I'd like to know the reasons that moved you towards Linux.

Personally, I started because we had to use a Digital for the Fortran 77 exercises during my first year at the university. Linux was installed on many university computers, and I got interested in it. I always liked to code (on the C64) in basic and assembler, but I knew nothing about other languages. I soon discovered a chat engine called NUTS, and the idea of becoming proficient in C appealed me, so I started hacking the code. To do so, I needed a Unix at home, so I bought a Slackware 3.4 and installed it on my Pentium 166.

I then continued using it for many years, reason being that I had pleasure in learning new things and the openness of information about the internals. It was a great learning platform. I then moved to osx because I enjoy the power of Unix with the beauty and efficiency of its interface.

I am interested in your answer because I believe that the panorama has changed somehow. Although I still guess to find many "hackers" interested in Linux for the sake of knowledge, I also believe that there are other reasons (work, friends, bought a netbook).