genderfluid fetch spotted!!!! also im not sure which was first but i use arch and openbsd ;3
this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2025
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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
I somehow could not find the Mint install so I went with Ubuntu Mate. It was fine.
Mandrake! It was a fucking disaster! Fortunately, I came back later using Kubuntu and had a much better experience.
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.
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
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.
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.
Lubuntu :O and Kali linux
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.
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.
The first was Redhat Linux 7, but not for long. I moved to Slackware soon after.
Welcome to Lemmy stranger.
Slackware back in the early 90s on a Compaq 386/SX20 💾
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Puppy Linux. On very old hardware.
Mandrake Linux. I couldn’t tell you what year but I remember booting into it and thinking it was the coolest thing.
Mandrake was my second distro, I think, I think I had knoppix before that. Used neither for long, switched to Ubuntu in the first or second major release. I was on Ubuntu until gnome 3 was released, then I threw up a little in my mouth and dustro hopped s bit until I landed on arch, which I also had for almost 10 years,
Now I am on NixOS,
No I am not sadomasochistic for using arch or nixos. There are benefits and trade offs, and I would not have used them for so long if it didn't make sense for me.
I'm against distro shaming, and DE shaming. Everyone can like what they like for different reasons. That makes Linux better!
BTW, fun fact, both Arch and NixOS is older than Ubuntu, just fun to think about
Red Hat 5.1, which I quickly abandoned after learning the hard way about winmodems
Cool, so I'm not the only one here 😁. Mine was also RHL 5.x, can't remember the exact minor version, whatever they sold on CDs in 1999. I then switched to FreeBSD for a year or so.
Knoppix live cd
I think I learned about knoppix from the TV show “the screen savers” in the early 2000s. Played with it a few times on old laptops, scanning for open Wi-Fi lol
I had a friend back in the day that was a big Linux geek. He got me hooked when he showed me this crazy system that let me just type in a command and within a few minutes or an hour (internet wasn't super fast in my house in 2002), I could have something installed without having to search the internet for some potentially cooked installer.
That's the long way around to say I started with Gentoo, installed over the course of 3 long Saturdays with my friend over my shoulder and the install guide printed out on a stack of papers because neither of us had a laptop to look at.
I moved to Debian after a few months, but man portage was life changing.
Slackware in the early mid-nineties. But of course there was other Unix variants before that. And what was it called, OS/2 or something like that?
I think the first I used was Fedora Core 5, but the first I installed myself was Fedora Core 6.
CentOS
Red Hat, before the enterprise stuff, back in 1999. Installed from a CD found in a book from the library
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Red Hat Linux, about 2002 from a CD I got from somewhere.
RedHat, I had to recompile the kernel to be SoundBlaster compatible so that I could play Doom with sound on my 486.
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litterally arch btw
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
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.
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Red Flag Linux 3.0,
taking the RedNote route decades before it was cool,
but did not get much further than the installation screen,
After that it was Ubuntu -> Mint -> Arch -> Parabola -> Manjaro.
Ubuntu > Mint > Manjaro > Arch > PopOS > Debian
(History, not ranking [Debian wins])
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I think Ubuntu 10.04 or whatever mint version around then
Sadly, Ubuntu. I quickly moved on to debian...and ultimately landed with Arch, my true love for many years. I use Arch, btw.
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Ubuntu
Knoppix circa 2004-2005, It was in a cd that came from chip.de. I had no clue what linux was back then. I know even less now.
All the old timers are coming out. In the summer of ‘98 I switched to Red Hat Linux.
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Slackware96 from Walnut Creek purchased at Staples back when software came in boxes with manuals. Netscape Navigator 3.0 anyone?
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I believe it was slackware. it was gifted to teenage me ca 1994, was on the CD of some magazine.
I wanted to try it, so went dual boot. it (or I?) partitioned my 800MB hard disk into a 300MB and an 800MB partition. stupid young me thought this was great and I just gained 300MB. when I noticed date corruption, stupid young me started to copy over important data to the assumed good partition. things didn't end well.
I took a two year break from Linux afterwards 🤣
My first Linux install was Ubuntu 5.10 Breezy. Got those wobbly windows going and felt like a fucking king.
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