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Debian Founder: How I Came To Find Linux
An anonymous reader writes: Ian Murdock has pretty solid open source cred: in 1993 he founded Debian, he was the CTO of Progeny and the Linux Foundation, and he helped pave the way for OpenSolaris. He has published a post about how he initially joined the Linux ecosystem. Quoting: "[In 1992], I spent most evenings in the basement of the MATH building basking in the green phosphorescent glow of the Z-29 terminals, exploring every nook and cranny of the UNIX system upstairs. ... I was also accessing UNIX from home via my Intel 80286-based PC and a 2400-baud modem, which saved me the trek across campus to the computer lab on particularly cold days. Being able to get to the Sequent from home was great, but I wanted to replicate the experience of the ENAD building's X terminals, so one day, in January 1993, I set out to find an X server that would run on my PC. As I searched for such a thing on Usenet, I stumbled across something called 'Linux.'"
How did you come to find Linux?
I was a Debian user for many users. For most of that time it was the best OS I'd used. It was stable, it was reliable, it was easy to safely update, and I knew I could rely on it. Then that all changed. Systemd was integrated. I'm open to new technology, so I was willing to give it a shot. However, as I soon found out, this was a horrible mistake. After a Debian update installed system I had nothing but problems. This update also updated the kernel, so I chose to do a reboot. Long story short, my system didn't completely boot due to systemd. I don't remember the specifics of the problem, since it was some time ago, but I remember wasting a lot of time trying to find out what was wrong. I must have fixed it somehow, because I continued to use my Debian system for a few months after that. But very frequently I'd run into problems with systemd preventing a proper boot of the system. It was particularly bad after updates, and frankly I just ran out of patience with it, and with Debian for including it.
Seeing as how pretty much every other Linux distro has moved to systemd, I decided to try FreeBSD instead. I'd used FreeBSD at work many years ago, but hadn't used it since. What a breath of fresh air! FreeBSD 10 is a superb system, and I'm glad I switched to it when I did. In fact, I regret not switching earlier! It has given me everything that Debian used to give me, but it doesn't have system, and it's extremely reliable and stable. Its packaging system is great. I've asked for help on their mailing lists a few times, and the replies have been courteous and prompt. Everything about FreeBSD has been such a good experience for me. While Debian and Linux did give me many great years, that time has come to an end. I'm much happier with FreeBSD now than I ever was with modern Linux distros.
In high school (circa 2002) I asked a coworker for an alternative to Internet Explorer because it made web browsing so slow. He told me he found this program called Firefox which was fast "because it was open source". I tried it and when I told him how fast it was going for me, he told me "there is a whole open source operating system! You should try it!"
And here I am.