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Ultra Magnus
June 18th, 2007, 05:17 PM
I was just looking at the cool looking tree of Linux distros on the wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_distribution) and I was wondering what was everyones first Linux distro.

Has anyone ever used MCC interim or SLS or any other now long dead Linux distro - I found a book in a public library about sco linux which made me laugh (at least to myself).

Bachstelze
June 18th, 2007, 05:18 PM
I'm relatively new to Linux (being relatively young), my first one was Debian Slink, in 1999.

gvoima
June 18th, 2007, 05:19 PM
I first started using debian in full day server use, don't really remember when :)
Quite some time ago...
But before that I only tried quickly other distros (10-20min of use).

ThinkBuntu
June 18th, 2007, 05:21 PM
Ubuntu. I was curious, so I looked into Linux distros I found on Wikipedia last November, and it gave me the impression that this was the most popular distro. I then read reviews via DW, and found quotes such as "you'd have to be living under a rock to have not heard about Ubuntu" and "Ubuntu's only been around a couple years, hard to believe, it's taken the linux world by storm," etc. etc.

I'm using Ubuntu now, but there have been a whole bunch of distros I've used over the past seven months.

tribaal
June 18th, 2007, 05:22 PM
Started with Debian... can't really remember when. Probably around '97.
Switched to SuSE after only a few weeks (I was having trouble installing Debian), then back to Debian after a few month, and stuck with it until two years ago, when I installed Ubuntu :)

- trib'

mthakur2006
June 18th, 2007, 05:25 PM
Breezy Badger ;), but after that i have tried loads including dapper drake, fiesty fawn, edgy eft, sabayon, lfs, puppy, dsl, menuet os, deli linux, fc6, suse 10.2,linspire, kubuntu, xubuntu, mepis, linux mint, zenwalk, freeBSD, solaris apart from windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista etc. In the end, i have stayed with ubuntu. :lol: :popcorn: :popcorn:

regomodo
June 18th, 2007, 05:27 PM
Slackware 10 last october. Knew nothing about Linux so i tried it out. Got pretty far but i found myself configuring things most of the time. A bit like now with Ubuntu, although Ubuntu is a lot easier

smoker
June 18th, 2007, 05:28 PM
dual booted with fedora core a couple of years back, but it didn't last long on my system. back to linux with ubuntu around the middle of last year, and never looked back:-)

Obor
June 18th, 2007, 05:32 PM
The first one I've tried was Knoppix Live CD to rescue some files from frriends PC.
About a year later I've installed Ubuntu Breezy. Since then I've tried suse, pclinuxos, DSL, dreamlinux, sabayon, karoora... but Ubuntu is my main OS and I don't have a reason to change. :D

a12ctic
June 18th, 2007, 05:41 PM
Hmm either debian or slackware in like 2000?

Happy_Man
June 18th, 2007, 05:44 PM
Ubuntu. 6.10. From, like February or something?

SLA_leandrin
June 18th, 2007, 05:51 PM
SuSe 9.1

NJC
June 18th, 2007, 05:55 PM
Ubuntu 6.06 - March 2007

Dragonbite
June 18th, 2007, 06:00 PM
Installed RedHat 8.0 on Thanksgiving Eve in 2002 (I think) in a dual-boot with Windows98

black_magician
June 18th, 2007, 06:02 PM
Mandrake 7.0 back in like 2004 or something

Kodfish
June 18th, 2007, 06:09 PM
Mepis, sometime near 2000, or 2001. Great distro. I remember that my biggest issue was sound, so I spent weeks messing with drivers and /etc. Turns out it was just muted :P

dustigroove
June 18th, 2007, 06:21 PM
My first was Red Hat in 1999, which at that point for me was a fairly infuriating learning experience.

I revisited in late 2002 with Mandrake and then Ubuntu in 2004, and here is where I stay. :)

Anonii
June 18th, 2007, 06:24 PM
Mandrake 7.0 back in like 2004 or something
Heh, same here.

justin whitaker
June 18th, 2007, 06:25 PM
Red Hat 6.2. Beat that you young whippersnappers!

ceelo
June 18th, 2007, 06:32 PM
Fedora Core 6, February 2007. :KS

VorDesigns
June 18th, 2007, 06:39 PM
Red hat 3 back in the 90's, ran it on a 386 with 32MB of RAM, needed a floppy to boot it at first until I could get the RLL drive to auto start the OS.

Quillz
June 18th, 2007, 06:54 PM
The first distro I ever tried was Linspire Five-O. After that, I tried SuSE 9.3 Professional. About a year after that, I demoed Ubuntu and openSUSE 10.2 at the same time.

forcesofhabit
June 18th, 2007, 07:00 PM
I believe it was Suse 9.2 back in 2004? I know it was Suse for sure.
I only switched entirely to Linux September of last year with Xubuntu 6.06.

bchaffin72
June 18th, 2007, 07:05 PM
2002 My first distribution was Caldera OpenLinux. Anyone remember it. By the same folks who brought us the SCO vs. IBM suit. Needless to say it is now quite extinct.

koshatnik
June 18th, 2007, 07:13 PM
Xandros.

notwen
June 18th, 2007, 07:18 PM
Slackware 7.0 back in '99. What a mess I made of my parents Win98 machine. =]

richteel
June 18th, 2007, 07:19 PM
I don't recall what my first Linux install was. I was introduced to Linux in college and my first distribution was given to me by a class mate. He downloaded it because he was connected to the campus LAN and thus had a fast connection. I believe it was in 1995 or 1996.

I have not been a steady user of Linux as I have been tied to MS products for work. I am getting back into it now that Ubuntu has made it so much easier to use and VMware products makes it easier to play around with different Operating Systems on the same box.

maagimies
June 18th, 2007, 07:20 PM
I started with Linux on some weird corrupted livecd to fix one of my drives (and in console mode, without any help or tutorials, and only some dos experience with me) and I succeeded rather easily.
I forgot about linux for some time, but then my interest peaked, and sometimes in 2004 I asked my friend to download & burn the MandrakeLinux 10.00 cd's for me.

jrusso2
June 18th, 2007, 07:33 PM
I think it was like Slackware 3.0 or maybe 3.1 in 96. Anyway there was not nearly as many linux distos back then as now.

I then moved to Redhat after about a year of Slackware because everything on slackware was a pain.

jayson.rowe
June 18th, 2007, 07:35 PM
Started w/ Mandrake 8, then tried Redhat, and stuck w/ hacking around w/ Slackware as a dual boot until about 2004, then kinda forgot about the Linux thing for a while...recently starting hearing Ubuntu everywhere, and decided to try it out, now I'm using it full time - no more win for me! Even have all my win games working fine in Wine (I really only play CS and CSS), and I have the native UT2004 which I play a bit, and am enjoying since I hadn't played it in ages.

