Simple question. Which distribution was your introduction?
For me, it was SLS Linux in '92-93, followed relatively naturally by Slackware, which was followed by Redhat.
Mandrake Linux 6.5. At the time I was drawn to it because they had a version that worked with the sims game.
Slackware and then SuSE 7.2, I think it was.
Slackware here, and I still use it! Tried several alternatives but I just keep going back.
I didn’t know about Linux until I was in my late teens, and even then didn’t care because I was a “Gamer” (ugh). My first disto was Ubuntu. I have used many distros but like debain the most.
Red hat Linux which was followed by slack sometime back in the 90s.
Ubuntu around 2006-2007, not sure the exact one I used.
Slackware, installed with floppies on a 486.I tried debian red hat suse coral linux but always came back to Slackware.There was a bunch more, that I cant remember the names of, one I do remember was Stampede linux, Daniel Robbins put it out, he then dumped it and made Gentoo, I used Gentoo for a year or so, on an original AMD Athlon, it was night and day different from un optimised Slackware. I saw an announcement for a new distro on the gentoo forums for Arch, 686 optimisations, no need to compile!. I installed that and used it for about 9 years. I got sick of all the breakages, the systemd adoption drama, briefly went back to Gentoo( or Funtoo, actually), then discovered Void. I have been using Void since 2010, I also use Openbsd, reminds me of the ‘old days’ of linux before the tech bros and corporations.
RedHat Linux, Straight outta magazine. Bought the boxed version shortly thereafter. hmm i wonder if i still have the box???
Ubuntu 09.04… on my highschool days. :)
I’m still remember that I ends up quitting right away because I have no internet on my house to install codecs and other necessary software, thus made the ubuntu installation useless. lolMy first I used was Slackware back in 2002 on a 486 with a 250MB disk. Wasn’t easy when you have to compile half the software and there’s basically nor enough room for the build environment. This was on a small test and development PC I used whilst at uni.
When I went all in on my desktop and waved Windows goodbye I used Ubuntu as that’s what I’d had good experience with on my headless VMs.
Now running EndeavourOS and love it.
I just flashed back to running my first Linux box and struggling to get X Windows working with a miniscule amount of RAM and a swap partition.
I’m thinking I had 1 MB RAM on that machine. I can’t wrap my head around that. It just seems impossible. I do remember my wife bought me 16MB RAM as an anniversary present after that, and I was excited by how much easier everything was with so much memory.
I think the 16MB was around $1000.00 at the time.
Mandrake Linux 6.5. At the time I was drawn to it because they had a version that worked with the sims game.
#!
Gone too soon :(
Linux Mint 20. I got my first computer and was choosing an operating system. I didn’t even understand differences between Windows and GNU+Linux, but it was faster, UI was consistent, and the community was actually supportive. Most issues I had were already solved so I could find solutions online easily. r/linuxmint also led me to creating a Reddit account xD
Meanwhile support for Windows looked like: Turn it off and on again, run sfc /scannow, dism, chkdsk, you may need to reinstall Windows.
So I went with Mint.
Funny, but at first when I didn’t know about “Distributions” I was searching for just pure Linux. Poor old me didn’t know I was accidentally searching for the kernel.Welp, the laptop broke after 2 months (hardware), but it was old. I definitely don’t miss that Athlon 64.
It was around 2001 and I started by dual booting Windows with Red Hat, don’t remember which version. Eventually I dropped Windows and dropped the dual boot and switched from Red Hat to Ubuntu.
Mandrake Linux 6.5. At the time I was drawn to it because they had a version that worked with the sims game.
