1998 - was working for a company using RedHat as a dev environment for AIX mini computer based software.
Started to dual boot my own pc of the time with Win95/8 and RedHat, then Mandrake Linux. Since then I've dual booted every PC I've owned with various distros.
killing the fox with your hounds is illegal in the UK from around 2005, as well it should be. I expect this law is broken as much as any other. I also assume that getting protected status is their starting point in attempting to get that law removed from the books.