this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2025
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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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[–] sramder@lemmy.world 33 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (5 children)

Welcome to Lemmy stranger.

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

[–] tenchiken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 hours ago

Floppy sets represent!

[–] curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Also Slackware!

But I skipped from my 286 to a Pentium 133 (then went a bit backwards to a 486 dx100, then ahead to some cyrix and AMD).

[–] sramder@lemmy.world 4 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

It was such a cool time for CPUs. Going up a generation was like getting a supercomputer. And Intel had those cartridge CPUs…

[–] curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 7 hours ago

Such a wild time... I started building PCs for people (even my gym teacher), it was so fun - and yeah, such a huge ju.p e very time!

Now I have the same build for nearly 15 years with upgrades along the way, and my servers are all decom'd t/m/m PCs.

[–] MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca 13 points 11 hours ago (1 children)
[–] sramder@lemmy.world 7 points 11 hours ago

Honestly it still feels like home. Because I was kind of a moron and figured it would mean less to figure out, I registered darkstar.org (the default domain Slackware came set up with).

I few years later I actually emailed Patrick Volkerding about something and he mentioned it… I felt this strange mix of pride and shame ;-)

[–] jhdeval@lemmy.world 8 points 10 hours 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.

[–] sramder@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

That’s great, I didn’t even know that was a service you could get. I remember being really disappointed when I realized that a SIMM would not actually fit in one of my 386s ISA slots 😅

[–] Xanza@lemm.ee 7 points 11 hours ago

Slackware 3.1 late 1996. Great fuckin' year that was.