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?

  • cr78bw
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    26 days ago

    Slackware in 1996(?), then SuSE when they came up.
    I then tried a bit every once in a while, but really never got fully comfortable with it on a desktop.
    A few weeks ago I bought a new Desktop PC, which is now running with the Arch-fork #endeavouros and I really love it.

    @midtsveen

      • @sramder@lemmy.world
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        1012 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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      1012 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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        211 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 😅

    • 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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        411 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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          11 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

      • Photuris
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        211 days ago

        I overlocked my Pentium 133 to 150.

        I was such a badass.

    • @guy_threepwood@lemmy.world
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      311 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

    • @Thorned_Rose@sh.itjust.works
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      11 days ago

      My monitor is visible to a public footpath and I honestly am waiting for the day that I get a knock on the door from the cops because Jo Public saw me do a system update

      sudo pacman -Syu 💀

    • @fl42v@lemmy.ml
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      111 days ago

      This, but backtrack 5 (the one just before kali). On a laptop that’d take several eternities to brutforce an md5 🤣

  • Last
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    3112 days ago

    Red Hat, before the enterprise stuff, back in 1999. Installed from a CD found in a book from the library

      • Last
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        1212 days ago

        Nice! The one I found looked like this. I remember picking it up because I thought the logo looked cool. I think it was 5.2 though

        • @Thorned_Rose@sh.itjust.works
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          311 days ago

          This was very similar to the box I had but in my case it was mostly white. And the manual was waaaay bigger. Like almost the size of a phone book. I bought mine in 1999 too. Installed from CD. I bought mine for $110 from a stationary shop (since I lived in a student flat and my flatmates would have probably murdered me if I’d downloaded it over dial up that also had a monthly download limit). Good times lol.

      • @krash@lemmy.ml
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        311 days ago

        YES! That was the same distro that was my entry, it came along with the book Linux for dummies. However mine came on a single CD. Must have been the “lite” edition 😄

    • @drspod@lemmy.ml
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      712 days ago

      Same for me, it was Red Hat Linux 6.1 (Cartman). I got it from a CD on the front of a PC magazine.

  • @nightmare786@leminal.space
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    2612 days ago

    am a simple noob who started with Mint, and remain on Mint on my main gaming machine.

    i have fun distro-hopping on my other old, cheap laptops though

      • Fonzie!
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        111 days ago

        Real!

        After installing and restoring Arch for the third time in 1.5 year I decided to go back to Mint. In the past 5.5 or so years, nothing needed to be reinstalled or restored; Mint’s more stable than Windows by now!

    • @Broken@lemmy.ml
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      10 days ago

      There’s something about simplicity that is underated.

      Technically my first ditro was SuSE a loooong time ago but I didn’t stick with it. Then back when Ubuntu became he new hit thing I tried that, but again didn’t stick with it.

      I have now loaded up Mint and that’s the one I’m running with. Mind you, all distros have come a long way since my prior Linux dealings but Mint is the one to make me permanently switch.

  • @Spider89@lemm.ee
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    12 days ago

    Ubuntu > Mint > Manjaro > Arch > PopOS > Debian

    (History, not ranking [Debian wins])

    • spirinolas
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      111 days ago

      Same, but I skipped manjaro and popOS. And I used slackware at the college computers. Debian still wins for me, it came a long way.

  • @Disgruntled@lemmy.ca
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    1412 days ago

    Slackware 96 CD Case

    Slackware96 from Walnut Creek purchased at Staples back when software came in boxes with manuals. Netscape Navigator 3.0 anyone?

    • Onno (VK6FLAB)
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      612 days ago

      I got a T-shirt from Mozilla in the early 1990’s and foolishly wore it to death. My Linux tie pin is somewhere, but I’m sure that my penguin tie has died, as have the Debian Potato CDs with boot disks for x86, PowerPC and SPARC.

  • BlueÆther
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    12 days ago

    I started with Mandrake 6 when the there were lots of 9’s or 0’s in the year

    Then bounced from Slackware/opensuse/Red Hat/Debian/Gentoo/BSD

    Now running Kde Neon and MacOS (Debian and BSD as server OSs)

  • MOARbid1
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    1212 days ago

    My first Linux install was Ubuntu 5.10 Breezy. Got those wobbly windows going and felt like a fucking king.

  • @cygnus@lemmy.ca
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    12 days ago

    Ubuntu in the mid 2000s, but it’s PopOS that made me a fulltimer ~2 years ago. I don’t use it anymore but I’ll always be thankful for it.

  • Onno (VK6FLAB)
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    1112 days ago

    Debian Slink

    Before that, Windows NT, A/UX, Solaris and VAX/VMS.

    Before that, Vic 20 and Apple II

    Still using Debian every day whilst navigating the perils of MacOS.

  • @adarza@lemmy.ca
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    1012 days ago

    my first ‘distro’ was slackware, on floppy disks. then debian or a flavour of, mainly, ever since. i’ve never really strayed too far from debian and apt over the years but i have tried most everything.

  • Drew
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    1011 days ago

    Ubuntu, like a lot of people my age (2000s)

    • JackbyDev
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      611 days ago

      It’s crazy how much Canonical has trashed their reputation.