----- Original Message ----- From: "Jason Hsu, Linux user" When, why, and how did you start using Linux? ---------------------------------- 2001 - Smoothwall on an old used IBM desktop with 200Mhz CPU and 128MB of RAM I got free from a buddy at work. Had to protect my Windows machine on my new cable/broadband Internet connection. I had previous Unix experience so it wasn't that 'new' of an experience. Shortly afterwards I had a spare PC that I started running Mandrake on and used it as a home server for network shares. To this day I still always have a Smoothwall to protect my network and a Linux server for network shares. I played with FreeNAS for a little while, but the 'single purpose' machine drove me batty.