linuxmemes

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Manjaro GNOME Edition,
But am now on NixOS 😸❄️🐈✨

Knoppix I think

Slackware. Horrible experience.

Then Ubuntu.

Now Debian.

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.

FreeBSD 3.3

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).

Suse

First Debian, then Ubuntu because people said it was better, then back to Debian because it wasn't (snaps really suck and break things), then to Pop OS (bc new laptop preinstalled with it). I also got a SteamDeck semi-recently if that counts (still use the Pop OS laptop).

Ubuntu -> Xubuntu -> Linux Mint XFCE

Ubuntu, in 2006.

Debian with kde, because it looked a bit like Windows.

Then slackware because it was supposedly a "simple" Linux distro. Apparently simple doesn't mean simple to use for a newbie...

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.

Slackware, either the first or the second release IIRC.

Mint was my first main. Before that there were some projects on raspbian.

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

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.

SimplyMepis (RIP)

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

The year was 2002, and the distro was Caldera Open Linux 2.2

edit to add: Currently running KDE Neon. KDE 6 is pretty great so far.

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

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.

Actual first was I think knopix or whatever it was called. My friend had a bootable floppy and we booted it on a school computer.

First real daily use was Ubuntu somewhere around 2006.

CorelLinux

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!

My first distro was Xubuntu. It was 2014-15. I was still in high school. My pc was getting old, and I read online that Linux can make your pc run faster. Since it wasn't my gaming machine, I decided to give it a try. I also read online that Xubuntu is among the lightest of distros, so decided to install that. It really was a night and day difference in performance.

I've switched distros a few times (Xubuntu -> Ubuntu Gnome -> Manjaro KDE -> EndeavourOS KDE, also run AlmaLinux on a few headless server machines) since then, but never went back to Windows ever again.

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

My first was Suse Enterpise Linux. Bought from Best Buy in the late 90s.

Some form of Novell-era Suse Linux when I was in college… 20 years ago. I didn’t get it back then. Mint is my daily driver today.

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