 I started with computers when I was in middle school. My first computer was a Mac, and it was way advanced to other computers in its time. It already has a nice GUI, as opposed to a text-based command line interface being offered in DOS. But because of lack of software and hardware compatibility, I was forced to switch to Windows 95 when it was released. Windows 95 was great, it works with common off-the-shelf hardware and there are lots of software for it. I continued in the Microsoft path, changing OSes with every release from Microsoft. I had the notion that the latest is the greatest, but sooner I found out that it was wrong. Windows has always been buggy and crashes my computer. It also makes my computer "old" in each Windows released. It really puts a dent in my pocket, considering the price of the OS itself, and the hardware upgrades that needs to be performed.
So, when I was in college, I tried Linux, out of fun and curiosity. Linux at that time already offered the GUI as an option, and I became familiar with it rather quickly. I then tried to learn the command line little by little. I had the idea that somehow, not all Linuxes will offer a GUI, and I don't want to sell myself short not by knowing how to run the command line. I learned lots of things with Linux, and in due time became comfortable with it. I now use it at home and at the office. No need for Microsoft Windows, as I can do almost everything in Linux. If ever I need to run a certain MS-based application, I can still do it right inside of Linux! And best of all, Linux is free, rarely crashes, almost no viruses or spywares, and did I already say it is free!?:)
There are many flavors of*NIX. There is still the proprietary System V, BSD, and the open-source Linux. There is now a graphical user interface (GUI) for UNIX, and its variants, just like in Windows. It's called X, and there are numerous "desktops" to choose from. The two most popular are GNOME and KDE. Personally I choose GNOME, but then again that is another discussion.:)
My favorite distribution is RedHat/ RPM-based, like Fedora, RHEL, and CentOS. I use Fedora for desktops and RHEL/CentOS for servers. Basically once you get the hang of it, everything will be fairly easy to configure. I am comfortable both on the GUI and command line on this kind of distributions. I also want to try Debian and Debian-based distributions. I believe that Debian is one of the best, as there are lots of new and successful distributions based on it. Take for example Ubuntu and Mepis.
As of the moment I am more of RedHat/ RPM-based, but in the long run, I will be gearing to Debian/ Debian-based.
To get an overview of Linux, http://www.linux.org has a lot of no-nonsense information.
:)
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