When did you start using Linux at your home PC ?

[_h_]

2010. More specifically late February.

[FuturePilot]

2006

[jrusso2]

1996

[phibxr]

At some point during the mid-to-late 90's when Redhat 5.x was just released.

Slackware 3.6 was the first Linux system I stuck with though. :)

[dragonboss]

We had a Linux distro that i cant remember the name cos i was like 10 or something on our PII from like 1999 then it was wiped, windows until my second (but real first linux) encounter with redhat on our PIII then i went to school and the pc was spoilt, windows again until 2007 when i got Ubuntu 7.10 on my laptop and been using Ubuntu since.

[wipeout140]

2006

[cariboo]

1998

[dragos240]

I think july 2008.

[tica vun]

hi i just found out about ubuntu a few days ago

[Yes]

I think it was around mid 2004. Then I gave up on it till around 2006 when I started using it again, and I've been using it ever since.

[NightwishFan]

Right after the Gutsy release. Considering I never had the Internet I did not have a chance to learn about free software until then, which I regret.

[kk0sse54]

2008

[gymophett]

Since Ubuntu 7.04 or 7.10.. So, 2007? Right?

[mamamia88]

around halloween 2008

[phibxr]

:o .... that's a long time ago.
Is Ubuntu your prefered distro?

Today it may take half an hour to install a Linux CD to the hard drive. I wonder how long did it take you on those days to get a full working install finished.

Hehe, my first trembling installs were from floppy disks that a friend helped me download from some obscure ftp over a 33.6kbit/s-modem. I couldn't afford a computer with a CD-drive. :)

I didn't even bother with downloading X back then, downloading anything outside of the base system would have taken far too long.

Actually, as soon as the CD-drives became more common an installation of Slackware didn't take much longer than it does today. But you did need to know a bit more about the hardware in your machine since you were picking modules to load or compiling your kernel at install.

This still rings true in some distributions though, Gentoo for example. :)

And yes, Ubuntu is one of my preferred distributions, together with Linux Mint and openSUSE.

The only Slackware-based system I've used during the last eight years would be Zenwalk, a nice and lean little distribution.

[Chame_Wizard]

January 2007.:lolflag:

[kagashe]

Mandriva Sep 2004
Ubuntu 5.04 June 2005

kagashe

[NightwishFan]

It seems Gutsy/Hardy were a popular time.

[Khakilang]

Start it out sometime in May 2009 when I bought a book by Mark Sobell " Practical Guide to Ubuntu Linux" and it come with 8.10 CD and now using 9.10 and totally switch to Linux. Love it ever since.

[cgroza]

It was spring 2008.Hardy Heron LTS , good times.

[red_Marvin]

I rember upgrading to breezy badger, which means that I installed hoary hedgehog first ...so somewhere during 2005 I guess...
Some year[s] before that I tried debian, but did not manage to get X running, which made it unproductive for me at the time.

[Eisenwinter]

I think it was around May or April of 2006.

[Brv]

2007-2010 - running Kubuntu 8.04 with my old iMac. I deleted Mac OSX from the hard drive and have been a full time kbuntu 8.04 user.

~Brv

[Phrea]

I've been playing with all kinds of distro's ever since '99 but never really stuck with it until 10 years later.
So I consider 2009 as my real Linux starting point, started with Jaunty, and stuck with it as a single dedicated OS on this computer.
My other computer will be converted completely to Ubuntu when Lucid comes out [it now runs a dualboot Vista/Lucid].

I have to add, that I stuck with Linux [Ubuntu] this time due to the fantastic community around this distro.

[bfc]

First tried Linux in 1994, it lasted all of 2 hours, if that. I switched to Linux permanently in 1997.

[lswartz]

March 2009 with Hardy on my Mini 9.

[scouser73]

I received the Ubuntu disc from shipit in 2007 but didn't start using Ubuntu until March 2008 as I was wary of Linux as I'd never used it before, I deleted Windows XP from the hard drive and have been a full time Ubuntu user & I love it.

[samjh]

Installed it in 2006, but only played around with it. I mainly used Windows in a dual-boot arrangement.

I started using Linux as the primary OS from mid-2007 (beginning with 7.04).

[wojox]

It will be one year on April 1, 2010.

[-grubby]

July 2007.

[eriktheblu]

I think I started with Dapper in 2006, but that was intended purely as an internet surfing machine to avoid malware. All my other computing was done on an XP machine.

When that puter died, I employed the wife's Mac for that purpose.

