Linux

Knoppix. I didn't see it listed yet so I had to chime in.

I saw it and was confused that computers could run something that wasn't Windows and wasn't Mac. Then I was handed a Knoppix LiveCD and suddenly MY computer was Linux. Absolutely blew my mind.

I then explored Mandrake (now Mandrivia?) for a while but it never really stuck.

A few years later Ubuntu was handing out LivdCDs to everyone running Warty Warthog and soon after window managers started to use Beryl (?) which let you have a fancy cube desktop. Absolutely pointless but that's how it all started.

Ubuntu 8.10 in early 2009, after Windows Vista otherwise bricked my laptop. I've distro-hopped on a few occasions but most of my 16 years of Linux have been on Ubuntu. That said, I moved away from Ubuntu after a failed upgrade to 22.04 LTS, to OpenSUSE and then to KDE Neon, now I'm on Nobara and couldn't be happier.

For me it was elementary OS. Dual-booted with Windows back in 2015/2016. Maybe 1 year later, I installed Linux Mint Cinnamon and gradually used it more than Windows. Now I am using EndeavourOS XFCE and only using Windows virtually... when I am bored or need to use Adobe Lightroom Classic.

I think it was Slackware sometime in the early 2000s

Arch Linux, on an old Compaq pizza box server when I was 16. It took me 3 months to install Arch because there was a DIP switch on the motherboard that somehow prevented you from updating the MBR or some shit.

I basically never used it and didn't touch Linux again until 7 years later, when I used SLES 11 SP2 at a job.

Ubuntu... Then Slackware... Then Fedora... Then Arch I still dont know why tf I went to Slackware... It was painful, but worth it

@midtsveen if I remember correctly, I think it must have been Ubuntu 12.04
My first steps into the Linux world - it's incredible to see how far the Linux desktop has come since. I've got a laptop that runs exclusively Zorin OS and I love it!

Someone installed Fedora for me somewhere around 2006, then I switched between Ubuntu and Windows until permanently settling for Ubuntu a couple of years ago. But I'm thinking of switching to Debian..

Lubuntu about 10 years ago, then Mint, openSUSE, and I've stuck with Debian for the past eight.

in order (2000-present): red hat, slackware, debian, ubuntu, arch, manjaro, nix

elementary os in 2016. I still use eos on my desktop machine, mainly because it's kinda ubuntu but not quite. Running Fedora on one of my laptops, the rest are running macos

If just using the Live CD counts, Lubuntu 12.04, to copy files off a broken Windows machine

Then Ubuntu, followed by Deepin (looked cool), UbuntuDDE, Arch, Xubuntu, and finally settled on Debian in 2022.

My first was Ubuntu 06.06, but I was only messing around using a live CD. I tried it again with Ubuntu 12.04 when Steam added Linux support, but went back to Windows because gaming on Linux wasn't really there.

Finally decided to dual boot and distro hopped a bit in 2015 between Mint, Kubuntu, then KDE Neon for a bit before settling on Manjaro some time in 2017. Eventually I switched to Arch in 2022 after Manjaro forgot to renew their certs again.

I started with Ubuntu back when you could put in your parent's home address and they sent you free CDs. I'm on Arch (since about 2010), and I can't change.

Caldera OpenLinux 2.2 somewhere around 2000. Ran that for a year or two until the PC it was on died.

Next time I was able to run it was 2008ish on a pos dell laptop on which I installed Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron). When that laptop died a year or so later I went macOS and was happy there until about 2022ish.

Now I'm running it across several machines for different purposes.

Arch dualbooting OpenSUSE Tumbleweed on my tinkering laptop.

Ubuntu Server 22.04 on my server (started with 18.04)

Fedora 41 on family computers/laptops

Asahi on the last bit of Apple hardware left in the house

Raspberry Pi OS on a number of PiS serving different purposes.

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.

Yellow Dog in early 2000s, and I think I switched to Debian PPC not long after. My memory of back then is quite hazy. A way while after that I had an Eee PC which I think I put Ubuntu on initially (the desktop was dog slow) and then changed over to LMDE. Have a feeling I had something else on it before Ubuntu... may have been the default Eee distribution, which I forget the name of (think it began with an X).

I tried to set up arch, realized I didn’t want that kind of work for a gaming setup and swapped to debian, and i’ve used that since lol

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)

Some ancient version of SuSE Linux way back in like 2001. I did not stick with it back then.

Mint, then Ubuntu, then Kubuntu, elementaryOS, Manjaro, then I gave up Linux for a while because I needed remote desktop for my PC at work, now back on PopOS!

First attempt was Slackware, installed from a CD that came with a magazine because we didn't have the internet in about 2001 or 2002. It worked for one glorious afternoon but I'd tried to dual boot with Windows and nuked that partition. Got into big trouble and was banned from the family computer for the rest of the summer. Couldn't try again until a couple of years later when I got my very own laptop and paid my friend £5 to leave his PC on overnight downloading an ISO of dynebolic over dial up and burn it to a CD for me.

That was great but then I got my hands on a beefier PC and used Ubuntu thanks to the free CDs you could get in the mail. When I finally got a job and a broadband connection I switched to Mandriva, then Ubuntu again for a few years with most of that being Xubuntu and for like the last 10 years mostly Debian. I switched to Fedora a couple of times and tried a few others like MX Linux and Qubes. I also had a Pinebook Pro for a while running Manjaro ARM. I just always ended up going back to Debian. I can't see myself ever changing distros again.

My first linux was Ubuntu 10.04. And I swapped to Arch only when Ubuntu added snap.

Knoppix on live cd which I installed later on hdd but a few days later switched to Mandrake, I think it was... 2001? Good times, good times. There has been a lot of distrohopping since then.

OpenSuSE that came with the Linux magazine

I think mine was gentoo, waaaay back in the day. It didn't go great lol.

I'm loving opensuse rn though!

WSL, Deepin for an hour, and then endeavourOS (easy Arch) ever since

Ubuntu > Mint > Manjaro > Arch > PopOS > Debian

(History, not ranking [Debian wins])

The one I settled on back then was Mandrake.

Debian Slink

Before that, Windows NT, A/UX, Solaris and VAX/VMS.

Before that, Vic 20 and Apple II

Still using Debian every day whilst navigating the perils of MacOS.

Slackware in 1997.

I ran it on a 486SX/40 with 32MB of RAM and a 2GB harddrive.

It turned me into the man I am today.

Slackware back in '96 when It was the only option. Then tried everything else before settling on Mint and never having to worry about picking another distribution again.

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