Why hello :)
My first time using Linux was back in 1996 with red hat, it didn't interest me enough to replace windows as a operating system.
It was in like late 2002 I think, when I rented out a server with RedHat Enterprise edition installed. I was exposed to the command and server side application of things.
I had no idea but learned pretty quick, read a ton of security related articles then 3 months later when I was ready, I exposed the system to the internet. It was a month later that I moved my Aquarium site of about 500 members over to the server.
From then, I was in love with how the Linux file system worked and using the platform for sever side of things.
It was only till 2006 that I started to use Linux for the desktop, flipping between Linux and Windows got quite annoying. When vista went Gold, I gave it a go for few months and it killed me inside.
I made the move to Linux for desktop full time and haven't switched back since.