Linux through my father, who was very interested in Windows freeware and shareware in the 1990s. This was in the days before the internet, when everything happened through the postal mail. My dad would request catalogs and my sister and I would order games, most of which were free. In conversations about how and why people would make games available for free, my dad came to tell me about Linux, a cost-free operating system. Nothing came of the discussion, but a seed was planted.

When I was in college, I had a roommate who was also a Linux fan. It put Linux on my radar once again. After I became interested in using Linux myself, although in those days, I had to order installation CDs from an online store, because my dial-up connection was too slow to grab the installation files off the internet. Once the CDs came in the mail, it took me days to get things working.

Years later, I once again became interested in the state of Linux. I tried Ubuntu, which I had read was a very strong distribution. This time, the installation was much easier. The interface was much better; so much so I found I liked Ubuntu better than Windows. Linux let me choose how my desktop looked. Linux had lots of free software I could use. Linux was faster than Windows and worked better on my aging computer.

I dual-booted my laptop because I needed Windows for graduate school, but once I graduated, I replaced Windows with Ubuntu and never looked back.