Apocalypse
June 18th, 2007, 07:39 PM
Slakware I_don't_remember_what, back in '95... and the experience was, as Marlon Brando said: the horror... the horror...=-|

2 hours after the linux guru that installed the thing in my pc, I reinstalled OS/2 and I was happy with that for another 3 years...=)

Lozz
June 18th, 2007, 07:46 PM
The first I used was dream linux about six months ago but there was always a little something I found uncomfortable about it, to be honest I was busy at the time & most likely became impatient with having to learn something new. Anyway I've recently gained more free time & decided to give linux another go, I've never liked Microsoft much both in terms of attitude towards customers & the software market, the lack of customisation options & all the problems windows has always given me. Oh and of course its saving me plenty of time searching for the trial software I used to depend on.

Aceline
June 18th, 2007, 07:50 PM
My first distro was Fedora, but it didn't last long on my families machine; as they all didn't know what I was doing, nor what was Fedora. I got to experiment with it a little until I had to uninstall. I recently got a laptop of my own and overwrote it with Ubuntu, the distro that I've had my eyes on for a while now.

lluisanunez
June 18th, 2007, 08:00 PM
Mandrake (that was long time ago), then it came Fedora Core 3, 4 and 5, and then I switched to Ubuntu and was forever happy :D

Sunflower1970
June 18th, 2007, 08:02 PM
The very, very, very first one was Knoppix back in December 2006, but Ubuntu was the very next one I used....and am still using.

Almighty
June 18th, 2007, 08:32 PM
I used Mandrake back in 2000. I can't remember the version number tho.

nymphaeles
June 18th, 2007, 08:35 PM
Red Hat 5.x back in 1999. Extremely picky on hardware at the time.

Medieval_Creations
June 18th, 2007, 08:38 PM
Still pretty new to Linux. Slackware & Debian starting around '01.

Skrynesaver
June 18th, 2007, 09:04 PM
A friend installed an early Debian from two floppys on my 486DX-66MHz 8MB RAM in '94
First real install of my own was Slackware in '95, great distro taught me loads, ( I was a construction worker at the time)

t3r0
June 18th, 2007, 09:21 PM
it was back in -98.... RedHat 5.2..... And I've been using Linux ever since

Al Fairclough
June 18th, 2007, 09:24 PM
My first distro was Fedora (I forget the version), then Mepis and then Kanotix, which I liked. Of course, none of them compare to Ubuntu 7.04. ;)

Brucevdk
June 18th, 2007, 10:03 PM
I bought the January edition of Linux Format in 2005 which included Fedora Core 3, however I only used it for a short while on my laptop. I actually kept it running on my mom's workstation until I recently replaced it with Edgy Eft, so you could claim that my mom has been using GNU/Linux longer than I have :)

This wasn't my first encounter with free software though. I can't entirely remember but I think it was Mozilla Firefox which introduced me to the glorious world of free and open source software. I also believe it was around this time that I decided to make the gradual switch to a system composed entirely of free software. Though my operating system the next years would remain Microsoft Windows I only used free software on top, such as Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice.org, The Gimp, Gaim and many other free software programs. I also started getting proficient with the command line by using Cygwin.

In December 2005 I bought the Christmas edition of Linux Magazine which included Breezy Badger (5.10), I read a little bit about the ideology and knew that this was going to be the distro I would eventually use. Though I must admit I was equally impressed by Debian's social contract. The biggest hurdle for me to overcome was getting used to the system responsiveness, I actually discuss this in one of the many threads in this forum (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=410882). Every stable release (i.e. 6.06, 6.10) I'd try it out and see if the issue had improved, though it never really seemed to do so.

I did use Dapper Drake for a few months trying to find out the cause before eventually switching back to Windows. This April I decided enough was enough and made the switch to Ubuntu, I am no longer bothered by the diminished system performance which is also the reason my activity in these forums has increased :)

My name is Bruce and I am an Ubuntuholic.

stimpack
June 18th, 2007, 10:27 PM
Got a taste for *nix on Sun Workstations at Uni. Started with some version of Mandrake, followed by RH7.1 which pegs my use at around 2001.

I have been an on and off user ever since (mainly off), till Ubuntu 5.04, this was when I found it was ready to be my main system.

AndyCooll
June 18th, 2007, 10:37 PM
Fedora Core 3 (IIRC) around JUne 2005. Then moved on to Ubuntu a couple of months later and have stayed ever since.

:cool:

Redlance
June 18th, 2007, 10:37 PM
my first attempt was with <GASP> Caldera <GASP> which failed miserably. then red hat, mandrake, knoppix
ubuntu 6 was when i had my first near painless linux install. Unfortunately no native support for Everquest 2 (yes I am a mmorpg junkie) so i am still stuck using windows and paying the windows tax.

vambo
June 18th, 2007, 10:46 PM
Very first was one called FTLinux - so old it's not even on that time line!! So old in fact the man pages were in Latin :). Actually I think it was a derivative of the original Suse. - there was a lot of German on those distro discs!!

Gordy
June 18th, 2007, 10:53 PM
RedHat 6.0 then Mandarke 7.0, then Mandrake 8.0, then Suse 8.0, then Suse 8.1, then Suse 9.0, then Suse 9.1, then Linspire, the Fedora, then Ubuntu, and last Freespire.

I know you asked for the very first one however, I just wanted to strech it alittle...

Rui Pais
June 18th, 2007, 11:01 PM
My first Linux trial was a RedHat4 that i found in a magazine. We learn programing on some old Unix machines on University so i tried to install it to get more used, but i never found a way to make my printer work, and no internet of course, the glorious days of 14k modem :lol:
i still have that disk, btw, maybe i should try it again... for fun.

My serious first Linux was RedHat8.
I confess i tried because i had by the time buy it a new computer and there is so much empty space on disc that i decide to try something else just for fun.
I install it after a week of serious of disastrous Windows installations... And anaconda even not yet finished i was already in love and decide to change. It has a nice look and do damn easy!!
Never get back. Of course. :)

Roulette
June 18th, 2007, 11:11 PM
Last year I persuaded a few Comp Sci friends (fellow students) that they wanted to help me install Mandriva (their prefered distro) onto a 20gig hard drive I bought off ebay, just so I could see if I liked. First thing I did was break it and get stuck in the XConsole. It didn't like me trying to change the screen resolution.

After deciding I didn't like that, a friend of mine recommended Ubuntu. I managed to install that on my system myself XD

Edgeworth
June 19th, 2007, 02:24 AM
Dual booted with Red Hat, then Mandrake. My hard drive got corrupted, so I swiched back to *******, then went to Ubuntu Feisty. All on one machine. It's been through a lot :).

Incense
June 19th, 2007, 02:44 AM
SuSe 9.2. I ran that until Ubuntu 4.10 came out. I switched just to see what all the fuss was about. I'm glad to see Ubuntu still running strong!

HermanAB
June 19th, 2007, 02:54 AM
Caldera, now SCO - ugh...

Spr0k3t
June 19th, 2007, 02:59 AM
Pre-Linux user here. I started with HP/UX and IRIX (version 1). Most of the stuff I did was developing custom database servers prior to structured query. Man I hated those days.

IusedTObeSOMEONEelse
June 19th, 2007, 03:40 AM
And i was told Puppy Linux was so easy, so i tried about 2 years ago and it was like, I failed on the part when it was time to leave live cd and it asked if I wanted to save what ever I did while on live cd and I "borked' my system. So i went to Ubuntu, started with breezy then upward to Gutsy at this point. Still have an Edgy system around

thisllub
June 19th, 2007, 03:41 AM
I paid $80 for SUSE 6.0 5CDs and a manual back in the days of dial-up internet.
At the time it was money well spent.

