Pop-Os in summer 2021, running Arch Linux with Hyprland now in 2024.
Linux
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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My first installed Linux distro was Ubuntu 5.10. I started experimenting with Linux because my neighbour at the time said good things about Linux. He used windows himself but he also heard good things about Linux and spread the word in curiousity. Eventually I was the one of us who made the jump.
And now I'm on fedora 39 kinoite because I like the immutable image-based features such as being able to build my own images in the cloud and being able to roll back to any previous version if something messes up in an upgrade. And also I have more control over what software is installed on the host system because it's all written in my Dockerfile so if I want to uninstall something and all of its dependencies, I'm just gonna remove it from the Dockerfile.
Ubuntu back in 2013 (I think?) to get the exclusive TF2 item. Good times! :D
Linux Mint in late 2021. Now, in 2024, I am on NixOS.
Mandrake.
And then to Debian and to Ubuntu for a good time. Now using Arch mainly to avoid Snap & Flatpak.
I kept hearing mutahar (someordinarygamers) talk about virtual machines and eventually i managed to get a laptop so i tried making one and Ubuntu was my pick (cus he recommended it for noobs), i hardly knew anything ab linux then but i figured a vm would be the perfect chance to try it :) . Later on when i first decided i wanted to try rawdogging linux it was cus my friend had an old laptop he never used so i asked if i could have it and he didnt mind. The thing was so slow the start menu (the thing u open when u press the windows button) literally took minutes to open. So i eventually checked its specs and downloaded a few distros trying them out and settled on mx linux cus it seemed to tick the most amount of boxes for me :3 (also i got around downloading linux on my main device later on, been using fedora on it.)
Ubuntu
Red Hat Linux 6.0, back in 1999. It was one of the first distributions to include GNOME as the default desktop environment.
+1 for the OG RH gang.
Ubuntu sometime around 2008 or 2009 after there was an install disk in a PC magazine. I didn't use it for long and went back to windows, but I experimented again with Debian a few years later and these days I daily Manjaro.
Either Slackware or Red Hat Linux 5, can't remember. I do remember that when I first installed RH5 I used "Hick" for my language.
I'm pretty sure it was Debian in the early aughts.
Ubuntu Late 2000’s. I wanted it because of the CUBE. But left because the only game which worked was TF2.
Debian Sarge which was testing back then. Woody was stable.
Ubuntu 11 netbook remix. Currently on Fedora Onyx on my laptop and Kinoite on Desktop.
Slackware. Installed from 3.5" floppy disk.
debian in 2007. still using it alongside mint
I think the first one I installed was Debian back in '97 when I was 12. I think my dad helped a bunch, but I can't really remember stuff from back then very well.
My initial thought was that it was gentoo which I used as my principal OS for close to ten years. I don't know how many times I reinstalled, but enough that I basically had it by memory. Taught me to keep my home dir on a separate partition.
These days I mostly live in windows because AutoCAD is a part of my professional life, but I dual boot popos on weekends. Unless kernel updates break my displaylink docking station...
Mint ig
my first time installing linux was ubuntu, because it was what i'd seen a friend using. i meant to install it to dual boot with windows, but instead ended up wiping everything from the family PC, which was very distressing, and my dad quickly reinstalled windows. this was back around '06 i think.
in '08, i first installed linux on my own system and actually got to use it. i'm not sure what i installed first, cause i did a fair bit of distrohopping, but i settled on ubuntu mate for a while.
My first was Mandriva, it was around 2008.
Knoppix 3.3, then Mandrake 10.1.
Slackware in the late 90s. 3.x version. "If you want to know how Linux works, ask a Slackware user" used to be the mantra back in the day.
I've been using Kubuntu on my desktop machines for at least a decade now. So, I've completely lost track of some of the things going on, like docker, flatpak, and so on. Which is actually a good thing: Linux has gotten so good, I no longer need to know how to administer my Linux system. I can just use it.
