Congratulations with the 10 days, keep it up 
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Sure, I had it and still remember the thrill!
But at that time I had no idea who was behind it…
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I am 24 and stared using Linux 4 days back..... Garuda KDE Dr460nized is my first OS in VM and Garuda Linux Barebones is my first OS in my laptop..... Last night i installed Garuda KDE Dr460nized in my laptop and now customizing it to my preference 
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the first time i crawled behind a computer the game below was a very big thing ... (guess the system).
started using linux about 20 years ago ... Ubuntu was my first linux version but i used many other ditros/flavours ever since and ended up using garuda linux (kde dragonized gaming version).
i sleep throughout the night without wetting my bed or getting out of bed to prevent that... and i hope it will be like that for many moons to come 
tinuz v4.9 will be released next august.... so my age is?
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Yes, and we maybe should give a brief notation concerning that since some of us might not have existed then…
…As I recall, IBM and Bill Gates…had both envisioned a Windowing operating system for personal computers (PCs) and Microsoft had developed and released several versions of Windows and was responsible for a substantial amount coding of a system very similar to their newly released Windows 3.0 to be called OS/2. So IBM and Microsoft engineers co-developed OS/2.
I can not, for the life of me, recall why but Bill Gates and IBM had a falling-out over design issues and almost parted ways. Windows issued 3.1 and OS/ 1.0 was completed and released
I say almost because Microsoft was under contract to finish coding OS/2 alongside IBM developers, so both operating systems shared some of the same code and OS/2 could run DOS and most Windows binaries along with many other similarities.
IBM also released PS/2 computers. The jingle at that time was ‘you want a PS/2 to run OS/2’ and many people thought so, though it wasn’t true at all. But I received a brand new IBM PS/2 30-286, a low level 80286 chipset machine, and I loved it! It replaced the old IBM XT I had, and had a different type of hardware architecture called “Microchannel,” which is a story of its own.
Anyway, that’s the long and short of it as my fading memory recalls. (I also recall that Bill Gates didn’t know how many bytes were in a kilobyte when answering a Computer Bowl question.) Other old hands may remember it differently, but I didn’t smoke weed then so my memory of it is pretty clear.
I will say–OS/2 Warp was the absolutely coolest thing around when it was let loose, and I rocked it.
P.S. OT–11 days tobacco-free.
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I am so old, the first computer I used ran on coal! In one month, I will be 78 years old. Met my first computer in 1963 or 1964 at the U. of California at Davis, the computer was an early 1400 series and it ran Fortran. I saw a hand written note announcing a class in programming. At that time, I was a third year student. I thought the class was for those working on their advanced degrees. But my mother had taught me "that if you do not ask questions, you will not learn anything." So I called the number and a woman answered the phone and said the school wanted everyone to learn to use the new thing called "a computer". Her name is Jean Stalnacker, forgive the spelling, it has been a long time. My first computer teacher. She changed my life totally. So I started writing computer programs. That first semester, I wrote 40 or 50 programs. Got a BA and a MA at UCD and went on to the University Washington in Seattle. The four years that it took to complete my Ph.D were filled with more computer work and my first big computer project. A professor hired me to work on a project to study Colonial Yucatec, a Maya language from the 16th century. One book contained this body of text. One sentence of Maya followed by the Spanish translation. The job was to find all occurences of each word in Maya text.
The first chapter took three months by hand. I knew from my work at UCD, that this was a perfect job for a computer. So began my research career using computers. This all started in 1967. In three years, I wrote over 200 programs in COBOL. Yes, COBOL. In today's terms, I used a Burroughs computer and COBOL to complete my work. I think in late 1967, my analysis was forming around the idea of computer data as just a stream of bits read and interpreted.
Yeah, I know, you are all into Rust now. I hung around the computer center getting my jobs to run, that the staff in the machine room would let me in at night, so i could get quicker turnaround times, normally, you submitted one job a day and it came back the next day. I wanted instant turn around. While doing this, I met to real giants of the Computer. There was this guy, very low key, long blond Norwegian hair. I was told to never ask him a question as he was the system analyst for the U. His name was Gary Kildal, a true giant. We became friends and he let me use his office when he was not there. He went on to create CPM, one of the first operating system for the new tiny toy computers, 8 bit.
