I’m new to #Lemmy and making myself feel at home by posting a bit!

My first Linux distribution was elementary OS in early March 2020. Since then, I’ve tried Manjaro, Arch Linux, Fedora, went back to Manjaro, and since early January 2023, I’ve landed on Debian as my home in the #Linux world.

What was your first Linux distro?

  • GardenData61371@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    Linux Mint. I made a dumb decision to install it right away thinking it’s just like Windows. Boy was i wrong. Took me years until I felt ready to switch to Linux.

    I use Arch BTW

  • Beryl@lemmy.ml
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    2 days ago

    I somehow could not find the Mint install so I went with Ubuntu Mate. It was fine.

  • zarkanian@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    Mandrake! It was a fucking disaster! Fortunately, I came back later using Kubuntu and had a much better experience.

  • ffhein@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I think I tried to compile Gentoo about 20 years ago for some reason… Took many hours, and I don’t remember even getting it running. Later I tried dual booting Ubuntu, but ended up using Windows all the time since that’s where my games were. Started using Linux only (Xubuntu) some time around 2010.

  • nfms@lemmy.ml
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    2 days ago

    My first was Ubuntu in the early 2000s, I think CDs were being distributed by the IT department in one of the faculties, then SUSE but Linux didn’t stick with me at the time. In 2018 I installed Manjaro which helped me make the switch to arch. I’ve also got Debian on a server and fedora on a laptop

  • mastod0n@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    SuSe Linux, I got a CD in the (late?) 2000s and installed it on my old PC. But reality got me pretty fast, I iust wasn’t invested yet. Years later I started from scratch on Debian.

  • mostprolificbrick@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Ubuntu 6.06. It came on a CD with a PC magazine. I’ve used it to convince my parents to allow me to spend as much time as I want in front of the computer because “there are no games on Linux”.

    WoW worked on it.

  • mlg@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Ubuntu, and the experience was crap lol.

    Then I got to try Debian on a server and it was much nicer.

    Then I saw Torvalds uses Fedora, and given that he also disliked Debian and Ubuntu for their lack of end user ease, I switched and have been happy ever since.

    Seriously though, GNOME 40 really should not be the default DE. It made me think Linux UI was years behind Windows when it was actually the opposite with proven DEs like XFCE, KDE, and GNOME 3/2 etc.

  • sramder@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Welcome to Lemmy stranger.

    Slackware back in the early 90s on a Compaq 386/SX20 💾

      • sramder@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        Honestly it still feels like home. Because I was kind of a moron and figured it would mean less to figure out, I registered darkstar.org (the default domain Slackware came set up with).

        I few years later I actually emailed Patrick Volkerding about something and he mentioned it… I felt this strange mix of pride and shame ;-)

    • jhdeval@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Well shit you got me beat I ran Slackware from 3.5 disks in the 90s on a 486dx2. I sent away for those disks to be mailed to me. I even did something crazy with that machine I had lots of ram so I sent them off to a company to combine them together. I want to say it 8 or 16 megabytes. Bit I can’t remember now.

      • sramder@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        That’s great, I didn’t even know that was a service you could get. I remember being really disappointed when I realized that a SIMM would not actually fit in one of my 386s ISA slots 😅

    • curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 days ago

      Also Slackware!

      But I skipped from my 286 to a Pentium 133 (then went a bit backwards to a 486 dx100, then ahead to some cyrix and AMD).

      • sramder@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        It was such a cool time for CPUs. Going up a generation was like getting a supercomputer. And Intel had those cartridge CPUs…

        • curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          4 days ago

          Such a wild time… I started building PCs for people (even my gym teacher), it was so fun - and yeah, such a huge jump every time!

          Now I have the same build for nearly 15 years with upgrades along the way, and my servers are all decom’d t/m/m PCs.

          Edit: Jump had a typo

    • guy_threepwood@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      I used Vector Linux 3.2, which was Slackware based, mostly because it was a small(ish) download on my friend’s Cable internet connection. Shortly after I moved to real Slackware. This was probably 2003/4

  • nabladabla@sopuli.xyz
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    3 days ago

    Ubuntu 5.10 back when a random Finnish teenager could ask Canonical for free install CDs and they’d just mail them to you no money asked.

  • dukatos@lemm.ee
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    3 days ago

    The first was Redhat Linux 7, but not for long. I moved to Slackware soon after.