I currently run Debian on my server and intend to switch my desktop to Debian as well. Haven't gotten around to it...been busy. I also have to figure out how best to set up the nvme drive I have for it - GPT partition tables? Do I need a FAT32 partition? Etc.
It was probably Red Hat, late '90s.
Ubuntu. Now on Linux Mint XFCE
I'm fairly sure it was Scientific Linux because that was the distro used in the labs of my first programming course.
SLS
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softlanding_Linux_System
I used to have to head into University to use the Sun Lab ( Sun Microsystems workstations ) to download all the floppy images. Took forever.
I would copy the X configuration from the Sun machines so that my 486 at home looked the same. For some reason, that made me feel like my PC was a “real” UNIX workstation.
Slackware in 1998, installed from DOS with a series of diskettes. Then Debian, Red Hat Linux (not Enterprise!)... and so on.
What was the first ever distro you installed and used?
Slackware with some version of FVWM. Installed from a couple dozens floppies. (yes, I am that old :-( )
What made you choose your first distro diving into the world of Linux?
It is the only one available for download at the time as floppies.
Ubuntu 8.04. Was still in elementary school at the time.
I thought the themes were really cool, especially the compiz effects.
Red Hat back in the 1990s. I had to buy it from a local stationary shop because being in a small, isolated country and the internet being in it's infancy, it was all I could find. Came with a manual bigger than a phone book and cost about the equivalent to these days $200.
The very first one was Fedora but it seemed very bare and I had no idea how to get apps etc.
So I switched to Ubuntu and used that for a while before distro hopping.
Now I've settled on Linux Mint Debian Edition
Lubuntu was the first distro I remember installing on a low-end netbook.
It was some weird tablet like UI that I installed on a weak old laptop to use it again.
I have no clue which distro it was but I never came across it again
Slackware 1.2, because it came on a CD in the back of a fat paperback manual I got at Barnes and Noble. It was only later that I learned what a distro is.
Currently on Fedora with a Frankenstein desktop of my own concoction.
I think it was SLS. I know it took a pile of floppies. At some point I made a tape to make it easier to install. Why I needed to install that often eludes my aging memory but those experiences still pay to this day.
From the SLS FAQ:
Q: How do I upgrade SLS
A: If from .96, you don't. You must re-install from scratch. Otherwise,
read the ChangeLog file and download just the needed files manually.
Q: Can I install a new version of SLS over an old one?
A: Best not to. Save what you want somewhere and use mk[*]fs. SLS may
be best for base installs. Updates you can often get anywere on the net.
That is, unless you follow the upgrades to SLS religously.
Our speciations were slightly lower then.
To this day I still don't upgrade OSes in general and I even evangelize "rip and replace" professionally so loudly that it's now enforced via policy at my workplace. This must be where my ethos for this practice originated.
Back Track 5. Now Kali Linux.
I had not suitably prepared. I was a Windows Vista power user who heard how I could crack some Wi-Fi and gave it a whirl.
My chips went into one basket and me, oh my, was the transition ever so uncomfortable. What was dual booting? Who knows. Long story short, I made a mess for myself. I went through a significantly steeper learning curve than most, though it introduced me to script kiddie tools, programming, and eventually exploits.
Now a decade or so later, I've settled away from Arch to Debian. Though I miss the bleeding edge, my update frequency has lost much of it's zealous edge.
Yggdrasil in 1993. Why? Because it was the easiest to install at the time, and came with one of my books in college.
Arch was the only thing I could get working on my E200AH when I started. It's a weird SoC x86_64, with some non-free drivers. Now I can run anything, but the default with arch was figuring out what to do... Debian installer didn't have a mouse and the keyboard didn't work right and I just got stuck. Arch installer dropped me into a TTY and made me figure it out
Ubuntu back when it was decent lol. I picked it because everyone said that was a beginner-friendly distro, and I had already used it anyway as my parents had an Ubuntu ASUS laptop when I was little (though atp I didn't really remember much from using that laptop).
Zorin then AntiX I had a potato PC