Slackware was my first as well. You really learned Linux using it. I probably rebuilt that drive a dozen times because I’d bork something and it was easier to reinstall than it was to figure out how I broke it in some new novel way.

Also not having a phone to look stuff up and having to rely on looking stuff up in books was hell now that I think of it.

I started with SuSE 5 and it came with a book. I think it started with something like: "Don't panic! You can do this!"

It was rough at first, but once I got into it I was hooked.

Spelling DOS as DoS is either a cunning joke or one heck of a Freudian slip.

Slackware around 96. I downloaded it from a local BBS over a 28.8 modem. It took forever. I don't recall how many floppies it took, but it was a good stack. I got it installed, then realized it was in Portuguese. I did not know Portuguese at the time. So I got a crash course in Linux and Portuguese at the same time learning how to reconfigure the language settings. It was a fun time.

Redhat, back in 1999. Then Mandrake 2002. Then Suse 2003. Then Ubuntu 2006. Then Debian 2012-present.

But it's funny I kept KDE since Mandrake. Same DE for over 20 years. For Redhat I was using this Win95 lookalike DE, I forgot what it was called.

Edit: I definitely did not order a couple dozen of Ubuntu's free CD-ROMs back in the day and throw them at everyone I knew and didn't know, including random kiosk people at the mall...

I downloaded slackware from a BBS. It took forever. It booted from two floppies, a boot and a root disk. It did not even have X. I still loved it, because I recently got into programming, and all I had ever programmed on was DOS. In Linux, you could actually malloc() with any amount, even a full megabyte! It was marvellous! Later, I installed it on my HD on a separate partition. The installation process was really fascinating, so much choice, so many new programs! At least the first time.

Still using Slackware to this day.

So... Yeah.

I also lost partitions (ESP and C:) during my move to a Linux-only setup, except it was because of Windows Update. On ya, Microsoft!

/me raises hand.

I will never forget when I accidentaly wiped my external hard drive messing around snd distro hopping, I lost 6000 songs that day....

I recall telling this story here on Lemmy not long ago - (and got downvoted some weeks ago for saying that it can happen on any distro... kids don't know the real struggle I guess) - back in the day I swiped my HDD trying to install ubuntu 5.10 and lost all my data from uni and stuff. Still I can't remember how I managed to install it after some attempts like a year after that or so.

I'd be upset about losing my data but truth is that somehow I was used to it - third world problems made it frequently due to not having a cd burner to burn my data and crappy IDE HDDs that got corrupted after a while just because. I still have some of them stored somewhere in hopes I could try to recover something from them someday, like some sort of cryogenic stuff.

Yggdrasil for me, i think. I honestly don’t remember how it went though.

I had Linux on a second SSD at home recently, but an update to the laptop’s BIOS seems to have stopped it from letting me boot from it. I only keep windows around for games, which is ironic, as I hardly play them anymore.

Work is a windows shop, but I’d rather use Linux.

Ubuntu 2006 (I think), they mailed me a literal cd with it, how to resist to that.

The year is about right. I didn't lose my DOS partition, but I was already familiar with partitioning. Someone gave me a Slackware CD set. Had a lot of difficulty getting a higher res than 640x480 with my VLB video card.
Started a BBS at the time, switched to OS/2 Warp, which worked awesome until Windows apps moved to the new Win95 requirements. Started using RHEL for a while, but eventually Debian, then Ubuntu, and now PopOS.

It's been a long journey, but now Windows 11 is the weird OS that needs hours of troubleshooting and tweaking and adjustments. It's just not worth the effort, so I keep an Windows 10 VM around with Office for the odd occasion when I need it.

I was born in 94 so not really. For me it was Ubuntu and nvidia drivers in 2010 or smth around that.

First was Puppy on an old Dell back in middle school. Just wanted something other than the shit ass windows box my mom insisted on and the macs my school insisted on.

Redhat. Back in the early 90’s.

Fuck RHEL, though. And let’s be honest, why pick just one flavor? (Currently using arch.)

I switched to Slackware for some time after I got fed up with RedHat 4's broken rpm system.

It was a relief that the tar.gz packages didn't have the habit of blowing up the OS.

I do, first install using floppies, kernel v0.99, and more floppies for X

Redhat 1997. Slackware, Storm Linux, then Debian 2001 to present. A brief year on the OSS Solaris release.

Sunk cost fallacy right there. Plus some Stockholm syndrome thrown in for good measure.