What was the first ever distro you installed and used? For me, it was Mint as I seemed like the closest thing to Windows minus all the forced updates and chappy changes.

Currently on Fedora GNOME now but what about you? What made you choose your first distro diving into the world of Linux?

I wanna hear your thoughts!

    • jhdeval@lemmy.world
      3·
      10 months ago

      Sounds like me. I ordered it from a magazine and installed it from 3.5 floppy disks also. After that it was Debian and i used that for years.

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
      1·
      10 months ago

      Slackware2 or maybe 3 in 95.

      RHL4.x from 1998 . Looked at debian, but a local snob convinced me halfway through explaining “the debian way” to steer clear. Didn’t even learn of the validation glitch in the .deb format by then.

      Now it’s Rocky. But if PCLinuxOS had a better installer (like a good kickstart) I’d be there in an instant. Its massive versatility in having so many versions of apps available without the appstream bullshit - it’s just Alternatives and proper naming - really makes it stand out.

      Now let me packer some templates and I’m SO done with ELs and the shit RH has done to their crown jewels.

  • Dave.@aussie.zone
    11·
    10 months ago

    Red Hat 5.0, 1998.

    Had to get it on a CD as it would have taken 37.5 years to download according to Internet Explorer.

    Kernel 2.0.36 represent 🤘

    • IsoKiero@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      2·
      10 months ago

      5.2 for me. I got it as a gift, in a offical retail box. I think the box with manuals is still around somewhere, but I’m not sure where.

    • assembly@lemmy.world
      1·
      10 months ago

      I was RedHat 3 back in 1996. Not even sure how we got the CD but we all passed it around and were amazed.

  • TrivialBetaState@sopuli.xyz
    6·
    10 months ago

    My first distro was Suse Linux 8.1. I had to buy the box as downloading was not an option with my dial-up connection back then. However, the first distro that I fell in love with was Fedora Core. The original one. I bought the book which had the DVD with the full installation. I was hooked. That was more than 20 years ago.

  • yobananaboy@lemmy.ml
    5·
    10 months ago

    Got fed up of Windows Vista, so I decided to try Linux. I was just a kid messing around, so tried some distros but Ubuntu stuck because I found it noob friendly. I think I went for Ubuntu 6.06. I started to get interested in PC gaming, then I dual booted Ubuntu and Windows 7 since gaming was not really a thing on Linux then. I found that to be a hassle so when Windows 10 came out I stuck with it.

    Then I jumped back to Linux when going back to do an IT degree in uni a couple of years back. Tried Ubuntu, but hated it. I tried Manjaro, but it broke my system. Then I discovered EndeavourOS and have stayed with that. Started to jump DE’s instead. Went from GNOME to Xfce and now I am going for Cinnamon. I have tried some distro jumping in VM. I really tried to get into NixOS, but it was just too much for me. I liked Mint though.

    • Sips'@slrpnk.net
      1·
      10 months ago

      Gentoo is on my to-do list to try out, going to set of a whole weekend to just sit down and enjoy the process of installing it. Have never touched it before, but always heard good things about it, as well as the things you learn along the way. Glad to hear you think so too!

      • BlueÆther@no.lastname.nz
        2·
        10 months ago

        it wasn’t my first distro but i did the full bootstrap install so it must have been pre 2005. ran it as my daily driver for years

  • Ferk@kbin.social
    4·
    10 months ago

    I think it was Mandrake Linux for me.
    It no longer exists though. …I guess I’m old.

  • Last@reddthat.com
    4·
    10 months ago

    Red Hat Linux 6.0, back in 1999. It was one of the first distributions to include GNOME as the default desktop environment.

  • Ludrol@szmer.info
    4·
    10 months ago

    There are no edgy teenagers here?

    Kali Linux to be an elite hax00r

    Then Linux mint and now Ubuntu.

  • rotopenguin@infosec.pubEnglish
    3·
    10 months ago

    DiLinux. You drop a bunch of files in a fat16 folder, and run a chainloader that chestbursts out of DOS. It used the umsdos filesystem, which was a short-lived thing that lived on FAT and scribed all of the other needed fs features into bonus hidden files.

  • Certainly_No_Brit@discuss.tchncs.de
    3·
    10 months ago

    I started with Pop!_OS, because it was pretty and I was told that it was made for programmers. I was overwhelmed with the options and couldn’t get Twitch to work properly (because of missing codecs), so I switched over to ZorinOS, which helped me to familiarize myself with Linux. Later I returned to Pop!_OS.

    Someday I got fed up with the major version updates, so I switched to Manjaro and later to Arch btw.