In the UK. I was a SCO UNIX & XENIX admin / support with plenty of experience of Novell netware 2.12 through to 4.11

I used to do plenty of work getting windows 3.1 & 3.11 to work with Unix which was a challenge. I then moved to Thailand in 1995

And have been using Linux since 1995. When I was given my first distribution - From Infomagic which based on Slackware. It took me ages to get X up and running and I was as pleased as punch when I got Doom Up and running.

I made the decision to run Linux at home full time in early 2001 as I deemed it suitable for my modest desktop needs

I've Tried early versions of Redhat, Mandrake, Caldea, Cruchbang, Ubuntu, Open Suse. I came to Ubuntu and then Linux Mint  after getting fed up with RPM dependency Hell, YUM wasn't as good then as it is now. But I much prefer the way apt works. 

I tried Gloria after reading about it in Linux Format magazine I found the perfect distribution for me, Until LMDE came out!