My XP install was destroyed by Service Pack 3 (automatic update so probably July 2008), so I installed Hardy in a dual boot after reimaging. A month later I added a Nvidia card, and Ubuntu has been my default since.

[karthick87]

I think 2009.

[KegHead]

Hi!

I took the plunge and have never looked back.

KegHead

[fouserge]

Started experimenting with 7.04 in early Oct. of 2007 which 7.10 came out soon after and I switched to it. However, this was just experimenting so XP was still my primary OS. I switched to using Ubuntu as primary OS about a year later in late 2008 or maybe early 2009. And by summer of 2009 Ubuntu was alone on my desktop except for the Windows virtualmachine that gets hardly any use.

[sports fan Matt]

It was nov 2007. I was fed up with Vista (it had blue screened over an entire weekend and calls to Lenovo could not fix it. Finally after about 36 hours (system restored it but no one at lenovo thought of it before) I had my gutsy disk in hand, and the rest was history.

[2hot6ft2]

Used and played with many distros since the late 1990's (including red hat before it went commercial) but installed ubuntu in early 2008 I think it was and stuck with it so that's what I marked.

[desnaike]

2006 Dove in head first never looked back.

[-jay-]

when ever 8.04 came out is when i started messing with linux have loved it since

[xpod]

July 2006, 4 months after sitting down at a computer for the first time.....not counting the C64 i had as a teen of course, which i left to my brother upon leaving home a year later. He still has it to this day i only recently discovered.

[Roasted]

I built my first computer in early 2006. I was poor from buying all of the parts, and realized once I put it together I had no operating system.

I threw on Ubuntu 6.06 just to get by. Just something for AIMing people and whatnot till I could save up to buy Windows.

As time went on, I quickly realized I didn't need Windows...

Been on Ubuntu ever since.

[beetleman64]

I started using Ubuntu as my primary OS in November, with the release of 9.10, but I've been using to some capacity since mid-2007.

[chessnerd]

I started using Xubuntu 8.04 in February of 2009. Since then I have installed and used Ubuntu 8.04, Xubuntu 9.04, Ubuntu 9.04, and Ubuntu 9.10 on computers at home. I also regularly use Fedora 11 on computers at college.

While I started using Linux in 2009 it didn't become my primary OS until this January. I rarely boot into Windows on my laptop anymore and only use Windows at school (when not in the Linux labs), when using the family computer at my house, or when working with someone else's computer.

[oldos2er]

Summer of 2007, when I finally gave up on OS/2 (eComStation). I had never heard of Ubuntu until my son mentioned it to me. I had tried to install Slackware a couple times in the mid-1990s, but was never successful due to my ignorance.

[CptPicard]

Full-time user since 1998...

[eksasol]

I built my first computer in early 2006. I was poor from buying all of the parts, and realized once I put it together I had no operating system.

I threw on Ubuntu 6.06 just to get by. Just something for AIMing people and whatnot till I could save up to buy Windows.

As time went on, I quickly realized I didn't need Windows...

Been on Ubuntu ever since. Great story, not many would have the courage to simply do that, especially if never used linux before.

I was using Microsoft for 10years, I heard a bit about linux, but doesn't really know what to think of it. Then I tried Ubuntu 7.04, I knew that is was good, it took a couple years to really switch over completely. I think the final straw was when I kept reading about all the bad business practices of both Apple and Microsoft.

In the end, I still don't think linux is for everyone. I don't mean Android or using a service that's run on linux server, may this gap will be closed one day and made irrelevant. Even with a great support forum like this and linuxhelp.com, its down the user incentive. It sure took me a while to learn the useful command lines and way the system works. It serves better for those who are adventurous.

[dyingsun]

About mid 2006. It was great, but a bit rocky at first, using Dapper Drake over a dialup connection. Eventually went back to XP, only to get utterly frustrated with it, and returned when 8.04 was hot off the press, and have never looked back.

[XubuRoxMySox]

I officially reached the one-year mark today! Well, I don't actually know the exact date, but it was late March of 09, (Jaunty came out the next month). Started with Intrepid (very cool), then Jaunty (upgrade failed, fresh install was awesome), then hopped a little on a test machine while keeping Ubuntu (most of the time) as my main OS on the mission-critical 'puter. Slax, U-Lite, Crunchbang, PCLinuxOS, Linux Mint, Mepis (awesome stability for newbies!), Xubuntu, Masonux, and Debian (my current "default" OS). What a ride! It's been really fun, and a little terrifying sometimes. :D

-Robin

[Dale61]

Back in June, '06, I had a budget of $800 to have a pc built to my specs. $800 didn't give me a lot of options, and to pay for a Windows o/s would have given me even fewer options.