And then one night about 8:30pm, I was in the Computer Center working on a huge computer printout of a program. I was alone. I saw an older man and a kid were looking around. They wanted to talk and ask what I was working on, I explained about the project, we talk for several minutes. Then, THUNDER hit with a loud sound. They introduced themselves, ho hum. The older man, a father, said "My name is Bill Gates and then is my son Bill Jr.". He explained his son was really smart and would be taking classes at the U since he had already completed his high school classes, he spent his senior year at the U.
Giants! for good and bad. Oh, a comment about those posting about floppys. Unix came on floppy disk too. Yeah, I am old, been working with Qt6 from its release. enough for know, next time I will tell you about the start of free Unix at UC Berkeley.
Just so you do not think I am too old. I am selling my home and moving to India in the next year. I will probably start residing in Chennai. My real training is as a Cultural Anthropology with specializations in Cognitive Anthropology, Language and Culture, and more.
well time for coffee..
take care and thank you for Garuda!
gary
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Age (physical): 14
Started linux with ubuntu at when i was of 11 and then never came back to windows again because fell in love with linux .(Don't think it was because of ubuntu ! I ditro hopped and moved to mint in a day)
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Incredible story, gary! Have fun in India and, bow wow!
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May the Gods forgive me for posting again on this topic after I said I would not!
But its maybe for a good reason!
Have you looked at vaping? I smoked for around 8 years. I never felt much the effects of it, because I go to the gym almost every day ( back then, really every day . Gym came first… smoking came because of like issues and I was young ).
Really, I never was able to go 24h without smoking. And when I tried quitting, I would be a nerve reck.
Then came vaping → result = 5 years no smoking and I couldn’t care less about tobacco!
Really, night and day… it was like I had cured cancer !
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6252 days smoking free
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That's awesome, my good friend. And very, very encouraging.
Day 12
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I uh, have a small 3.7v vape stick with a 10:1 CBD-THC cart on top right now. I hold/carry it in my right hand like I would a cigarette. The Ringo’s Gift strain’s CDB calms me the heck down, and gives me pain relief at the same time. It’s only 4.4% THC, and it helps a body’s CBD intake. I’m sure not getting high off it (that’s what my dab rigs are for).
Okay, so…some old bupropion, nicotine polacrilex (generic Nicorette), vape stick w/CBD, the decision to be smoke-free, and you guys to take my mind off it for a bit unless we’re talking about the subject. And a plea for help. That’s what’s helping me now.
And this is for those who are considering the same:
The decision to become and stay smoke-free came after 55 years of smoking (I started at 14) and taking an honest look back at what it had cost me physically and emotionally. Finally, there was the reminder of my wife’s COPD exacerbation and her 23 days in cardiac ICU. The last thing I want is for anyone–especially her–to walk in to a small cubicle and see me surrounded by the equipment that keeps me alive and in a coma. The smallest thing in the room; me.
I know this may sound trite, but I had to ask for help. I’m 69 and, like I said, smoking was what I did throughout the day and especially if there was something going on. I’ve tried to quit before but never lasted even a day. So…I had to ask a power greater than myself for help. Cigarettes had kicked my ass. I had made a commitment to remain smoke-free and I really wanted to keep it.
So I gave up my addiction to that force, that mana, and it takes it away every time I think of smoking, of cigarettes. I just shove the thoughts that away. I can’t handle it by myself alone.
Thoughts, ideas, urges–they last for only seconds, then they are gone. There is a serenity that replaces them. Turns out I’m a real pussy.
So I threw out my cigarettes, I armed myself with the aforementioned tools and began using them. I don’t think much of the habit, not for more than a few seconds. It’s a daily thing, so I have to do the work every day to remain smoke-free, and I have the help to do so.
12 Days smoke-free…just for today.
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You are just a boy at it I started at 8 yrs old by 14 i was smoking 20 roll ups a day by 20 i was smoking 40 a day that went up to 2ounces of tobacco a day just to get a kick, Then came along my new wife a non smoker, she got pregnant asked me to stop so i did after all those years of listening to that little man in m,y head saying 1 won't hurt just stop another day,
I wish this was a happy ending but alas last year i got throat cancer surgery was a success for now but it will came back,
the long lasting effect is i have now got ever increasing tiredness.