Lux Perpetua
June 19th, 2007, 03:48 AM
My first Linux was called "IRIX." ;)

yabbadabbadont
June 19th, 2007, 03:53 AM
This is a dupe thread, but what the heck. :D

Slackware '96.

I still have it in its original case.

Edit: original thread (that I know about anyway) http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=456711

nicedream
June 19th, 2007, 05:05 AM
Redhat 4.2 in 1997. Got it installed but that version didn't have support for my 2MB Matrox video card. So it wasn't until Redhat 5 that I really started using it regularly.

I remember those days, it was next to impossible to download it over a 33.6 modem, so I would order cds from CheapBytes for $1.99. :cool:

cantormath
June 19th, 2007, 05:47 AM
red hat and gentoo.

Adamant1988
June 19th, 2007, 05:48 AM
My first experience with Linux was Red Hat 7.2 , I took a break from it for a few years and came but to SUSE 10.1 but I stopped using that because the package manager was broken, and started using Ubuntu.

la3875
June 19th, 2007, 05:53 AM
I read a brief article about Ubuntu in of all places PC World a year ago and the rest is history...

davtaine
June 19th, 2007, 05:53 AM
I installed Mandrake 7.something in 2000

basketcase
June 19th, 2007, 06:01 AM
Mandrake 7.2 -- Can't remember the year. I was young and inexperienced. I loaded it, it wasn't windows and I was done with it. I later came back at 8.0 and been with Linux ever since.

Mandrake 7.2, 8.x - 9.x
RH 8.0
Fedora Core 3
Ubuntu 5.04 - Present

I've played with various live distributions between now and then with a love for a few, but I have always come back to Ubuntu.

suterb42
June 19th, 2007, 06:13 AM
My first was Mandrake 8.1. I was already comfortable with the Windows command line (having started using computers with Windows 3.1), so switching to the Linux terminal wasn't too much of a change. I twas a real pain having to manually mount my CD drive whenever I wanted to use it, though.

Here's all the distros I've used:

Mandrake 8.1, 9.0, 9.2, 10.0
Mandriva 2006
Knoppix
dyne:bolic

I think the first Ubuntu CD I got was 5.0, but I never got around to installing it until Feisty came along. I think I got it the day it came out, and I've been using it ever since, although I've since upgraded it to Gutsy.

tanelt
June 19th, 2007, 08:59 AM
Slackware

(Can't remember the year or the version number)

Gargamella
June 19th, 2007, 09:41 AM
Mandriva 2005 limited edition, a friend of mine took it to me.
Since summer 2006 (Dapper) I am an ubuntu user ;D

Golyadkin
June 19th, 2007, 09:47 AM
Oh, for me was a long time ago... it was RedHat 4.0 in 1996.

jusmurph
June 19th, 2007, 11:34 AM
Ubuntu Fiesty Fawn AMD 64

penncon
June 19th, 2007, 11:44 AM
Red Hat 5.2, no clue what year. I bought the book Red Hat Linux Unleashed which came with the Distro. Since then, I've used just about every distro imaginable.

Johnsie
June 19th, 2007, 12:21 PM
Phat Linux - A red hat deriative that could be installed on a fat 32 file system alongside windows.

reclusivemonkey
June 19th, 2007, 01:33 PM
I'll see all your usable distros and raise you a...

Corel Linux

I tried to install it over a six month period and got nowhere. One time I got so desperate I thought, to hell with it, I'm just going to leave it on all night see if it gets anywhere. Sure enough in the morning I actually got an install screen, but with only a Winmodem I didn't get very far. I tried a Red Hat 6 with a broken gcc which was fun.

The first one that stuck was Slackware 8.1 and I never looked back then (along with the help of an external modem).

Dragonbite
June 19th, 2007, 01:41 PM
I'll see all your usable distros and raise you a...

Corel Linux
I downloaded it (and a whole lot of other distro's) but never installed it.

foxy123
June 19th, 2007, 01:45 PM
I think SuSE 9.2

wirelessmonkey
June 19th, 2007, 03:36 PM
Slackware 5 on an ibook. It's a miracle I still use linux ;)

nightfire117
June 19th, 2007, 03:37 PM
Erm, Debian Sarge was my first distro, and I jumped into it back then thinking it'd "just work," and it more or less did, but not the way someone who knew nothing about Linux would expect. So I guess it was an... interesting introduction to Linux.

~Nightfire

Seq
June 19th, 2007, 03:45 PM
Red Hat 6 or so. Never really got into it, and had an "exciting" run-in with fdisk. Whoops.

Tried again with Mandrake (7.2 I believe), the full boxed version that a friend had purchased. Came with a tonne of manuals which probably used more paper than your average phone book. Didn't get very far off the ground.

Switched around Mandrake 8, and moved on from there. Never been back to Red Hat or Mandrake/Mandriva since, though.

Persianelfster
June 19th, 2007, 03:54 PM
My first distro was Suse, however it was before mircosoft and novell started working together. I also tried Fedora Core, but then I discovered the greatnest of Ubuntu =D.

Damanther
June 19th, 2007, 03:59 PM
We ran SCO at my university back in '92.

Sheesh I'm gettin old.

SonicSteve
June 19th, 2007, 04:04 PM
I first tried turbo linux a few years ago, it's name sounded cool and I thought hey turbo, that can't be bad.
Well it was anything but turbo, molasses in January Linux was more like it. Thank God I then stumbled across Ubuntu.

I just checked out Turbo Linux again, it is so far behind Ubuntu I don't think it will ever catch up. It only has OOo 1.1 Perhaps it has it's strong points but from what I've seen Ubuntu has the edge.

Nuverde
June 19th, 2007, 04:07 PM
Slackware 96
Wow... has it been that long ago?

HybridZero
June 19th, 2007, 04:27 PM
Well, it's not Linux, but my first Unix experience was with FreeBSD quite some time ago. My first actual Linux distro was Red Hat, after which I moved to SuSE, and finally to Ubuntu.

Out of all of them, Ubuntu is by far the best.

nicedream
June 19th, 2007, 11:14 PM
Slackware 5 on an ibook. It's a miracle I still use linux ;)

I don't think there was a Slackware 5. They had a big numbering jump to keep up with the other distros that were getting popular at that time (RH, Mandrake).

reclusivemonkey
June 19th, 2007, 11:20 PM
I don't think there was a Slackware 5. They had a big numbering jump to keep up with the other distros that were getting popular at that time (RH, Mandrake).

ftp://ftp.mirror.ac.uk/sites/ftp.slackware.com/

It went from 4 to 7 by the looks of it.

kevinlyfellow
June 19th, 2007, 11:29 PM
Red Hat 7.2

jharadie
June 20th, 2007, 12:32 AM
1996, Red Hat, don't remember the version, as a server. I couldn't afford internet, so made friends with the local ma & pa ISP, repeatedly made good on my promise to wash dishes and vacuum in exchange for free connection. They took me under their wing, 6 months later I could adeptly "hold down the fort" while they took a 2-week vacation, a year later I was being farmed out to ISPs in other towns for setup and fixup. Despite this good training and experience, I still hung on to being a Borg.

