linuxmemes

Conectiva Linux. Don’t remember the version, bought a CD together with a manual a news stand.

Tried MythTV for a HTPC and had some issue with a log file filling up the the whole drive. Didn't have the skill yet to fix the issue. Does messing around with the terminal in OS X count? It certainly made me more comfortable for the next time tried. I think the next major attempt was another HTPC, but this time, I just used Ubuntu + XBMC and setup it up to also be a headless torrent box. Using OS X as my main desktop still made things easier then it would have been going from Windows to Linux as the file naming and system directories were compatible.

I've been using Mint as my laptop OS for a while now and just recently switched from Mac to Mint on my desktop machine. I made an effort to never get trapped in property file types or an "eco system", so all the apps I was using were available in Linux already and the Majove Hackintosh was becoming less and less viable.

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

RedHat back when it was just RedHat. No RHEL. No Fedora. Late 90s.

Ubuntu -> Xubuntu -> Linux Mint XFCE

Ubuntu -> Linux Mint -> Pop!_OS -> MX linux -> EndeavourOS

Knoppix I think

I tried Puppy with a persistent live USB first, then I used Ubuntu through WUBI for a while until it borked my MBR.

Slackware. Horrible experience.

Then Ubuntu.

Now Debian.

SimplyMepis (RIP)

FreeBSD 3.3

My first distro was Ubuntu 8.04, but my first experience with Linux was Damn Small Linux.

Funny enough, Damn Small Linux just had an update after all these years.

Ubuntu -> Mandriva -> Zorin -> Ubuntu -> Debian

I had the amazing luck of being introduced to linux at such a young age that i don't remember the distro. I just remember the penguin.

But the first time I try linux for myself it was mint, of course.

it was mine too, in 2020... bring me memories <3

Slackware, either the first or the second release IIRC.

Linux Mit, im still loving cinnamon

Slackware 4. Nothing like having to compile your kernel depending on the hardware you hand-selected for compatibility. Then entering your monitor specs in the config files by hand to get WindowMaker to run correctly.

First server was Debian in 2002 or so. First desktop was the first version of Ubuntu (4.10). Back then, they'd send you a free CD upon request, anywhere in the world. Dial-up was still pretty common in Australia at the time, so not having to download it was very useful. That was one of the things that really drove adoption of Ubuntu.

I believe it was Ubuntu, likely something like 8.04, but only in a VM. Then a few years later I tried Fedora, DamnSmallLinux, and maybe one or two others. I didn't install Linux on actual hardware until 2017 when I installed Ubuntu 16.04 and never looked back, though I tried it from a bootable USB a few times years before that. Currently on Ubuntu 22.04 on my desktop, my servers all run Ubuntu or Proxmox (Debian).

Using on a computer, Debian back in 2011. On my own machine I first went with an Ubuntu dual boot, then later switched to Linux Mint and haven't switched to anything else since. I just love how Mint was able to give new life to the same old trooper laptop I had since 2013.

Technically zorin, but kubuntu is why I stuck with it. It's what made me like linux...

CorelLinux

Pretty sure Linux Mint back in 2009-2010 that my brother forced all of our family PC's to use. Now over 14 years later I have made it back to Linux Mint and oh how I've missed it.

Mandrake 8.2

I have fond memories of it, as it weaned me off Windows.

Edit: Actually, Knoppix was my first foray into Linux, but Mandrake was the first Linux distro that I actually installed.

Seems appropriate that he’s about to snap her neck.

Ubuntu, specifically the netbook edition.

That little guy struggled with Windows 7 Starter, but it got some pep in it's step when Linux was installed!

Pop OS. I honestly feel like it was a great transitional OS for me as a lifelong Windows user. Kind of like riding a bike with training wheels.

Mandrake, I wanna say ~1998 or so. But tbh, I only recently finally took the plunge and wiped all traces of M$ off my system. I've tried Linux distris over the years and always just couldn't make them work for me for one reason or another. Red hat, Debian, Mint, Ubuntu, Pop_OS, Manjaro, Arco, Endeavor. Nothing really worked out for me and something inevitably broke that genuinely wasn't my fault. Now, I have settled on pure Arch with KDE and for some reason, it's been stable and been used daily for months now and I can't think of one thing that could ever make me go back, or anywhere else for that matter.

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed

Biolinux so ubuntu based... Now still on ubunut but considering moving to debian.

Ubuntu. Couldn't use Unity, so then installed Mint with Cinnamon.

I am an old timer. I started with BSD before there was even a Linux. NetBSD on an Amiga 3000 before the AT&T law suite against NetBSD, then heared about Linux which was twice as clean as NetBSD and without legal issues - Later NetBSD removed all legal issues nonetheless.

First Linux was a Watch-Tower Distribution, basically a big RAM-Disk with a rudimentary Linux system which you copied to HD. No package manager, nothing. tar, make was the way to do installations. Shortly after Slackware and SuSE which basically was the same back then. Then a lot of SuSE then Debian, then Ubuntu. Don't care much about the distribution nowadays as long as it is DEB-based.

But now something to scare all of you: Today my most used POSIX environment is... Cygwin. Well, I got a Windows-Notebook for development and a VM is really clunky in comparison to a fully integrated POSIX-layer like Cygwin. For developing Stuff it actually matters very little if you use BSD, Linux, Cygwin or even Solaris.

I bounced around a few different distros about twenty years ago. OpenSuse, Mint, and Ubuntu. I settled on Ubuntu (6.0X I think) because the others had a lot of trouble with hardware in my Korean laptop at the time. Ubuntu was the only one that had the track pad working right away, and also the only one I managed to get Korean keyboard input working in. I never did get the webcam working in any of them. I used Ubuntu in some form or another up until a few months ago when I switched to Mint. Largely because of Lemmy.