I've heard about Linux from time to time over the last decade but the first real, face-to-face contact was in 2008 with Ubuntu 8.10 (And it's GTK-theme ist still one of my favourites today.), because I reinstalled Windows without backing up or writing down which drivers were needed in order to make everything work properly. I was able to regain everything from various CDs and USB sticks, but one very important driver was missing. And Windows without Internet may be safe, but is not fun at all. Because it came out to me that I want to work in IT some day I decided to take a look at Linux, maybe it does have the driver I need. And it did, it felt good using it and after restoring my Windows to full functionality I set up Ubuntu on my notebook. And so the "on and off"-relationship started ..

Distrowise I would describe it like that: Ubuntu (8.10, then 09.04 and 9.10) - Linux Mint (Ehrm .. "Gloria" was the release name I think. But I could be wrong) - Xubuntu (9.10) - Ubuntu (10.04) - Debian (Squeeze) - Crunchbang - Debian (Squeeze) - Fedora - Crunchbang - Arch - Debian (Wheezy) [ - FreeBSD (8.2) - OpenBSD (5.1) - FreeBSD(9.0)] - Debian Jessie (and a bunch of virtual machines with all kinds of distributions..)