However, as I still had one install of my then current XP still available to me, I installed that to ensure the new system was running fine. A few teething problems (1 faulty ram module) was soon replaced, and once the pc was running smooth, it was time for me to plunge into Ubuntu world. I installed Dapper about mid July 06, and got hit with the major x-server breakage not long after. Wow, bummer!

Problem soon resolved, and come time for the release of 8.10, I decided that I no longer needed, or wanted, anything to do with Windows, or Micro$oft. A reformat (after saving everything of importance) soon had my HDD loaded with nothing but Ubuntu, and I haven't looked back since.

My newish laptop is a different story though. I have to keep Vista installed as it is a rental (rent, try, buy), so have KK installed via WUBI. I'm well and truly over the GRUB breakage that occurs with every third or so update, but have the procedure that works for me printed out and within reach at all times.

I'm hoping that 10.4 will rectify the GRUB problem, but I'll be waiting for confirmation first. I might even wait for 10.10 before upgrading this time around.

[redmage85]

I don't remember exactly when (early 2009 i guess), but my first linux distro was ubuntu 8.04: back then I had win xp installed in my pc and I had no more than 15 gbs of free space (on a 640 gbs hdd!); needless to says it had become very laggy and crashy and firefox used to take more than 40 secs to load (and I'm talking about a dual core pc here, not some ancient technology;-b) . Finally one day I surfed by chance through ubuntu's website and got interested in its self claimed stability, speed ,security and the fact it was completely free ,but what captivated me the most was the possibility to easily install it inside windows through a virtual drive (i didn't really want to bother creating partitions or even burning CDs which i hadn't at hand at that time). Then I downloaded and installed it inside xp and after a week or so I made a dual partition in both my pc and laptop...

[Lensman]

I have been using Linux since around 2001, after having become completely frustrated with that other OS.

[pbpersson]

I had tried Linux before, but in September of 2007 I discovered Feisty Fawn and I have never looked back :D

[Nevon]

-07 sometime, I think.

[errrata]

Installed Slackware in 1994 on my fancy new 486 with 8mgs of RAM (cost me almost $3000 (Canadian) with 500 mg disk and fancy "17 monitor). The scary part was using dd to install root image to given sector on the drive. Needless to say when I saw my first LiveCd i almost had an orgasm. By the by my first PC was a TRS-80 Model 1 with 4k of RAM that I upgraded to 16k and a cassette tape player for storage.

[muggle]

I have never used Linux on my desktop pc, I only use it on servers because I need Windows to develop C# applications. :-(

[Groucho Marxist]

2009; Vista was my final straw.

[oldrocker99]

In early 2008, XP's "upgrade packages" did it for me. I booted the 8.04 CD, and could both print and get online (wired) from the CD. Installed, had the usual couple of weeks of newbiedom, then started falling in love. It's been Ubuntu ever since.

:guitar:

PS--I'm now running Lucid Lynx 10.04 beta, and so far I like it. VERY fast startup. I hate the window buttons on the left as much as everybody else does, but so far, as I say, so good.

[bsharp]

October 2006, right before Edgy came out.

[Rodney9]

I can not quite remember it was either 1999 or 2000 when I started using Corel Linux than in 02/03 Libranet, still one of the best.

[lien_meat]

I first dabbled with linux in 2003 using red hat. My college roomate was interested in it, and I helped him (we were both new at it) get things running. That only lasted about a week though, cause we couldn't figure much out besides basic desktop use, and we did manage to install a video player, if I remember right we installed it from source, but we found it too much trouble for little/no gain.

Ever since then I've dabbled some. Fedora 4 was the first time I ran it on my own and really figured anything out. When ubuntu fiesty came out, I started using linux more than windows Xp (xp has aways been extremely un-reliable for me, on every machine I run, even today). Nowdays I'm running karmic after a brief brush with opensuse 11.2. I found that I like how awesome opensuse's administration tools are, but I dislike other things about it. I wish ubuntu would try to be more technically advanced and stuff though. (like having acl's by default, using lvm by default and having a decent lvm gui (system-config-lvm is a terrible solution, you end up having to resize partions via commandline anyway), having a firewall gui by default, ldap integration tools by default...etc...) I use that stuff, and opensuse actually gets that stuff right, but for some reason I keep coming back to ubuntu. I don't know why. I think I like it's simplistic style and how most of the time it's worry free and stays out of your way (unlike any windows...even win7, which I like best of any windows OS, bothers me constantly with popups about stuff I don't care about, and those popups ALWAYS steal mouse focus...its' ANNOYING).

