4-5 years ago. Started because my one machine won't get security updates from Microsoft and my main machine isn't eligible for the Windows 11 update.
Started on Ubuntu and then did some heavy distro hopping. I've ended up preferring only 2 distros; Debian and Arch. There's plenty of others that I like but those are my top 2.
Half a year ago I tried it but I have destroyed the system so bad, that even live usb wouldn't boot. Few months ago I have tried again, seems in time what was broken before got fixed by itself also I stuck with it this time and love using it.
I started with RedHat 6.1, codenamed Cartman, on an i386. My god, the pain, the failed boots, the fail testing and source building by way of multi CD's provided through magazines. It was great
Now, many years later, after many, many different distros, after several immutable distros, I've ended up with NixOS, because I still like getting punished by my software.
Suck it, nix users. You know it to be true.
I've ended up with NixOS, because I still like getting punished by my software.
Suck it, nix users. You know it to be true.
.... true.
Fucking still at home
Around 1998 I'd guess. Some loadlin based setup on my friends Windows machine. Don't recall the name. I remember running Mandrake shortly after that.
I've hopped back and fourth between many distros, and gone back to Windows a few times over those years. But I've been using Linux as my daily driver for about a decade now. Currently using and enjoying NixOS.
Dabbled in Linux Mint in 2013-14. Recently started using Linux more frequently. Started out on Pop OS this past June/July but moved to Opensuse Tumbleweed as my main OS. I do still have my Windows drive but havent ran into any issues where I needed to boot it up.
I tried a long time ago on Mandrake or Mandriva, cannot remember. Didn't stick and eventually after trying to use Windows 10 on a HDD, Linux Mint welcomed me with open arms. Now duel booting on OpenSuse but haven't started Windows in 6 months. I just don't need it anymore. Thanks to the Wine and proton teams!
In highschool, back in 2007, I got my first taste of Linux in my highschool electronics class. The class was mostly focused on electrical engineering, however we had a computer in the room for research and for whatever reason, my teacher was a hardcore Linux guy. We talked about it for hours and eventually, I ordered a CD from Ubuntu by mail and installed it on my home PC, a computer that originally ran Windows ME. I've primarily used Windows since I do a fair bit of gaming, but I've always maintained a linux partition of some kind. On my laptop, I'm currently testing out the latest Ubuntu release, but before that, I was running Linux Mint DE in the Mate flavor with BSPWM as the window manager. On my main PC, I have a Windows 10 partition, and a Garuda Linux partition. Garuda is running Mate with BSPWM as well. The funny thing is, I'm not really a tech guy. I just like it and use it mostly just as a consumer. I can work my way around and fix most things when they break, but I'm more likely to just nuke my installation and spin up a new one when things get really bad. I'm planning a full PC upgrade soon and plan to go AMD instead of Nvidia so I can enjoy Wayland. The latest Gnome release feels really good and matches my rose tinted memories of Unity from way back when. Hoping to run that, but may still mess with a tiling window manager set up as well.
bout 20 years ago, i was using knoppix and dyne:bolic... then backtrack, then kali...
linux mint, kubuntu, lubuntu... ubuntu...
probably because i like programming and thought hacking was kool...
I think im gonna try Void Linux next... i've heard great things...
i've still kept my dual boot all this time, because of a couple programs... and a backup for when i brick my linux partition...
Started out with Mandrake in 1998 and got into Debian shortly after. I moved to Gentoo in 2002. In the later 2000s I only used my desktop for gaming and stopped dual booting for many years. My home server runs BSD and I was using a 2010 MacBook as my laptop. The only Linux box in my home was my HTPC, running Ubuntu.
When I heard of Proton I started dual booting again. In 2020 I got rid of Windows and the aging MacBook. Since then my desktop, laptop and HTPC run on Arch. The server is still FreeBSD.
Must have been 2001 or 2002, and I started with the Red Hat CD that came in the back of my friend’s Linux For Dummies book.
When I was 14 and got my second PC. That must have been around 2005 or so?
Installed Red Hat, printed a book about C and gave up rather quickly.
Ubuntu 6.04 or so (Dapper Drake?) Was the first one that I actually used for real.
2009 i started studying computer science. Having windows on my Laptop wasnt helpful when compiling c, that was my first encounter with Linux (especially Ubuntu). Was running Xubuntu most of the time because i didnt like Unity.
Stopped using Linux after finishing my degree, since Linux wasnt useful for gaming or my work.
Skip forward to 2020. Hadnt really used Linux for anything for years, then windows 11 was announced. Didnt like where this was going and tested out Manjaro, since gaming on linux was supposed to be "okay".
Didnt like Manjaro and tried out EndeavourOS. All games that mattered at the time ran good. Switched to AMD graphics, deleted windows completly from my drive and use Linux exclusivly for private usage.
Also installed EndeavourOS on my work laptop and use a Windows VM if needed.
I dont want to go back to using windows for daily stuff ever
I started using linux as my mac got unusable with macOS First touch with Linux I had in Work, i test our products which run on an embedded Linux yocto build.
