I think I tried to compile Gentoo about 20 years ago for some reason.. Took many hours, and I don't remember even getting it running. Later I tried dual booting Ubuntu, but ended up using Windows all the time since that's where my games were. Started using Linux only (Xubuntu) some time around 2010.
this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2025
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My first was Ubuntu in the early 2000s, I think CDs were being distributed by the IT department in one of the faculties, then SUSE but Linux didn't stick with me at the time. In 2018 I installed Manjaro which helped me make the switch to arch. I've also got Debian on a server and fedora on a laptop
SuSe Linux, I got a CD in the (late?) 2000s and installed it on my old PC. But reality got me pretty fast, I iust wasn't invested yet. Years later I started from scratch on Debian.
Lubuntu :O and Kali linux
I had a friend back in the day that was a big Linux geek. He got me hooked when he showed me this crazy system that let me just type in a command and within a few minutes or an hour (internet wasn't super fast in my house in 2002), I could have something installed without having to search the internet for some potentially cooked installer.
That's the long way around to say I started with Gentoo, installed over the course of 3 long Saturdays with my friend over my shoulder and the install guide printed out on a stack of papers because neither of us had a laptop to look at.
I moved to Debian after a few months, but man portage was life changing.
I think the first I used was Fedora Core 5, but the first I installed myself was Fedora Core 6.
Ubuntu 6.06. It came on a CD with a PC magazine. I've used it to convince my parents to allow me to spend as much time as I want in front of the computer because "there are no games on Linux".
WoW worked on it.
Knoppix live cd
I think I learned about knoppix from the TV show “the screen savers” in the early 2000s. Played with it a few times on old laptops, scanning for open Wi-Fi lol
Ubuntu 5.10 back when a random Finnish teenager could ask Canonical for free install CDs and they'd just mail them to you no money asked.
The first was Redhat Linux 7, but not for long. I moved to Slackware soon after.
Ubuntu, and the experience was crap lol.
Then I got to try Debian on a server and it was much nicer.
Then I saw Torvalds uses Fedora, and given that he also disliked Debian and Ubuntu for their lack of end user ease, I switched and have been happy ever since.
Seriously though, GNOME 40 really should not be the default DE. It made me think Linux UI was years behind Windows when it was actually the opposite with proven DEs like XFCE, KDE, and GNOME 3/2 etc.
Puppy Linux. On very old hardware.
Slackware in the early mid-nineties. But of course there was other Unix variants before that. And what was it called, OS/2 or something like that?
Mandrake Linux. I couldn’t tell you what year but I remember booting into it and thinking it was the coolest thing.
Mandrake was my second distro, I think, I think I had knoppix before that. Used neither for long, switched to Ubuntu in the first or second major release. I was on Ubuntu until gnome 3 was released, then I threw up a little in my mouth and dustro hopped s bit until I landed on arch, which I also had for almost 10 years,
Now I am on NixOS,
No I am not sadomasochistic for using arch or nixos. There are benefits and trade offs, and I would not have used them for so long if it didn't make sense for me.
I'm against distro shaming, and DE shaming. Everyone can like what they like for different reasons. That makes Linux better!
BTW, fun fact, both Arch and NixOS is older than Ubuntu, just fun to think about
CentOS
Red Flag Linux 3.0,
taking the RedNote route decades before it was cool,
but did not get much further than the installation screen,
After that it was Ubuntu -> Mint -> Arch -> Parabola -> Manjaro.
I think Ubuntu 10.04 or whatever mint version around then
Red Hat 5.1, which I quickly abandoned after learning the hard way about winmodems
Cool, so I'm not the only one here 😁. Mine was also RHL 5.x, can't remember the exact minor version, whatever they sold on CDs in 1999. I then switched to FreeBSD for a year or so.
Red Hat Linux, about 2002 from a CD I got from somewhere.
litterally arch btw
RedHat, I had to recompile the kernel to be SoundBlaster compatible so that I could play Doom with sound on my 486.
Mine too. I had to compile the drivers for a win modem (popularly called linmodem). Then switched to mandrake, mandriva, then Ubuntu 6 or 7, whichever came via mail for free.
