I confess that I did not actually go out of my way to install or use Ubuntu Linux but when I was after a very cheap and small computer to run in my study in the early 2000s I picked up an HP eVectra that came preinstalled with Ubuntu 5.04 (Hoary Hedgehog). I was new to Linux and made every rookie mistake in the book: it was quite some time before I managed to get a stable and useful system running, although my skills with wipe and reinstall become second to none!

Once I had a stable system in 2006 I became a regular on the Ubuntu Forums as andrew.46 and started contributing to the Forums as well as absorbing the great advice given there during the Forum's busiest times, particularly in the Tutorials and Tips section. I maintained Ubuntu as my primary Desktop until shortly after the release of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr).

With the slow fading away of the Ubuntu Forums I moved my Ubuntu focus to askubuntu where again as andrew.46 I have been absorbing and giving answers for some 8 years now. Hopefully some of my work has been useful? On my Desktop issues such as the Unity Desktop, systemd and a few other annoyances meant that my Ubuntu systems were increasing being run in Virtual Machine and I experimented more and more with Slackware.

Unlike most in this long thread I confess that my day to day computing is now done exclusively on Slackware -current however I have a plethora of Virtual Machines where I continue to test out Ubuntu releases. My heart is with Ubuntu while my head is with Slackware and it is a combination that has allowed me to still function and contribute in the Ubuntu world :).

I confess that I did not actually go out of my way to install or use Ubuntu Linux but when I was after a very cheap and small computer to run in my study in the early 2000s I picked up an HP eVectra that came preinstalled with Ubuntu 5.04 (Hoary Hedgehog). I was new to Linux and made every rookie mistake in the book: it was quite some time before I managed to get a stable and useful system running, although my skills with wipe and reinstall become second to none!

Once I had a stable system in 2006 I became a regular on the Ubuntu Forums as andrew.46 and started contributing to the Forums as well as absorbing the great advice given there during the Forum's busiest times, particularly in the Tutorials and Tips section. I maintained Ubuntu as my primary Desktop until shortly after the release of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr).

With the slow fading away of the Ubuntu Forums I moved my Ubuntu focus to Ask Ubuntu where again as andrew.46 I have been absorbing and giving answers for some 8 years now. Hopefully some of my work has been useful? On my Desktop issues such as the Unity Desktop, systemd and a few other annoyances meant that my Ubuntu systems were increasing being run in Virtual Machine and I experimented more and more with Slackware.

Unlike most in this long thread I confess that my day to day computing is now done exclusively on Slackware -current however I have a plethora of Virtual Machines where I continue to test out Ubuntu releases. My heart is with Ubuntu while my head is with Slackware and it is a combination that has allowed me to still function and contribute in the Ubuntu world :).