I really started using linux in 1997 out of frustration of a bat performing Windows server in my company. The limit was when my supplier told me the best solution for the problems was restarting the server at least once a day. They had the guts to try to charge my company for writing a batch file "solving" the problem.
Took me quite a while to get the linux-server working though. SuSE in my case. Keeping things working included compiling a kernel f.i. because of some exotic network card I bought without checking if it would work "out of the box".  The way the community helped on solving problems made me a real "Open Source" addapt.

Anyway, there's where it all started for me.. somewhere along the line I read an article on Linux Mint and stepped over.