this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2025
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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I'm new to #Lemmy and making myself feel at home by posting a bit!

My first Linux distribution was elementary OS in early March 2020. Since then, I’ve tried Manjaro, Arch Linux, Fedora, went back to Manjaro, and since early January 2023, I’ve landed on Debian as my home in the #Linux world.

What was your first Linux distro?

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[–] cr78bw@anonsys.net 2 points 18 hours ago

Slackware in 1996(?), then SuSE when they came up.
I then tried a bit every once in a while, but really never got fully comfortable with it on a desktop.
A few weeks ago I bought a new Desktop PC, which is now running with the Arch-fork #endeavouros and I really love it.

@midtsveen

[–] XPost3000@lemmy.ml 1 points 23 hours ago

Arch, btw

It was the distro that my friend uses all the time, and I've had to use his laptop on occasion so I'm somewhat familiar with the distro, enough so that I've installed it on persistent USBs before and already chosen it as my next OS after Windows (I would switch now, but I rode Windows 7 till the end date, so I figured I'd ride out 10 until the final day this October)

Also! Gender fluid hello!! It made me so insanely happy to see that flag in the Linux terminal, I feel so seen!! It feels like trans girls hog all the Linux spotlight this side of the fediverse, I'm happy for them! But I still don't feel like I have a proper community where I belong, especially since I stay off of all other mainstream social media >.<

So seeing another enby, another gender fluid especially, for the literal first time since I made my lemmy account just makes me so ecstatic!! We're so rare x3

Anyways, thank u for existing and simply posting this, seeing another makes me feel seen and I can't really express enough how unreasonably happy something so small just made me c:

Thank you! And I should sleep so good night also lol

[–] Heavybell@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Red Hat, back when that was a distro. It was a long time ago now and my toying with it didn't last long; and began an obsession with hardware RAID…

[–] fembinary@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

genderfluid fetch spotted!!!! also im not sure which was first but i use arch and openbsd ;3

[–] midtsveen@lemmy.wtf 2 points 1 day ago

Ye, gender-fluid human living life over here! 😁 ❤️

[–] GardenData61371@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Linux Mint. I made a dumb decision to install it right away thinking it's just like Windows. Boy was i wrong. Took me years until I felt ready to switch to Linux.

I use Arch BTW

[–] sramder@lemmy.world 58 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (10 children)

Welcome to Lemmy stranger.

Slackware back in the early 90s on a Compaq 386/SX20 💾

[–] MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca 18 points 6 days ago (1 children)
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[–] jhdeval@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Well shit you got me beat I ran Slackware from 3.5 disks in the 90s on a 486dx2. I sent away for those disks to be mailed to me. I even did something crazy with that machine I had lots of ram so I sent them off to a company to combine them together. I want to say it 8 or 16 megabytes. Bit I can't remember now.

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[–] the_visitor@sh.itjust.works 31 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Kali Linux. Because I was a kid who wanted to be a hackerman.

[–] midtsveen@lemmy.wtf 19 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

❤️ Ah yes, the hacker-man vibes!

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[–] LastoftheDinosaurs@reddthat.com 30 points 6 days ago (4 children)

Red Hat, before the enterprise stuff, back in 1999. Installed from a CD found in a book from the library

[–] Nick7903 14 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I've got a Red Hat from '99! Found in grandpa's garage.

[–] LastoftheDinosaurs@reddthat.com 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Nice! The one I found looked like this. I remember picking it up because I thought the logo looked cool. I think it was 5.2 though

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[–] mostprolificbrick@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago

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.

[–] nightmare786@leminal.space 24 points 6 days ago (3 children)

am a simple noob who started with Mint, and remain on Mint on my main gaming machine.

i have fun distro-hopping on my other old, cheap laptops though

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[–] Beryl@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 days ago

I somehow could not find the Mint install so I went with Ubuntu Mate. It was fine.

[–] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 days ago

Mandrake! It was a fucking disaster! Fortunately, I came back later using Kubuntu and had a much better experience.

[–] muusemuuse@lemm.ee 10 points 5 days ago (2 children)
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[–] mlg@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

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.

[–] fhein@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

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.

[–] Spider89@lemm.ee 17 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

Ubuntu > Mint > Manjaro > Arch > PopOS > Debian

(History, not ranking [Debian wins])

[–] Xanza@lemm.ee 10 points 6 days ago

Debian wins

Testify, brother.

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[–] thefool@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Red Hat 5.1, which I quickly abandoned after learning the hard way about winmodems

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[–] Malfeasant@lemm.ee 6 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Mine was slackware in I think 1997?

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[–] nabladabla@sopuli.xyz 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] dukatos@lemm.ee 3 points 4 days ago

The first was Redhat Linux 7, but not for long. I moved to Slackware soon after.

[–] nfms@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 days ago

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

[–] turnip@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 days ago

Puppy Linux. On very old hardware.

[–] crmsnbleyd@sopuli.xyz 10 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Ubuntu, like a lot of people my age (2000s)

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[–] Matombo@feddit.org 4 points 5 days ago

litterally arch btw

[–] stev3yd@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Mandrake Linux. I couldn’t tell you what year but I remember booting into it and thinking it was the coolest thing.

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[–] Disgruntled@lemmy.ca 14 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Slackware 96 CD Case

Slackware96 from Walnut Creek purchased at Staples back when software came in boxes with manuals. Netscape Navigator 3.0 anyone?

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[–] ndupont@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

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.

[–] BlueEther@no.lastname.nz 13 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I started with Mandrake 6 when the there were lots of 9's or 0's in the year

Then bounced from Slackware/opensuse/Red Hat/Debian/Gentoo/BSD

Now running Kde Neon and MacOS (Debian and BSD as server OSs)

[–] MOARbid1@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago

My first Linux install was Ubuntu 5.10 Breezy. Got those wobbly windows going and felt like a fucking king.

[–] mastod0n@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

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.

[–] nibbler@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 6 days ago

I believe it was slackware. it was gifted to teenage me ca 1994, was on the CD of some magazine.

I wanted to try it, so went dual boot. it (or I?) partitioned my 800MB hard disk into a 300MB and an 800MB partition. stupid young me thought this was great and I just gained 300MB. when I noticed date corruption, stupid young me started to copy over important data to the assumed good partition. things didn't end well.

I took a two year break from Linux afterwards 🤣

[–] MessyEh@lemmy.ca 10 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Mandrake 6.0 in 1998. The kernel was still 2.2, and KDE 1.1.1.

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[–] lemmus@szmer.info 1 points 4 days ago

Lubuntu :O and Kali linux

[–] zebidiah@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)
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[–] cygnus@lemmy.ca 11 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Ubuntu in the mid 2000s, but it's PopOS that made me a fulltimer ~2 years ago. I don't use it anymore but I'll always be thankful for it.

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.

[–] FlappyBubble@lemmy.ml 5 points 5 days ago

Mandrake Linux

[–] Wynnstan@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

RedHat, I had to recompile the kernel to be SoundBlaster compatible so that I could play Doom with sound on my 486.

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[–] forgetful_fox@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago
[–] auginator@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

All the old timers are coming out. In the summer of ‘98 I switched to Red Hat Linux.

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[–] Rodneyck@lemm.ee 6 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Sadly, Ubuntu. I quickly moved on to debian...and ultimately landed with Arch, my true love for many years. I use Arch, btw.

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[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 10 points 6 days ago

my first 'distro' was slackware, on floppy disks. then debian or a flavour of, mainly, ever since. i've never really strayed too far from debian and apt over the years but i have tried most everything.

[–] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

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?

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