Cable killed the ma & pa, I drifted away from Linux, came back when I saw Fedora Core 2. Still wasn't enough to completely tear me away from the Borg. Freespire was good enough to run on my second machine, mainly as a server, that kept me in touch with Linux goings-on.

Finally got royally fed up with the Borg about six weeks ago, started looking around. Kept hearing about Ubuntu, but just not sure. Other experimentations (including Knoppix, Makdrake, to name a couple) were promising, but just not quite enough. So more out of exasperation than anything else, I downloaded Ubuntu.

I'm having so much fun! I'm playing with Ubuntu on my second machine, as I want to map out the best strategy I can for me before I make my Borg separation complete and permanent. And just about the time I think I've got a handle on what I want to do and how I want to do it, I discover something new to check out! :) Full conversion and implementation will happen within the next month; I'm waiting on a TV tuner card to play with first. But already I've got some friends and neighbors seriously watching what I'm doing, asking questions, showing more than a passing interest. :)

Remillard
June 20th, 2007, 01:37 AM
It was 1998 and I'd had a copy of Red Hat 7 laying around with full intent to try it, but I'd been tinkering a lot with LiteStep and other Explorer replacements for Windows. Plus, despite how well everything was documented for Red Had, the installation seemed formidable.

Along comes Mandrake 7 (possibly 7.1 I don't recall exactly) and that looked like it could very well ease the transition. So I gave that a shot.

Thus began a long affair with Linux. I used Mandrake through 9.1 or 9.2 and then moved to Gentoo. I used Gentoo for quite a long time. Since then, I have switched back and forth between Windows XP (laptop) and Ubuntu (desktop) as needed.

I've never tried Red Hat, or SuSE or any of the other variants really, and have never felt the urge. Once you get things installed, most of the differences fade away and you simply have Linux.

adamklempner
June 20th, 2007, 07:03 AM
Lindows 4 back in 2003. It was their legal fight in Europe with MS which made the mainstream media here that made me aware of the state of Linux. I figured that if it is worthy of getting sued in a dozen different countries all at once then there must be something to it... I stayed with Linspire until development seemingly stagnated on 5-0, then have been with Kubuntu pretty much since.

steven8
June 20th, 2007, 07:07 AM
Dapper Drake. Along with trying a bunch of other liveCDs.

atria
June 20th, 2007, 07:18 AM
Mandrake linux 9.0

SlayerMan
June 20th, 2007, 09:19 AM
I started with Red Hat 4.2. The last Red Hat release I used was Red Hat 7. It was so bug-prone that I never again installed any Red Hat / Fedora products.

Eric the Grey
June 20th, 2007, 09:38 AM
I remember those days, it was next to impossible to download it over a 33.6 modem, so I would order cds from CheapBytes for $1.99. :cool:

Oooh, I remember CheapBytes. Great place to pick up CD's if you were on dial-up.

My first Distro was probably Slack, or SLS. My first install was back in the mid-to-late 90's, on an old IBM Micro channel PC. I had to download an updated kernel for the sole purpose of being able to boot on micro channel because of the unique architecture.

I never did get X running on that one, and subsequent ventures with Red Hat, SUSE, and Mandrake never did get me away from Windows. I'm too much of a gamer to leave...


:cool: Eric the Grey

yagood
June 20th, 2007, 09:39 AM
Anyone remembers Monkey Linux? It could be installed on a FAT partition and run directly from DOS. I played with it like 10 years ago (gosh... time flies, eh?) on some 386 PC. My first kernel compilation was on Monkey Linux, eeeh, memories...

steven8
June 20th, 2007, 09:47 AM
CheapBytes is still there. . .

CheapBytes (http://shop.cheapbytes.com/cgi-bin/cart/index.html)

Enverex
June 20th, 2007, 05:54 PM
I started on Slackware, then Storm, then Red Hat, Mandrake and then Gentoo (this was originally).

cdrw
June 20th, 2007, 06:09 PM
Slackware 96
Wow... has it been that long ago?


Same here. Migration from a.out to elf, libc to to glibc, ISA to PCI bus etc.... I have been using Red Hat as servers with my previous jobs, and some FreeBSD and some Solaris. On reason I am using Unbuntu as my desktop OS at home is because of its good Chinese support. Even though there are still some issues, it is much better then the situations when people are making unofficial chinese environments.

Ultra Magnus
June 20th, 2007, 07:19 PM
Its cool to see so many long time linux users using Ubuntu - I think that in some way Linux is unique in that even though its getting easier to use there isnt a compromise on functionality like OS X - Feisty Fawn is my first Linux distribution - I tried fedora a few years ago but couldn't get it to work.

wirelessmonkey
June 20th, 2007, 07:33 PM
Haha, I meant slack 7, that's what I get for using the number pad....

DR_K13
June 20th, 2007, 08:08 PM
RH or Suse 7 , I forget....

mogwai
June 25th, 2007, 12:24 AM
Wow. That was a while ago.
It all started with me buying a box set of "Linux 6.0", which later I learned was Mandrake 6.2.
I think I worked up to mandrake 7, but someone gave me a Red Hat 6 disc, and I was hooked.
As redhat moved on to being commerial, I moved into Fedora. I installed and played with it on and off until I found Ubuntu Warty.
I have been playing with both up until about Fedora Core 5.
Since Dapper Drake (6.06LTS), I am an Ubuntu convert, but still keep an eye on the Fedora (and Redhat) news and reviews.

aks44
June 25th, 2007, 12:54 AM
Slackware (don't remember which version, it was in the mid 90's) but I found it so unfriendly at the moment that I didn't (bother to) return to Linux until two months ago...

suterb42
June 25th, 2007, 04:30 AM
As I said before, my first one was Mandrake 8.1.

P.S. Until I got the Internet at home, I got all my Linux CDs from CheapBytes.

anunn2001
June 25th, 2007, 06:36 AM
Yggdrasil Linux.... Along long time ago.

ticopelp
June 25th, 2007, 06:38 AM
Slackware. I didn't get far. I could play Sasteroids on it. That was about all.

ahaslam
June 25th, 2007, 07:18 AM
Yoper 2.2...
I'd heard that Linux could be run on the Xbox & that got me intrigued. Browsing Linux.org led me to Yoper & an hour later I was MS free. ;)

SlCKB0Y
June 25th, 2007, 07:39 AM
Caldera and Redhat. In about 1997.

mdsmedia
June 25th, 2007, 08:29 AM
My first was Red Hat in 1999, which at that point for me was a fairly infuriating learning experience.

