My first encounter with Linux dates back about a quarter of a century ago. At that time, ISDN lines were expanding, and I remember that the world seemed to have expanded a little bit as I was able to obtain a somewhat faster connection than the low-speed analog modem connections I had been using until then. At the time, the company my father ran went bankrupt, and I was thrown out to live on my own. I was gathering information on network servers with the only desktop computer I had left. I had no money to spare for anything other than living, but I managed to cut back on my food expenses and only managed to use the ISDN line.
One day, I found a book in a bookstore that explained how to build an Internet server with an ISDN line and a static IP. The book came with a RedHat Linux boot CD as an appendix, and it seemed that if I followed the instructions, I could create an Internet server. In an age when homepages were still few and far between, and personal blogs were a distant dream, I was excited to be able to have my own server, the vessel for my own homepages.
First, I had to re-sign a contract with a fixed IP provider. Company F, which I had been using until then, offered a relatively reasonably priced line, but when I switched to Company N because of their service to have a fixed IP paid out, I recall that the amount of money increased four times over what it had been before. And I also recall that our food costs were further trimmed.
Next, to prepare a terminal for the server, used PCs were still available only in limited places at that time, and even if they were available, they were not inexpensive. Even so, I managed to obtain a desktop computer for practice and booted RedHat from the CD that came with the book. My OS itinerary up to that point had been MS-DOS (for NEC), Windows 3.0, 3.1, OS/2 2.1 for Windows, OS/2 Warp 3.0, Windows 95, and Windows 98, and had gone through twists and turns. This was the first time for me to touch Linux. At that time, I managed to build a server by watching and learning, and I was able to learn the mechanism of the Internet through my homepage, issuing an e-mail address, and exchanging files by FTP.
Since I was using Linux as a server, I did not have a desktop environment installed, and I was only checking the operation of the system from a Windows terminal, using a black screen with a simple white English vocabulary. Furthermore, as I learned more about Linux, I learned that various distributions existed and that I could obtain them free of charge, so I was impressed that I had obtained the perfect tool to play with for me at that time. After that, I bought more used PCs and spent my days trying various distributions and “challenging” GUI, a desktop environment. At that time, the X Window System (a service that provides a desktop environment) had not yet been fully established on Linux, and if you moved the mouse when the “X” mark was displayed during X startup, you could not use the mouse, which could not be said to be very easy to use. I also remember with nostalgia that it was not so easy to use.
Today, Linux has become one of the operating systems on par with Windows and MacOS, but its usage is still dominated by servers and embedded systems, and its share among general business and private users remains low. I don’t want to raise my voice and say, “Let’s use Linux! I am not going to raise my voice and say, “Let’s use Linux!” I am a relatively minority-loving, weak-willed person, and I think it is OK for Linux to remain a niche OS.
The first time I came face to face with a computer in my own work was when I started using CAD to draw plumbing drawings for my own father’s equipment company. Later, when I was thrown out, I started working in the delivery business, tried using Kanji Talk on a Macintosh in my private life, played games on Windows, and, as mentioned above, built my own personal Internet server and struggled with Linux every day. Therefore, I am not particular or allergic to any OS, and I still think that I can use any OS I want, whenever I want.
In the past, Apple ran a comparative advertisement of Windows versus Mac by the comedy duo Rahmens for the Japanese version, but it was not very pleasant. Every time I saw that ad, I used Mac less and less. Comparison and competition are necessary, but I don’t think that spreading bad news about others is proof of one’s superiority.
This is a little off to the side, but I have used different operating systems every time I have changed my occupation. When I was teaching free computer classes sponsored by the government, of course I used Windows to make explanations and documents, and when I was earning a salary as a designer’s imitator, Apple + Adobe were a must.
And although my current job is front-end development, due to the accumulation of experience, I sometimes help out in the backyard as well, so when I started my own business, I adopted Linux as my main machine, and Manjaro Linux among them. Naturally, we also have Macintosh and Windows machines on a regular basis, as we have to communicate with designers and negotiate with many other parties.
However, I still prefer Linux. Although there are some problems with the desktop environment, I enjoy using it because I am a bit of a wuss. Recently, I am trying to get a certification to learn Linux again from the basics, which I have been doing on my own.
コメント