Now, my phone and my buisness windows are now the only proprietary OSs I use (have a pinePhone, bit it is not daily drivable for me)
Now I have the old macbookpro5,2 running Arch and my iMac running openSuse TW. For my smart home, I have a pi Zero 2W running hombridge via hoobs. Ah yea and a router on a board that I got from a friend running on OpnSense. With him I have a proxmox server running.
Almost two decades ago, as a teenager, I decided to give Linux a try as a bit of fun and as a learning activity. I put Ubuntu 6.06 on an old Windows 95 desktop which was languishing in a cupboard having been long replaced. The install disc was, I'm fairly sure, a freebie that came with a magazine. I was amazed at how easy it was to install and how smoothly it ran, and had lots of fun playing around with it and learning the ropes.
Have had a Linux machine or two on the go ever since. At some point in the last decade I made the switch from using Windows as my main OS to using Linux as my main, and these days I only use Windows on my corporate-provisioned work laptops.
I'm still an Ubuntu user. I've distro hopped occasionally, and Debian has a place in my heart, but I always came back to Ubuntu. There's a lot of meming about Ubuntu being terrible, but the reality is that it remains an incredibly polished, high-quality, "just works" OS which largely keeps out of my way.
Over the last two decades I moved into software engineering as a career, although I've since moved out of the industry onto non-techy things. Linux continues to scratch my techy itch in my spare time.
About in 2008-2009. I was about 15 years old. One of my teachers installed ubuntu on school computers. Remember playing around with wobbly windows and desktop cube and having a blast.
I didn't use much linux at home though until college about 2013 when I put it on my laptops. Took until like 2018 to fully switch. I ditched the last windows VM with GPU passthrough when its boot drive died.
Startet using Linux in 1999. Then I did a lot of distro hopping:
NixOS feels very contemporary and will stay a while. It is very advanced and usable in many diverse environments. In the past I did learn a lot installing and maintaining Debian and Arch – which has a great community.
I first installed Ubuntu on a laptop in 2016. I started using linux full-time in 2017 with Ubuntu MATE and I'm now on EndeavourOS after trying these:
I use Debian and Arch on home servers, and I want to install OpenSUSE Slowroll to replace my Arch server (it hasn't broken yet)
As far as I'm concerned it's still 2018 and the year of the linux desktop....
First install was Fedora core 6 it came with like 5 or 6 cds. This would have been mid 2000s I was mostly using it offline and then reinstalled windows so I could game on the lan with AoE and cossacks. (I had 2 PCs beside each other)
The in 08 I installed Ubuntu , 4 years later was Debian and ive been at home with Debian since.
Its been great to see the improvements over this time particularly in gaming.
I still use Ubuntu in work.
overall - only a few years constantly - just a few months on mint now. I find I get frustrated at some things that I believe should be easy, but seem super convoluted. I'm sure its the years of windows BS beat into me thats making me show my bias, but im learning. I want it on my main PC but figured I would learn on a junker hp dual core pc first. I'm shocked at the amount of things I can now do on it where as with windows, it was useless. Only thing stopping me from putting it on my main pc is gaming. Once I learn more and figure out a good destro for gaming, i plan to switch everything over.
4 months now, Debian Gnome. Its on a laptop from work. Knowing what I want and how to secure things they gave me local admin rigths on Win11 to convert the device to dual boot. Slowly getting to know my way around.
Started more than 2 years ago with Ubuntu, now I'm on EndeavourOS.
Just started getting into it with the Win11 bullshit. I come to find that I can customize KDE to pretty much replicate every single thing I like (or just used to) about the Windows experience and toss everything else out. Fedora KDE has me hooked. No plans on going back.
2004 (Ubuntu) - 2024 (Arch)
For a while in middle school I would spin up Ubuntu or something similar in a VM just to look at it, but never really used it. The first time I really used Linux was Raspbian on my Raspberry Pi 2 that I got in 8th grade. As I went on tinkering with Linux, I eventually replaced Windows with Ubuntu on my HP Stream since it ran better, and by my Junior year of high school I was daily driving it. Now I'm using Parrot OS Home on my laptop and GhostBSD (I know its not Linux, but Linux led to me trying it) on my desktop
Just wiped my HP Stream and installed Fedora. Much faster then Windows
About 2 years ago but I can't believe it's been that long tbh. I started with Ubuntu but switched to arch after about a year mainly because I enjoyed the challenge and learning involved in installing it through a command line. I understand my computer a little more because of it.
I chose Linux mainly for privacy reasons; I didn't enjoy having a spyware as my OS but my friends call me crazy for going as far as I have to avoid being tracked. Idk it just bothers me.
I started dualbooting W10 and openSUSE Tumbleweed in October of 2022, I got tired of Windows 10 and having to enter regedit to change basic things (they solved some things with winget tbh), using inconsistent UIs and submenus to change other ones. Also, I had constant performance issues, then driver issues that most people told me I'd have in Linux, but have been barely existent.
Since then I barely use Windows, I mostly start it for uni projects and to play Minecraft Bedrock because I get dizzy if I play in bigger screens. I also have less issues with my printer/scanner and the performance has been better. I also love customization and having the option to write small scripts to solve small issues nobody else cares about makes me so happy. There was some software I wanted to try too and couldn't because it was not available on Windows or it was unusable, like Docker (and WSL was uncomfortable to use; inconsistent file names if you don't use W10 in english don't help either).
