Started on Linux with Ubuntu 5.04, though Linux was forced to coexist with Windows until I left Architecture school. No longer needing to interface with AutoCAD, Windows was relegated to the background until, finally, my tower died and I was left without a functioning Windows system. I didn't look back, and now that I've got a Windows partition again, after nearly a year, it's sole raison d'être is to support those games that continue to refuse to function under WINE. After splitting with Ubuntu over the Unity debacle, I tried a number of systems. Mint is the latest - and I must admit, I don't think it's going anywhere any time soon.

I doubt I fit the stereotype of a Linux user. I'm an outdoor professional, a ski instructor, a certified outdoorsman. But if I've learned anything from working in the great outdoors, away from the technology-saturated mainstream, it's that I refuse to accept second-rate products, whether it's a poor-performing pair of skis or an overpriced OS full-to-bursting with bugs and instability.