I revisited in late 2002 with Mandrake and then Ubuntu in 2004, and here is where I stay. :)

I tried Red Hat at about the same time. I think it was fair to say it "wasn't ready for the desktop" then. I tried Ubuntu in October '05 and haven't looked back, although I dual boot XP for those infuriating times when I "have to use it".

m!key
June 25th, 2007, 08:32 AM
For me it was Suse 5.2

alan_daniel
June 25th, 2007, 01:08 PM
Mandrake 7.0 back in 2000 I think

Tmi
June 25th, 2007, 01:18 PM
My very first Linux test was with some Redhat version back in 1999-2000. After the very short testing and subsequent removal it was not until 2004 I decided to give Linux another try with Gentoo. After that I tried Ubuntu in 2006 and since Feisty I no longer have Windows.

So my very first try was with Redhat, but my first time really using Linux was with Gentoo.

zgornel
June 25th, 2007, 01:32 PM
Redhat 6.0 ('99) and some sort of strange distro (using KDE 1.1) that would install on the fat32 windows partition ('98 ).

@trophy
June 25th, 2007, 04:37 PM
Red Hat 8... downloaded over dialup, no less...

diesel1
June 25th, 2007, 09:58 PM
Hi all,

My first gnu/linux was Redhat 5.1, boxed from PCWorld. I still have it.

Diesel1.

samschoice
June 25th, 2007, 10:24 PM
College Linux.

garba
June 25th, 2007, 10:53 PM
redhat 7.3, back then i was beta testing windows 2000 and my good friend pitah handed me a couple of redhat cd's telling me to stop using that crap and try a real man's os, at first i couldn't stand the text console but well, if i'm hanging around here i guess you know how these stories usually end

sabrewolf2006
June 25th, 2007, 11:07 PM
I started off with SuSe 6.4 for a few weeks (98/99 - I think) and moved along into Slackware and then onto Fedora Core 1.. I then stuck with that until Core 4 and then started dual-booting with Ubuntu.. (wrestled with gentoo.. didn't work out) Ubuntu became the default boot choice but I still update both installs to latest just to see what its like on Fedora

luckyd
June 25th, 2007, 11:15 PM
Debian sarge, then fedora something or another, then some small distro i forget the name of for about 3 days, then debian etch, then ubuntu 6.10 then kubuntu 6.06 then ubuntu feisty :)

GreyShadow
July 19th, 2007, 12:54 AM
My 1st distro was Barebones Puppy about 2 years ago.

stepan2
July 19th, 2007, 01:15 AM
i started with the distro slax. well , slax was the distro that i actually tried but i made attempts to install morphix on a cd as well. i was reading about linux in a hacking zine and got itnersted.

ddrichardson
July 19th, 2007, 01:20 AM
Slackware 3.2, from Patrick Volkerding's "Linux - Installation and Configuration" in 1997 :o

tomcheng76
July 19th, 2007, 01:54 AM
Fedora Core 2
i remembered at that time, i added a lot repositories
after a yum update, Xorg or something was dead and i didnt have gui
I simply formated the PC and forgot about it
have tried FC3, 4, 5, 6 too (all in VMware)
using VMware for a long time until FC6, i decided to install it
and i finally met Ubuntu Dapper, it was very good and i got a triboot with FC6
later i simply formated FC6 for space of Ubuntu = =

try some distro on a Old PC/VMware
PUD, Slax, Gentoo, KNOPPIX BV1AL, B2DLinux

tehkain
July 19th, 2007, 02:05 AM
RH8, then I kept that all the way up to fedoras release

kevinlyfellow
July 19th, 2007, 02:13 AM
I started with Red Hat Linux 7.3 Valhalla. Then I upgraded to Red Hat Linux 8 Psyche as soon as I could.

andrewpmk
July 19th, 2007, 03:14 AM
Debian, probably slink or potato, back in the late 1990s. My dad was a longtime Debian user after switching from OS/2 (he hated Windows). Over the years, I used Mandrake and briefly tried Fedora before eventually settling with Ubuntu. I switched between Linux and Windows various times but I have stopped using Windows XP almost entirely right now because of its horrible system performance (Vista is even worse). I have recently convinced my dad to switch from Debian to Ubuntu.

m0eman
July 19th, 2007, 04:59 AM
I used google to search for the best linux distro to start out with, and somehow (I don't know how at all) I ended up downloading FreeBSD (4.2?) which isn't linux (obviously, but I was dumb). I managed to install gnome on it (I don't know how) and then finally I was told the FreeBSD wasn't a linux distro, and sum1 gave me a knoppix cd.
My next distro was SUSE (10.0?) then Fedora Core (5) then Ubuntu (6.06) and I've stuck with ubuntu since, even though I continue to try a lot of new distrobutions today.

-grubby
August 28th, 2007, 03:49 AM
I was going to download ubuntu but I was impatient so I downloaded damn small linux
but then later ubuntu

ArtificialSynapse
August 28th, 2007, 04:45 AM
Mepis, sometime near 2000, or 2001. Great distro. I remember that my biggest issue was sound, so I spent weeks messing with drivers and /etc. Turns out it was just muted :P

haha, I did that too!!! But with Mandriva

KCPokes
August 28th, 2007, 04:49 AM
Red Hat 6.1. From there I went through just about every available flavor. Still remember having a Red Hat 7.3 machine at work with 500 days of uptime before I had to power it down to move it.

glupee
August 28th, 2007, 04:52 AM
I hit up mandriva a few years back (don't exacltly remember maybe 2-3 years ago) It was great, but my tv card wasn't compatible, so i switched back to winblows...
Now i'm having the same problem, but think i can hold out till something comes up/or not the benefits of ubuntu are really worth it :guitar:

RAV TUX
August 28th, 2007, 04:59 AM
My first was Ubuntu Hoary Hedgehog (http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/5.04/), still my most favorite Ubuntu release.

67GTA
September 1st, 2007, 03:03 AM
A friend gave me a copy his Knoppix live cd a couple of years ago. I screwed up my Windows installation trying to use the install script. I've been a distro ***** ever since.

dizee
September 1st, 2007, 03:26 AM
Ubuntu Edgy, since around January 2007. I had been curious about Linux for a few months before that, but was afraid of messing up my computer. Then I discovered the live cd and haven't looked back since.

It is funny now but I used to think that Linux was just like the computers in the Matrix, just some command-line on a screen, but now on my very modest laptop I have effects that can rival anything MS or Apple offer. It never ceases to amaze me that something so good could be free.

Jerr973
September 1st, 2007, 03:31 AM
My first Linux Distro. was Puppy Linux. Was so funny I was so happy I actually had gotten it installed.

boopyg
September 1st, 2007, 03:43 AM
-

diatribe
September 1st, 2007, 03:48 AM
slack 9

DrOlaf
September 1st, 2007, 04:06 AM
Slackware 3.something, in around '98 or so. Then RH7, then Ubuntu starting with Dapper.

Before using Linux I'd used Solaris on Sparcs and OSF/Motif on DECstations, though.

eph1973
September 1st, 2007, 04:41 AM
Ran Slackware briefly in 1997, and had problems getting it to see my modem and so forth. Then a couple of years ago, installed a dual boot of fedora core 4, and then got distracted with lots of travel on my job. Just recently installed Ubuntu (on my laptop, so I can take it with me) and so far I am really enjoying it, even more than the Fedora (which ran pretty decent for me on my desktop).

