Seti@home was my first distributed experience, and I learned a lot.

As well it was for many of us. Yes I'm in the top 1%  (99.49% to be exact) 
and most of the people in that group didn't get there on one machine. As we 
upgrade our computers many rebuild bare bones units to run seti. I run 
several in my garage. As a lan administrator at work I have a farm at my 
disposal. Which I might add has a side benifit of seeing a drop in 
performance telling me I have a down or failling unit on line. A great 
selling point to the boss. The newer Bionc version will tell me which 
specific machine is down. Don't feel bad about turning the priority down or 
suspending while you do other activities. Just don't turn it off and give up 
on the idea. The idea of credits is inticing. I don't know why because you 
don't get anything from it other than pride of a job well done. The 
accomplishment lies in the collective effort. 5 million + users have band 
together in a common goal. That's awsome initself. The project has expanded 
the experience of distributed computing to other tasks. That too is a 
milestone we'll see in the next few years really take off. The learning 
experience has been great for the individual as well. The diversity of 
people contacted thru the newsgroup has allowed me to overcome my fears of 
other operating systems. Many people have helped with there own experience 
to push me into expanding. I now run 2 linux system and a unix with more 
planned in the comming year. I still suspend the client and play games at 
home and I wouldn't have it any other way. Keep up the good work and don't 
feel guilty about useing YOUR machine for YOUR pleasure. Just remember to 
turn Seti back on when your done. :-)