Last time I tried out Linux, it was 1997 and I installed Redhat Version.. I dunno 4 or something on an old 486 box with two NICs in it to use as a firewall when I first got a cable modem. It booted off a floppy and installed the entire OS via FTP. Bob had to help me with it, and then we had to get another of his friends to finish it off for us. All it really did was be a NAT server with a shell command prompt on it. I didn't really even flip over to it's screen very often.

That's all Changed with Fedora Core 1(Redhat V10 if you will) So far all I've done is install it on my second machine (a PIII/500 desktop) and I've fired up Mozilla on it to look up a couple things, and I have to say I'm pretty darned impressed with it so far. Everything that I do with Windows currently was installed during the install process. web browsing, ftp, news, the GIMP, and OpenOffice. I havent tried anything out with it yet, it's getting too late tonight to mess with it, but I'm looking forward to it and learning as I go. I've introduced a new category to the blog now, Linux, to keep track of these posts. I'm going to see what happens if I try to use USB and Wireless and stuff with it, just for shits & grins. Nothing dramatic like what Richy & Steve pulled off (check the blogroll for their sites) but it'll be fun to tinker with over the next while.

Will I switch and ditch Windows XP Pro? highly doubtful. I didnt spend all this time, and all the money getting Microsoft Certs to abandon it, and we use Windows Servers at work. I'll continue to putter and experiment with Linux on my desktop at home though.