By the way, I was really impressed on how far Linux had come between 1997 and 2005 I think it was when I installed Fedora Core 4.

smartboyathome
September 1st, 2007, 05:35 AM
At the beginning of last year, I read an article on a windows site saying if you want the Vista look, get Kubuntu Linux. I had no idea what it was (I had never heard of Linux lol), so I googled it, and found this really cool distro! I kept googling for other distros, and found Ubuntu, and decided to use that (since Kubuntu was based off of Ubuntu, I decided Ubuntu was safer). I have been using Ubuntu ever since.

jfg69
September 1st, 2007, 05:45 AM
Bought my first distro in '98 from MicroCenter for a buck... came with a game bundled to it. Never got it to install, and I threw it in the trash about 2 years ago.
After that, Knoppix was the first that actually ran. Wasnt able to get online, so I scrapped it and went back to winblows. Been tryin ever since.. went from Knoppix to Slack to Mepis. I got lucky on PCLos for about an hour, wireless worked and then went off and I gave up again. Back to Xpee again... till I tried Ubuntu. Gutsy fired up on the first shot. Had too many issues with the wireless, so I looked at Fiesty and ended up using Ubuntu Ultimate 1.4 which was a month and a half ago. Running it ever since. If it wasnt for the few win progs i need to use, i would never go back...\\:D/

Forgot I tried Dream Linux, Mint, Xandros, and OpenSuse too..

Taino
September 1st, 2007, 05:45 AM
Slackware 3.5... then... RedHat 7.2... then.. everything else, mainly Debian based ones followed, and i tried a few BSD's (but thats another *Unix)

(still have RedHat 7.2 in the original box) :)

darsu
September 1st, 2007, 06:57 AM
Mandrake 8.1, 2001.

AriciU
September 1st, 2007, 07:10 AM
Slackware 7 -> Windows -> CentOS -> Debian Sarge -> Ubuntu 6.04 Dapper -> Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy -> Ubuntu 6.04 -> Slackware 11 -> Ubuntu 7.04 -> Slackware 12 -> Sabayon 3.4 -> Gentoo -> Slackware 12 -> Arch Linux 2007.08

Now i'm running Arch Linux (main day to day distro) / Slackware 12 (used to be my main one untill i found Arch) / Ubuntu 7.10 Tribe 5 / Windows Vista (rarely gets booted). Will probably add Gentoo to the list when they finally release the guide for the Conrad V5 install (gentoo on steroids) and run 5 OS'es in paralel :D

ticopelp
September 1st, 2007, 07:21 AM
Slackware.

I could run Sasteroids and "uptime" on it. That's all I ever learned how to do. :lol:

saru411
September 1st, 2007, 07:37 AM
redhat on my xbox in ~2003. had it tweaked out but didnt not do much with it. installed edgy/feisty in april. ubuntu has made me move. i love this place!!!

~LoKe
September 1st, 2007, 07:40 AM
Lindows/Linspire (shudder)

whooze
September 1st, 2007, 07:42 AM
I belive my first distro were RedHat 6.1.

I can still remember how messy it was to install compared to Ubuntu 7.04 :)

jeyaganesh
September 1st, 2007, 10:35 AM
SUSE 9:popcorn:

triptoe
September 1st, 2007, 10:48 AM
The first i ever tried to install was Red hat 5.1

eukhost.com
September 1st, 2007, 11:49 AM
The very first Linux distro on my machine was CentOS.

Arwen
September 1st, 2007, 12:06 PM
SUSE 9.2 in my laptop,had really huge icons..

davidgypsy
September 1st, 2007, 12:41 PM
I "started" with Red Hat 6.1... but it didn't work on my system at all, so I suppose it doesn't really count. The first that worked was Corel, although it installed it still didn't work so well. Then I proceeded to try every distro I could lay my hands on in a frustrating few months. Since then it has been Debian, and lately Ubuntu.

anandanbu
September 1st, 2007, 03:03 PM
My first breath of freedom with linux started with Hoary Hedgehog one of the cool distro that i have ever used :)

bonzodog
September 1st, 2007, 04:59 PM
My first Linux Distro was Caldera Linux 1.3 (before SCO got involved!), in 1999 on my 286 PC. It had KDE 0.1 with it, and FVWM as the WM's.

I then went to Slackware 7 in 2000.

SOULRiDER
September 1st, 2007, 05:13 PM
My first touch with linux was in 2003. They isntalled Red Hat at school, but by the way it was set up you would clearly see that the people in charge of the labs had no idea at all of how linux worked. I started doing some research of my own and also in 2003 i downloaded Mandrake, Suse 9.0 and Fedora (cant remember if it was 2 or 3) but they were so confusing for me i went back to windows immediatly.

In 2006 i downloaded Dapper as soon as it came out (kubuntu) and I started playing around witht he Live CD. I decided thsi time I was gonna switch, so this time i DID read manuals and ask on IRC and realized there was a Package Manager :P In mid July windows died on me so i thought it was time i switch for good and so i did.

The only thing i regret is not paying more attention to linux in 2003 and not reading enough...

-SpaZ
September 1st, 2007, 05:16 PM
The first time I tried linux, I experimented with SLAX and openSUSE.

hessiess
September 1st, 2007, 05:23 PM
ubuntu

rabid9797
September 1st, 2007, 06:55 PM
SuSe 9, back a year or so ago i believe. i forgot the password though and didn't bother using it ever again :mad:

my first real distro was ubuntu though, now im using Mint Linux and expirmenting with Debian(the actual distro)

Fonon
September 1st, 2007, 06:56 PM
my first Distro was Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn.

BigSilly
September 1st, 2007, 10:31 PM
I tried the Live CD of Ubuntu 4.10 ages ago and was very impressed. It wasn't until Mandriva Discovery 2006 that I actually installed Linux. Loved it to bits, and have gone from that to Freespire 1, and now Ubuntu where I'm staying.

nonewmsgs
September 1st, 2007, 10:39 PM
suse back in 99. it was so painful that it should have come with a bottle of viccodin. i still remember standing up and yelling back at the moniter about some kind of partioning thing.

mpgarate
September 2nd, 2007, 03:34 AM
messed around with many about a year ago on a computer with no legit operating system... ubuntu 'just worked' and its been my distro of choice ever since

ry4n
September 2nd, 2007, 03:49 AM
I first tried vector 5.0 like in march of 2006, it was pretty cool but not what i was looking for in a new operating system tried a few like fedora and Suse for a day then slackware for a while but then I tried Ubuntu and fell in love I could figure out most of the major stuff really fast. So I'm a lot newer to Linux then most of you but i really really like it (full time Ubuntu since Nov. 2006)

Penguinista
September 2nd, 2007, 03:50 AM
The first distro I installed was Red Hat 5.2 on an old Packard Bell back in 2000. I think it was a 486. No X on it. I logged in, got the command prompt, and scratched my head trying to figure out what to do next. :) Thankfully, I stuck with it, and have never regretted it.

It's been a lot of work, but I've grown with Linux. I'd like to think we are both aging gracefully. :)

bigbearomaha
September 2nd, 2007, 03:53 AM
Back in oh, about 97 or 98, I was playing with Red Hat. Then turned very quickly to Mandrake.

