Ask Lemmy

Ubuntu back in 2005.

My first distro was OpenSUSE (or SuSE Linux back then) sometime around 2002. I picked it up out of curiosity in a book shop. They were selling the handbook, bundled with a DVD with the actual OS. It looked something like this. And thus started decades of distro hopping.

Deepin

Some version of Ubuntu. I got a free laptop that didn't have an operating system so I just put linux on it because I didn't want to buy windows.

DLD 5 in 1998, a colleague at work handed me a CDR and said "i think this might be something for you", and he was right ;)

SuSe Linux from an installation CD about twenty years ago. A right royal pain in the arse it was.

Ubuntu 8.04, and I got it on one of those free discs they used to send out.

Mandrake like in 2003.

Ubuntu. I think it was around when Unity was starting off.

Red Hat

Fedora. Core 3 or Core 4 according to Wikipedia and the fact that I recognize the names. An acquaintance suggested I try Linux, so I found info on it, didn't really understand what a distro was and settled on Fedora because I had bought O'Reilly Linux Pocket Guide that used that distro.

I switched pretty quickly after that, and used Ubuntu, Debian, then Mepis for awhile. I've run Arch, dual-booted with Windows for several years on the desktop and Debian testing on my remote server

Slackware. Don't remember the version.

The first I had for work was Ubuntu.

Ubuntu!

I downloaded the installer in 2017 after MS forced an update to Windows 10 from 7. My laptop, from 2010, couldn't handle W10 and I heard Linux was good for old laptops. Not long after that I hopped around to other distros but Ubuntu was first.

Manjaro, that is the distro in my families computer

My mom brought me a disk of mandrake Linux. I tried it and I was pretty lost.

Iirc it was actually Lubuntu instead of Ubuntu, since I liked the idea of Ubuntu but found it's UI atrocious

Redhat. I can't remember the version, but I found it at Fry's electronics in early 2000. Using Fedora now.

Ubuntu, when I started studying IT after high school, my tutor was very insistent that we know about different weird things, and how tech in general worked, and because Ubuntu was so simple, that's where he started.

Fedora, then moved on Debian after I did break my install 😌 No windows since 2013 and snowden reveals.

Caldera, followed by redhat followed by Slackware which I stayed on for quite a while.

It was SuSE 5.3, in 1998. That's about the time I went to Linux workshops with a HAM club, getting into packet radio, AX25 and stuff. Good times

Debian. Can't remember the version. I copied the images on a handful of floppy disks and ran a graphical desktop OS off 32MB of RAM and 200MB of storage.

Never really moved away from that since then, except when using a piece of hardware that came with something specific.

attempted Debian and Suse, but first one I got installed and actually used for awhile was a Stage 1 Gentoo build

SimplyMEPIS, I really liked it & after it was discontinued I switched to Ubuntu

Ubuntu 21.10

Ubuntu, I kept distro hopping but I still kept on coming back to it until I switched to Arch Linux.

I still use Ubuntu for my servers though.

Kubuntu 14.04 burned on a CD my brother gave me when I started studying programming. Switched a lot along the way and ironically ended up on Kubuntu 23.04. I love KDE.

Ubuntu. If I remember correctly it was in 2016. I do remember that it was still using the Unity desktop environment, which was pretty good in my opinion. I didn't know anything about Linux back then, and I tried to run Minecraft on it through WINE. It didn't work lol.

Had to use red hat for a cyber security class in college, but I tinkered with Ubuntu back in highschool. I had no idea what I was doing lmao

Officially it was Raspberry Pi OS although I had messed around with Mint and Ubuntu a bit before that.

Ubuntu -> Manjaro -> Pop! OS

Ubuntu. But that was an office pc so pretty limited. Mint was the first ever I installed and stayed there for a few years.

Slackware. And it was a bitch to get everything working is all I remember.

My first contact with linux was with Ubuntu Server 14.04 when I started my first minecraft project with a friend. We decided to try setting up the server on a VPS instead of using a hosting provider that takes care of all the setup and stuff automatically. That was one heck of a journey, but gave me a good quickstart into linux. Nowadays I use linux as a daily driver at home and for the entirety of my server infrastructure.

I think it was mint or elementry

Slackware to start with, then redhat which seemed very slick and convenient in comparison. Had to drive all the way across the city to buy it on several CDs from some bloke cos my dial up internet was not up to the task. Then I found Debian and stuck with it for about 20yrs, but I think I had some kind of broadband by that point.

I think mint, but after that Ubuntu and kubuntu since ~gutsy.

Some version of Ubuntu around the time they were doing the Ubuntu phone

Fedora from a cd around 2006

Ubuntu, which I pretty much only installed so I could also install compiz fusion because it looked badass. Nothing like a 3D cube for my multiple desktops, and windows that jiggle when I move them and burn up when I close them.

Corel Linux, I doubt anyone else here knows it especially used it. Very user friendly, got me into linux.

Red Hat mid 90s and then Slackware, Red Hat was more polished but I learnt so much more from Slackware.