I think it was SuSE 5.1, we're talking 1997. We got a CD at a show but I can't remember which or where.
My parents had some of the ancient ubuntu (or ubuntu based?) distros that they let me play with, I myself tried Manjaro in 2017 for a month (very scuffed back then), and then full Arch Linux since March or Apr 2021
Haven't bothered switching since, but if I did, I'm lightly curious on the NixOS hype. Why yes, I just installed Arch Linux for the archbtw, but also it feels like it just works for me at this point (yknow, till the next fuckup akin to the grub2 fiasco)
Manjaro. It broke a few times. Then I used plain arch ca 2 years without anything breaking. (Their was no guided installer yet)
The last 2 years I have been happy with opensuse Tumbleweed. Of course I have experiment a bunch of others too. Including running distros on servers.
That I played with on an old Pentium II rig? The now-defunct Crunchbang (Bunsen Labs is that distro's successor).
That I actually used as a daily driver? Ubuntu 12.10.
I've been daily-driving Linux for well over a decade at this point and have pretty much settled on Arch now after multiple distro-hops in that timespan.
Kurumin, a brazilian offshoot of Knoppix, sometime in early 2007 I think. The distro has been discontinued back in 2008. I was completely amazed that the whole OS would boot and work straight out of the CD, without needing to install anything.
Ubuntu 6 on a Samsung laptop I had lying around 2006ish. The webcam and trackpad wouldn't work, but a mouse and not caring about the webcam made that tolerable. It was the only OS I ran for a year or so. I went back to Windows for gaming shortly afterwards, but have been using Linux off-and-on in some form ever since.
Ubuntu back in the Gnome 2 days.
9.04 was mine haha. Still on Mate DE to this day.
Mine was slackware in I think 1997?
Beat you by couple years but that was mine too. My next were redhat which seemed to not be very good at the time other than a nice installer. After that suse for year until I switched to irix to finish the 90’s. Back to suse in the 2000’s, bsd in 2010s, and Mac now. What was your patch from Slackware?
Hell if I remember so long ago, redhat was in the mix, then mandrake... I ran Gentoo for years on a server, until I got bitten by some upgrade woes, then switched to Debian, then arch, now truenas. Meanwhile on my desktop I bounced around even more... Ubuntu until the stupid wannabe metro UI, then switched to mint, which I used exclusively (as in without dual-booting windows) for a while... Meanwhile my laptop dual boots Manjaro alongside windows 11...
Turbo Linux in the late 90s. It didn't go well.
Later I gave Redhat a shot - 5.0 or 5.1, I forget. Stayed with RH and now Fedora.
Knoppix circa 2004-2005, It was in a cd that came from chip.de. I had no clue what linux was back then. I know even less now.
For a long time, I thought it was Fedora Core 4. I did use that, but I recently found my old burned CDs of Mandrake 8.1. That really took me back. I might install it on a VM for some nostalgia.
First:
- Server: Debian
- Desktop: Debian
- Desktop daily driver: Ubuntu
I inherited a Sony Vaio in 2009 which was really slow with windows, but unsurprisingly was ok once I swapped that out for Ubuntu 9.04. Took me a while to get the brightness up as the buttons didn't respond, but I kept that machine running for 7 years, the HDD controller died in the end so it stopped detecting any HDD.
Mandriva. Yes, old and no longer exist. Forst distro i started to to use permantly on desktop is Fedora. The server has always been Ubuntu since the Mandriva time when I first learned about Linux. I think 2005. CS server etc. Desktop was 2024 when MS screwed up Windows too much
My first Linux install was Slackware sometime in the late 90's. I didn't really use it though, as I never managed to get it working with my dial-up Internet. Stupid winmodems.
The first distribution I actually used was Mandrake. Others I've used since then include Suse, Ubuntu, Debian, Mint, Manjaro, and EndeavourOS. I've landed on using Manjaro on both my main desktop and laptop, though I have secondary machines running Debian, Slackware, Ubuntu, and EndeavourOS.
Welcome to Lemmy stranger.
Slackware back in the early 90s on a Compaq 386/SX20 💾
The Alien repo was a godsend
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