[Redundant Username]

I don't know when, between '07 and '08.

[NightHawk877]

I began using Ubuntu in summer 2008. I Originally had it as a single OS on my old computer with an ASUS A7n8x Deluxe motherboard, a gig of RAM, 120 gig WD caviar and WinFast NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT. I had it connected to a KVM along with my then current system until several months later when I decided to multiboot. I still have that old computer, but it's now nothing more than a file server. The 120 gig hard drive was replaced by a 256 gig SSD last month.

[NightwishFan]

I don't know when, between '07 and '08.

Awesome Urahara-Tux! Pity Bleach animation quality went so downhill, it had great potential.

[Irihapeti]

July 2007

[steveneddy]

Sept or Oct 2004 - I think - it was Knoppix

[donkyhotay]

I bought a copy of mandrake 7 back when windows 95-98 was big. Didn't use it much and eventually got rid of it. Didn't try it again until 2005-2006 where I liked it so much I completely ditched windows and use it exclusively now.

[Vunutus]

I first started experimenting with it around 2006 or so, but I've been 100% Linux since 2008

[dchosenb]

around 1999 (Red Hat -> SuSE -> Ubuntu was my path to Ubuntu)

I've been using Ubuntu since around early 2006ish.

:( i'm old.

[c00lwaterz]

i have beed using linux 4 years but not consistent. due to some hardware issues that is the reason why can't use linux that much. maybe on 10.04 if it will make the issues go away hehe.

[LinuxFox]

2008 for me, I started in March with a Knoppix Live CD, then later installed Ubuntu as a dual-boot.

[Austin25]

A couple years ago for my desktop, last year for my laptop in VirtualBox, This year for physical installation.

[lvleph]

I started off with Suse back in 2002 (I think). I didn't really like it too much, so I then tried RedHat. My big issue was installing new software. I gave up for a while and then discovered Dapper Drake. I definitely liked Synaptic, but I was having various driver issues. I again abandoned linux until Feisty Fawn, but again I was having driver issues, so waited for Hardy Heron and I have been going strong since then. I did switch from Karmic Koala to Linux Mint Gloria and have been liking Mint a lot. I am currently testing Lucid, but there are graphics issues. I really hope this is fixed before Linux Mint Isadora comes out.

In summary:
Suse > RedHat > Ubuntu > Mint

[Lukeaxx]

I have to say it wasn't too long ago, I am still a complete beginner. I was first introduced to Linux in mid-2008, but I never once used it for longer than a week.

I think about January 2010 was when I decided to take the step and install it properly, and use it... and I have been using it since. And quite simply I love it - I may not be an expert on it, and some things still manage to confuse me, I am learning and do know some of my stuff (I've always been into computers, it's just the Windows to Linux transition) and I plan on using it for a long time ;)

[donovan1983]

I first played around with Linux in late 1999 with an early version of Caldera Linux (kernel 1.2 I believe) and then RedHat 5.2. Which is also when I determined that the GIMP was my favorite image editor and nothing has since replaced it. But the first time I tried to use Linux as my primary OS was in early or mid 2000 with Mandrake 6.1. I don't remember why exactly I switched back to Windows at the time, but I think I lasted a month with using Linux as my primary OS. That was back in the simpler days and I'm still fond of WindowMaker thanks to my experience with it then. I've compiled more kernels than I can count and have gotten used to more different init systems than I ever cared to. Linux has come such a long, long way from those days.

I would try quite a few more times over the years with Linux, FreeBSD, and NetBSD to replace either Windows or Mac OS X but generally went back pretty quickly. So I can say I've had a soft spot for free, open source operating systems for over a decade even if I never succeeded in switching to them fully. Now I'm on my most recent attempt to switch to an OSS operating system and there's really no show-stopping reason I can't stick with it, finally.

[Pikestaff]

January 2007 went full-Linux on my laptop, and February 2007 went full-Linux on my desktop. Haven't looked back.

[lostinxlation]

Slackware 7.0 installed on my laptop in 1999. I had been using Unix since 1990 and the transition was smooth even back then.

[lisati]

I started using Linux in June 2007.