Moral is just to stop the craving is all planted in your head by your self
Good luck old friend 
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@Bro I'm a few years younger than you and have been vaping since June.
Never missed the cigarettes at all, good luck with your goals and meet you on the race track after you get your wind back. We can have a wheel chair race. 
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How old I am, did you all think? (Been in the forum for a few months now 
)
Tomorrow, I will be exactly 16 and a half!
I first used Linux desktop briefly(maybe a couple of weeks) and without knowledge in 2018, when my New Dell laptop came with Ubuntu Preinstalled, and the first thing I did was ask my father to install Windows. I had just brought it for the sole purpose of school stuff, and Ubuntu didn’t have MS Office as required in our courses!
Back then, I used Windows 10 in my 4Gb RAM new Dell, and it just ran like crap; I couldn’t even do basic multitasking like running Word and a browser.
It was my 9th grade(2019), I learned some basics of computers, about RAM(I didn’t even know about all that), GPUs, Windows 7(that’s what my school still taught at the time) 
This was when I started to get interested in computers; I learned to change many settings in Windows, installed some non-Microsoft Store games, and all that.
I still had no idea that Linux existed
Then, I came across Bluestacks and running android apps in Windows, but you know I just had 4Gb ram, and I wouldn’t even launch.
Like that, I came across Prime OS(Android x86 derivative), it was indeed great, and I had just dual-booted for the first time! But Prime OS had ceased its development, and all those Android x86 and derivatives were either abandoned projects or simply didn’t work on my hardware.
(I had only managed to install Prime OS successfully!)
Then I learned about hypervisors and installing any operating system without compatibility issues(*My objective was to install Android x86 without problems *), but you know, sluggish Windows again!
Then I came across some articles about Type 1 and Type 2 hypervisors, and guess what? GNU/Linux had the best Type 1 VMs (It was about our own Virt Manager!).
I learned that combined with Linux’s better resource usage and better opensource VM software, I could get an almost bare-metal experience, and guess what Linux just blew away my mind 
just with 4Gb of RAM!
I first installed Linux maybe sometime in August/September 2019.
I started of with Ubuntu, stayed with it for 3-4 months. I was a bit reluctant to install other distros at first, though I was checking them out in VMs.
You know I was just new to Partitions tables, GPT & MBR, BIOS, boot loaders and all that.
Gradually I switched from MBR to GPT, and UEFI booting just simply made dual-booting a ton easier.
And to this date, I haven’t faced any dual-booting issue.
I was still dependent on Windows for my school stuff, so I had to at last upgrade my ram to 12Gb, though Linux just worked fine.
From this year onwards in my 11th grade, I haven’t opted for Computer in my school; it was as dull as Windows. Now I barely use Windows; I have kept it on my drive just in case.
In my past two years with Linux and almost 10+ months with Garuda Linux, I learned several new stuff which I didn’t know existed inside the closed boundaries of the Windows corporate World.
Today I have tried almost all major Linux Distros on my same Dell Laptop’s drive.
From,
Ubuntu(and most of its derivatives)
Manjaro
Fedora
openSUSE
Mageia & Mandrake Linux
Puppy Linux
Void
rlxOS
Solus
and still trying out.
and all major DEs: KDE, Gnome, XFCE, Mate, Budgie, Cinnamon, LXQT, Deepin, UKUI, Enlightenment
& Awesome WM
But ever since I tried out Garuda(10+ months ago), it has been there on sda1!
The best thing about Linux is you learn something new every day!
Actually, I was thinking of creating a post like this and getting to know each other.
If you think about it, isn’t it quite weird that after all this time knowing each other in this community, yet we don’t know each other
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That is why I created this topic 
BTW, I “accidentally” erased Windows when I was 11 trying to install some kind of Slackware or something. How dumb I was. 
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I bet they’re still on the same version you tried to install
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This thread is indeed a nice conversation 
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If I remember 8 inch disks… does that make me old…..
D.
Actually, don’t answer that….
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I so loved warp
D…
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