We have it easy. Those before us didn't have the things we have now. My journey with technology began with consumer oriented multimedia. While my family's first computer was a 286, by the time I began using it myself for school we bought a 486. This is where I first got good. I taught myself how to use Windows 3.1. Then my step dad bought Windows 95. That was mean; everything had changed. This is when I came of age. I taught myself BASIC and batch files, and was content. Between 7th and 8th grade I began shopping for a new computer for my own enjoyment. I fell in love with the Macintosh. Actually, it was a 120MHz Power Mac, PCI, 32M of RAM, and a 20G hard drive. It was less than $1,000, too. This never happened. I ended up putting my money with my family's and they bought me a 266MHz Pentium II from Dell with a 6G hard drive and 64M of RAM. I had the nicest system out of all my friends. Sure beat my friend's Pentium 166. This was my computer, my domain. I learned everything I could. I played with every setting, registry hacks, and everything I was allowed to. This freedom came with responsibility: the system crashed. There is still debate to what caused the crash. My parents blame me, I blame drivers for my sound card drivers which remained in beta even after almost four years! That aside, I tried to cover up the machine being busted, using DOS programs and whatever for my school work. It eventually was fixed; my parents had someone from Dell come out. Even since that day I have been missing software which I can no longer find. I became even more daring, (almost) purposely crashing, destroying, and reinstalling the system weekly. It was systematic, it was a routine. I would install everything and then go get something to eat or watch TV. Here I learned every option to install Windows. I was soon introduced to Linux. For two years I had wanted something completely different, and now I had my chance. I bought a copy of Red Hat 6.0 from my friend for $10. I installed it, and began using it. Well, I couldn't use it. I had a hacked dial-up account from another friend but I couldn't get my modem to work. While everything else worked and worked well, that modem was crippling any productivity. I set up a dual boot with Windows so I could still learn Linux. I remember those nights, staying up late and reading documentation from a green terminal...I loved it! In 10th grade, my parents bought a new Gateway 2000, and I stole the Windows 98 and Office 2000 from it. I was still collecting Linux distributions, and on one of them was Corel Word Perfect 8 for Linux. This was a godsend. I now had a fully featured word processor for Linux, and it was compatible with the Academic copy of Word Perfect Suite my teacher gave me. That Christmas, I was given Red Hat 6.1, and with it came Oracle 8i and StarOffice 5.1a. I had no use for Oracle, but StarOffice gave me a reason to use Linux full-time. Soon I bought a new $25 sound card to replace the original on-board sound hardware, and I was then able to use my modem. We moved to Texas, and in the meantime I stayed at my grandparents. In order for me to keep my sanity, I was allowed to take my computer with me. I only had two operating system CDs with me: 95 and RH6. I didn't have drivers for my video card for Windows, but the Linux supported it through XFree86, so I installed it. I had been visiting the local library to use their computers, and while I was there I downloaded "drugwars". This became the first program I built on my own, and aside from installations, every program and library I build on my own. I finally made it to Texas, where I became for Linux in my technology classes. I got on IRC, and began hanging out in a programming channel for C. Over the summer I taught myself C from what I already knew about C++ from Computer Science I and II in 10th grade. I got my hands on a copy of Mandrake Linux 7.2 XFree86 4.0 had just been released, and this was my only copy. I literally damaged that system just to get it to work the way I wanted. This made me proud. I got a book on Unix Administration, and in it was Slackware 7.0. I was beyond happy. I would alternate between this, Windows NT, and Windows 2000. With Slackware 7.1, I ran it full time, and with Slackware 8.0 I was home. I had been introduced to FreeBSD 4.0 previously through a book I got for Christmas, but I found no use for it except it was the most fun to install. I downloaded 4.4 from a friend and used it for months. Everything was beautiful and I had no need for anything else. Friends helped me set up printing, Internet, and many other things. I built my own kernels and customized the startup. The more and More I used it, the more and more I moved away from Linux and even the compatibility with Linux. I found programs and ways to work around the pitfalls of BSD and holes left when I trashed Linux. Sadly, I returned to Linux, mostly because BSD didn't have the capabilities I needed for burning CDs. It had 'burncd', and that supported all the features of 'cdrecord' that I used, but I had no replacement for for 'cdrdao', which required SCSI emulation. After a month or so of Linux, I will be installing BSD again, waiting to upgrade hardware, too. Linux only has two things BSD doesn't: SCSI emulation and problems.