I first encountered Linux and free software in 2003 when I came to IIT Madras. Most of the systems here were running some version of Linux. I started learning Linux and tried out many free softwares in my first year of graduation. I used to work on Red Hat and Fedora Systems. I heard about Debian GNU/Linux from my friend Kumar Appaiah. I really liked Debian's package management system, the freedom to select the packages you need, and the ease of installation and up-gradation of packages. Moreover, we had a Debian mirror inside our campus "" so, it made more sense to use Debian as we could install packages at lightning speeds.