[Chronon]

I first encountered it on school servers back in the late 1990s. I remember booting Gnome and Motif desktops on an X-terminal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_terminal) of some kind and using Netscape installed on the server to browse the internet. We could also run GUI Mathematica sessions from the X-terminal.

My first steady home use was in 2007 when I used Knoppix to run a box with zero functional hard drives in it. Once I got an HD to put in it, I installed Debian Etch. I used that until I got a new box and installed Ubuntu 8.04 on it. I have been using Ubuntu on my main desktop system since then.

[PryGuy]

2005 here

[gemmakaru]

I started experimenting with Linux in 2000, duel booting, installing etc. I had installed a few distros which came with Linux books and magazines but I think a computer without Internet access is pretty useless and dial up couldn't cope. in about 2000 I got my first broadband connection and thus the party started. It started with mainly Suse and Mepis but over the following decade I tried lots of distros and never really settled down. I always went back to windows for gaming (DirectX).

Now I hardly ever game and have a PS3 so Windows only hangs around in case I need to bring work home (c# .net). I am convinced this time it will stick as Linux does everything I want. Despite a decade of "experience" I am still a noob though.

[yabbadabbadont]

Slackware, 1996. (I still have the CDs and install guide :D)

[Artemis3]

1997 i believe, purchased a new HD just for that ^_^
Red Hat, Caldera, Suse, Debian, Slackware, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Ubuntu.

[themarker0]

3 years ago. If i had to say total time since then, i'd say maybe 1 year of time of linux. Almost always linux now.

[nhatoigiau]

I had heard many things about Red Hat Linux, but I started using Linux in 2008: Ubuntu 8.04 :)

[Laxman_prodigy]

Around November 2009. I was just too late. Kill me.:lolflag:

[coolgiant]

I started on Linux in 2003 when I used to have a Dell WebPC mini tower computer with a 13 inch monitor (when it had Windows 98 SE on it) took windows out and started my first entry into Linux by trying out Mandrake (now Mandriva) 9.1 it work good aside from the fact that it had a winmodem in it I got it to work as well, nowadays I've use 32-bit Ubuntu on my current 64-bit machine which its less than 3 years old. :)

[Psumi]

Around 2007; I switched from Ubuntu to Windows at times, tested the RC of Win7, and now with my IBM T41, I use Debian.

Hope to save up some cash for a new laptop so I can do it all over again.

[kimda]

Started with Linux in 2000. First just for running a server and later also as a desktop os. I have been using Ubuntu since Hoary. Before that I ran Debian on my desktop.

[brunolabs]

Started mid 2007 with 7.04 Feisty.

[Barrucadu]

Mid 2007, though I had tried (and failed with) Ubuntu several months before that, so my first exposure was perhaps late 2006.

[Jigen]

March 2009, I started using Intrepid as Wubi inside Windows (which was giving me a lot of problems at the time). A couple of months later had to change the HDD so I installed Win XP and Jaunty as dual-boot. I have been using Linux almost all the time, except when I have to work on complicated .doc/.xls/.ppt files with colleagues using MS Office. I have also tried Karmic but, after a couple of months, reverted to Jaunty due to shutdown/reboot issues.
:)

[stanca]

May 2008.I started with Kubuntu 8.04 LTS i686.):P:p;)

[Penguin Guy]

Discovered Linux - November 2008
Installed Linux Mint - December 2008
Switched to Ubuntu - March 2009

[forwilbuntu]

2009 - Ubuntu
Preferred distro today: Fedora 12

[Dessicus]

My first was Ubuntu 7.10, but I didn't start using it as my primary OS until 9.04.

[ronnielsen1]

Got rid of the virus in 2004.

[jerenept]

Started using Ubuntu 8.10 after WinXP MCE became too annoying - Media Center kept BSoD'ing- never turned back.

[retro89]

After someone gave me the live cd of Hardy 8.04 in April 2008.I played around with it for a while (wubi).I finally got brave and erased the disk to use full time.If id known about Uubntu before I would have used it earlier but I thought linux was all command line driven with no GUI.

[ceelo]

Feb. 2007. Kinda took a break in '09 as a few things drew me back to Windows. But have been back on pretty much full time since about March this year.

[ilovelinux33467]

Started playing around with knoppix in early 2005. That was my first Linux I had used. Then in late 2005 (December) I installed Ubuntu 5.10 and I was really happy with it and ever since ubuntu has been my distro of choice :)