Big Bear

Xebec
September 2nd, 2007, 07:40 AM
Red Hat back in 1999. My university friends recommended me to try the "taste of Linux". I spat it out very quickly, then tried it again - too much text only configuration made me develop strong immunity to the world of *nix.

In 2003 tried FreeBSD since Fedora and Mandrake failed to install on my PC. Loved BSD, but after few kernel panics (or whatever it was in FreeBSD) abandoned the idea. Turned out it was my RAM corrupted - not an unreliable OS. But bitter taste made me forget about *nix.

Gradually I became a fan of open source software and started replacing commercial software with it on Windows. The last step was to get rid of Windows itself. Last year I made my research and was very surprised by the fact that the most popular Linux distro was a thing called "Ubuntu". I remember my thoughts: "What? A distro from Africa?! Just one CD? This is nonsense! Oh, it is based on Debian? Who uses Debian?" Then I tried Dapper Drake. It was the first *nix which recognized all my hardware correctly silently. ... Hooked ever since.

Feisty Fawn is the first *nix distro I don't dual boot with Windows. This is my only operating system.

BungaMan
September 3rd, 2007, 12:41 PM
Debian somewhere '95. Did succeed to run it at the time but it was a painful experience ... one I still enjoy today :)

jeremy
September 3rd, 2007, 05:06 PM
Mine was Slackware circa 1,998

sci-fi guy
September 16th, 2007, 02:28 AM
Sometime in 2006 I dual-booted openSuse 10.1 for all of three days because I did not have internet connection and couldn't figure out how to do intermediate-level tasks very well. This past March (after I got internet) I took the plunge and did a clean install of 10.1 on my system again. And immediately upgraded to 10.2. I was encountering dependency hell trying to get the latest versions of software (the repos were two or three releases out of date for some apps) while simultaneously suffering through Windows withdrawals (unbelievable now, but I really missed those EXEs). I had been told about Slashdot about a month before and had seen an article about the release of Ubuntu 7.04 and thought: "I think I might try that. It sounds like it would be a good start, and it might have the latest versions of programs. And there is this LiveCD thing, so I try it out and can not install it if I don't like it." So I downloaded and burned the ISO. I was not overtly impressed, but it had the latest versions of software and that was a tiebreaker for me. Now, I love it am not planning on moving on anytime soon!

Nano Geek
September 16th, 2007, 02:30 AM
RedHat 9
It could hardly do anything except browse the web with mozilla, and play a few simple games.

Frak
September 16th, 2007, 02:51 AM
Debian, way back when. I think '96

LookTJ
September 16th, 2007, 03:07 AM
Ubuntu Dapper 6.06 in July 06

JBAlaska
September 16th, 2007, 03:13 AM
Mandrake way back, then knoppix then open co-linux on top of *******, then a breif look at gentoo x64 then straight to Ubuntu!

Going to stick with Ubuntu!

slaeyer
November 20th, 2007, 04:11 AM
My first Linux adventure was with Linux PPC 2000 on my iMac 333 sometime in early 2000. Cost me $15 to have the install / source cd set shipped to my door. I managed to get everything mostly working and kept the machine alive on Linux for nearly a year before the HD died. I ultimately replaced the iMac with a PC and Mandrake 6.x, and have been distro-hopping until Ubuntu came into it's own. Haven't looked back since!

Lostincyberspace
November 20th, 2007, 04:14 AM
I think red hat not sure will try to remember, but not to bad after 14 years.

mellowd
November 20th, 2007, 04:15 AM
red hat many years ago

hardyn
November 20th, 2007, 04:27 AM
red-hat 5? thousand years ago... it didn't work with any of my hardware at the time, i gave up on it pretty quickly. i sorta put linux away for a year or two, then fell back in hard with ubuntu.

atlascomplete
November 20th, 2007, 04:34 AM
I am new Linux user, but the first Linux distro I got was Novell's SLES 9, but the first one I used was SLES 10. Ubuntu has been the one I have used most over all of them.

g4ry.l33
November 21st, 2007, 06:10 AM
Debian 1.3 and I still have the CD it came on. I didn't know about computers at the time. But I read the Docs and got it to install with no problem. Configuring the modem and getting on line was the hardest part for me. But that was because I kept trying to configure a networking card and NOT the modem!

:lolflag:

Dimitriid
November 21st, 2007, 06:34 AM
Red Hat. Can't remember the version but it was a good 5 or 6 years ago. Back then I was on dial up modem and ISDN modem: couldn't get either to work. I knew nothing about Linux so I had to either access a second computer ( which I didn't have then ) or reboot to windows to troubleshoot.

Even then it was hardly worth it and I gave it up out of frustration with my hardware ( which was later literally struck by lightning so I was more than relieved I would finally get a new system )

jespdj
November 21st, 2007, 09:17 AM
Slackware Linux in October 1994. :cool:

ru7hl3ss
November 21st, 2007, 09:37 AM
Redhat->Mandrake->Debian->Knoppix->Fedora->SUSE->Ubuntu

graabein
November 21st, 2007, 10:05 AM
SuSE 6.X something. Installed it but couldn't figure it out. That was a long time ago. When I installed Ubuntu Hairy Hedgehog (or whatever) it was miles apart.

samwyse
November 21st, 2007, 01:29 PM
Red Hat Linux 6.0 (early 2000?). I Had Red Hats until version 9, then Fedora Core's up to version 3. After that wanting a KDE distro I switched to Kubuntu (5.04).

Magnes
November 21st, 2007, 01:46 PM
I suppose it was Red Hat 5.0 for me.

gezzabob
November 21st, 2007, 08:40 PM
My first distro was Red Hat, erm cannot remember the version off the top of my head sorry. It was a while back my IT director at the time was in our office I was working on the IT helpdesk then and he gave me a copy of Red Hat and said give it a go. At that point I had never used Linux then only heard bits about it (ps it was just before about mandrake 9.1 came out because that was my next distro I tried).

I think it was Red Hat 6.2 but I am terrible with dates :( ....

Anyway I installed Red Hat (whatever version it was ...) and didn't like the gnome desktop at the time it was a bit bland for my tastes at the time plus I was a proper MS Sheep back then so switched it to KDE for a bit etc... And now gone full circle kind of and now using Gnome in Ubuntu oh well

Linuxratty
November 21st, 2007, 09:36 PM
Linspire (before it hopped in the sack with Microsoft.)

hellion0
November 21st, 2007, 10:52 PM
My first was Red Hat 9. (The first version where you had to BUY the CD set.)

