I remember the day when I installed an 11-floppy Slackware around summer of 1993. I didnt know IP adresses, and it was a tough thing to learn since there were no documentation around. You were lucky when you see the login screen. More luckier ones were able to compile Soundblaster or SB16 (which is way newer) or TNT graphics card. For a very long time, Linux users did not have any choice but only one application (which was a paid app) to watch movies on CD.
Those times are past now. I havent compiled any kernels for the last 6-7 years, nor switched another distro (I consistently used Slackware -> Red Hat -> Fedora -> Pardus -> Ubuntu). All my hardware are recognized, and my current Ubuntu 11.10 boots and runs way faster than my windows box. It's a breeze to work on the console, since Linux behaves the way I want.
After around 19 years, I'm still (and will be) a proud Linux user
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Those times are past now. I havent compiled any kernels for the last 6-7 years, nor switched another distro (I consistently used Slackware -> Red Hat -> Fedora -> Pardus -> Ubuntu). All my hardware are recognized, and my current Ubuntu 11.10 boots and runs way faster than my windows box. It's a breeze to work on the console, since Linux behaves the way I want.
After around 19 years, I'm still (and will be) a proud Linux user
I use OS X now with Linux Mint 12 and Windows as virtual machines