Murtagh
November 22nd, 2007, 01:51 AM
Fedora Core 6

speedwell68
November 22nd, 2007, 02:11 AM
Suse 6.4 which I couldn't get on with. Then a couple of years later with Mandrake 8, again couldn't get on with it. Then about a year ago I tried Ubuntu 6.10, now I'm using 7.10 AMD64 and I ain't ever going back to *******. I tried to configure a Vista PC for the first time today, oh my god. And people say Linux isn't user friendly.

fbmx24
November 22nd, 2007, 02:17 AM
It would have been red hat 9, then I tried Fedora and Suse but didnt like them. I finally found Ubuntu around version 6.04 and have stayed with it ever since.

odiseo77
November 22nd, 2007, 02:24 AM
I started with Mandrake (don't remember which version), when it was named 'Mandrake' and not 'Mandriva' (no offense to Mandriva, only clarifying). It was like in november 2003, if I'm not wrong. A few weeks later I switched to SuSE 9.0. Then, like one year later, I switched to Fedora Core (don't remember which version either). Then decided to give Debian a try and started with Debian Sarge. Then, like one year and a half ago I started with Ubuntu Dapper I liked it a lot. Since then, I've been tasting many Debian flavours (Elive, Dreamlinux, Knoppix, etc). Nowadays, I'm only using Ubuntu Gutsy (32 bits and 64 bits) and Debian Lenny/Sid), but have saved some free space on my 2nd HD to install other distros if I find other one that I like enough to install :)

P.S.: I've also tried other distros like PuppyLinux, PHLAK, DSL, Gentoo, Slackware, Slax, etc. The only one of these I still use sometimes is Puppy, installed on my USB stick.

Greetings.

kopinux
November 22nd, 2007, 02:27 AM
Lindows

Harpoon
November 23rd, 2007, 05:20 AM
Slackware 2.1 or 2.2 around March 1995. That was on an AMD-200 that tied my network together using ipmasquerade. It was a ?joy? to set up, taking only a few weeks to get the network cards properly configured. But it did run like a bandit.

Tried an early version of SuSe some time later, but I just couldn't get comfortable with the KDE interface, so off that went. Stayed with slack, avoided rpm based systems (tried it/hated it)

Passed through a ton of distros on the way to discovering ubuntu had a llive cd - - WoW - - a way to test a full distro without mucking up the hard drive! That was edgy, been here since.

Actually, the biggest thing ubuntu has going for it is the forums. Everyone I pointed here to learn a little about what I have is seriously impressed. Never see a response like "if you don't know how to configure iptables you're too f***g dumb to own a linux box." Gotta love something that works.

bobpur
November 23rd, 2007, 07:52 AM
Ubuntu v5.04

RJ Fighter
November 23rd, 2007, 09:19 AM
Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake, which I had about two days ago. Since then, I've upgraded to 7.10 with minor problems. Still having trouble getting Guild Wars and Half-Life 2 to run under Wine, but everything is a double-edged sword in some shape or form.

meindian523
November 23rd, 2007, 09:28 AM
Mandriva 07...had a problem with the CD....had a hundred problems with stability.....everything was detected,no problem with that.....didn't like the rpm way of installing softwares...been on Ubuntu 7.04 since....

wieman01
November 23rd, 2007, 09:37 AM
Shamed to say it... Suse back in 2000... Can't remember the version.

lankford
November 23rd, 2007, 09:38 AM
wow I feel old, most likely it was Softlanding Linux System (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softlanding_Linux_System)... I remember compiling the kernel for 3 days on my old pac bell 386sx and there was only like 500k lines in the kernel back then.
.
then Yggdrasil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yggdrasil_Linux/GNU/X) I remember that had the first X I got working.

stood up my first production box around 94 I guess red hat maybe.

I also remember being blown away the first time I saw the filemanager in win3.0 and back then windows almost lost the war to Geoworks.

Sockerdrickan
November 23rd, 2007, 09:50 AM
OH yeah I remember it.
Ubuntu 6.06 :3 stable dapper made me a Linux guy

roachk71
November 23rd, 2007, 09:52 AM
A trip down Memory Lane...
My first foray into the worlds of Linux and Open Source was with Mandrake 7.1 in 2000, and from thence I learnt the hard way about RPM Hell. The only upside to this distribution was that even with KDE, it ran well on an old Pentium-MMX with 72MB (and plenty of swap.) {correction; had the wrong version. 8.1 would only run on modern hardware.}
Next came 7.2. Sluggish, even on a more modern 1 GHz CPU, tough as nails to keep from crashing.
Mandrake 8.1 was a little better.
In May of 2003 I found out about Knoppix online. Not sure about this now, but back then it could easily be installed to one's hard disk.
In July of the same year, Damn Small entered the picture on some of our older hardware.
Then, in late 2004, I found out about a new distribution called Ubuntu. Burned one CD initially, just to try it out and find out what all the racket was about...Nowadays, every once-in-a-while I'll order or burn multiple CDs to let family, friends and Moose Lodge brethren try Ubuntu for themselves.

I've been going back and forth between various Linux and Unix (think PC-BSD) distributions since, but now I'll probably stick with Ubuntu. I'm a Gutsy Gibbon user now, waiting for the next LTS release on more modern hardware. Not only does Ubuntu rock, it's tough enough security- and stability-wise to eat nails and ask for seconds.

I wonder when a certain member of the household will wake from his Vista-induced nightmare and decide to finally go Open Source...Vista not only means endless headaches for his in-house technician (myself), but for him as well. :-({|=

I kinda feel sorry for anybody forced to use the latest Windows.

RJ Fighter
November 23rd, 2007, 10:10 AM
I kinda feel sorry for anybody forced to use the latest Windows.

I wanted to switch to Ubuntu awhile back, but my father refused to let me until a few days ago. He pretty much told me I was on my own at that point, and that I was probably making a bad decision by switching to it from XP.

Showed him up. :lol:

subs
November 23rd, 2007, 10:11 AM
my first linux distro was fedora core 2

JermainWijnhard
November 23rd, 2007, 10:21 AM
Feisty ><

At some point i got so sick of windows and curious about linux that i made the transition. I never really knew what linux had over Windows. But did know that it was ******** proof. And that made all the difference. The thing that surprised me most is that the little frustrations i had with windows were dealt with in linux. This really gave me the feeling that whoever work on it are human and not borg who make use it or leave it interfaces..

But thats me ;)

bfc
November 23rd, 2007, 10:44 AM
First distro was Redhat 3.03 back around 1996 and I've never used Windows on my personal computer since

SpyLikeMe
November 23rd, 2007, 02:29 PM
My first was FreeBSD in 1999. I wanted to admin a MUD, and the server I rented used freeBSD. In order to learn what I needed to do in a shell, I just installed it on my home machine.

stoodleysnow
November 23rd, 2007, 03:14 PM
Fedora 3.92, 2005.
Not bad, but it didn't give me much reason to like it, tried Ubuntu 5.10 around then too. I switched to SUSE 10.1 and Ubuntu 6.06 (Family Tree Edition) dual boot.
Eventually decided SUSE was too much faff and upgraded to Ubuntu 7.04 in May. Then moved to 7.10 as soon as it was released. Ubuntu for me!:)

markyb86
November 23rd, 2007, 03:32 PM
Red hat linux 7 i think it was 2000 but i cant even remember... but it had gnome and thats what i like about ubuntu!

gn2
November 23rd, 2007, 05:38 PM
PCLinuxOS 0.92 December 2005.
Was astonished how good a free OS could be.
Still have the CD, kept it for sentimental reasons, all the other distros I've tried have gone in the bin.
Apart from my current Xubuntu 7.04 Alternate CD of course.