It's been a great journey, I love troubleshooting and I've been able to solve all issues I found in Linux, while Microsoft Support only said to me: "Have you tried reinstalling Windows?". I'd say that using Linux daily has helped me to learn more about FOSS, containerization and operating systems, while also helping me develop more skills to solve problems by finding solutions or creating them :)
Dabbled in it since 2006. About 2012 i had problems with my network card on windows, flipped out and just installed Linux on my main home computer and have not used windows at home since.
Started with Ubuntu and it's flavors, recently had problems with snap packages, flipped out and installed the first non Ubuntuoid distro that promised an easy install so I could get back to whatever I was doing at the time. I currently have Manjaro at home.
I started around the time when Windows 95 came out. Slackware was my jam. I now run Arch on one box and Debian 12 on another. It helped my career as a sysadmin.
Oh boy. I definitely started with Ubuntu 17.04 in 2017 when I started uni, then soon downgraded to 16.04 because Unity was soooo much better than Gnome. But afterwards it's a blur, I was distrohopping basically every few months, sometimes even more often. I used Antergos (RIP), Manjaro, all flavors of Ubuntu except Gnome, Mint, then I was into the whole minimalistic tiling wm suckless no-systemd rabbit hole with Void, I also did KDE Neon at some point, I definitely did pure Arch as well, and Artix too. Sometimes I even hopped at work when I had a bit more time. God I miss those days...
Right now I've settled on Mint for work and Endeavor for personal use and haven't hopped for over a year which is as long as I've ever gone. I miss hopping but I'm so comfy right now. I've been thinking about finally giving Gentoo a go full time as I've been flirting with the idea forever. And there's also Nix. And I've been meaning to try a system where I fully embrace flatpak (right now I never use it). I'd also like to try something like Qubes eventually. So yeah, plenty to see still after all these years.
15 years now. First few years part time messing around with ubuntu and mint. I've been full time 100% debian on all my servers and desktop/laptop for at least 10 years now.
Debian is the best
I’ve dabbled with Linux here annd there since 1999 when I installed Caldera Open Linux 2.2 on a pos desktop I had at the time.
Caldera ran pretty well on that machine for about six months, until the machine up and died. IIRC, the motherboard fried.
My next foray was around 2007ish when I had a dell laptop that was struggling to run windows. I was also interested in tinkering, so I installed Ubuntu for the first time. I think it was Hardy Heron (8.04).
I ran that for a good year or so, until the charging port on the laptop took a shit, but I didn’t really get deep into Linux. I just used it for general computing.
My next computer was a MacBook Pro 2009 13”. This began a long relationship with Macs and macOS that continues to this day, though I am far less enamored of Apple and macOS now than I was in the past.
What was great about Macs and osx/macos over that period was that by and large it did what Apple promised. It just worked. The hardware was powerful and reliable, and the software let me get my work done (photo and video production), and so I had no desire to use anything else.
During this time period I also built a windows pc dedicated to live streaming as part of my production work, which is relevant, because about four years ago, right before the pandemic hit, I quit photo and video production.
So I had this pc sitting around, and I once again decided it was time to give Linux a spin, and now I’m all in. For three years running, that pc has been my home server running Ubuntu (just updated it to 22.04). With that server I’ve really been learning about Linux, and it’s been a lot of fun.
I’d love to put Asahi on the m1 Mac mini that is our main household computer, but my wife wouldn’t be too happy with me if I did that, so I’m still using macOS. I spend a lot of time at the terminal, often working on the server over ssh, but also just working with my files locally.
Since macOS is bsd based I’ve run across a number of cli tools that work just different enough from their Linux counterparts. I found that frustrating and confusing, and decided I wanted consistency in my cli tools. Since I can’t install Asahi, I found Multipass and installed that on the Mac mini. So now I have an Ubuntu vm with my pertinent local drives mounted to give me a consistent experience with shell whether I’m working on the server or working on the Mac.
I was in college. I was talking with a classmate how I tried to burn this OS called Linux that I heard of on TechTV, bit the stupid disc never worked. I leaned how to properly burn iso after that. Pretty sure he showed me some copy of Fedora or Mandrake, maybe SuSe. Didn't care for Fedora, bit found this other one that seemed real interesting everyone was talking about, Ubuntu.
Kernel 0.99pl13, Slackware, 386-SX 16. Started as an obsessive hobby, became a career.
I broke the ever living hell out of I think hink it was Ubuntu 8 back in the day. I ended up giving up because I was constantly causing issues that I just didn't have time for while going to college. Started using again when Windows 10 wouldn't stop breaking itself and started using Ubuntu 20.04.
Circa 1993, at the age of 13. Took me weeks to download Slackware from BBSs and get it installed. Played around with Mandrake (got an installer CD on an event). Eventually settled on Debian (which took me another few weeks to download, then burn the CDs and install it).
Used Debian on all my computers for many many years. Eventually got a MacBook (around 2005 IIRC) and have been on Mac laptops since. My gaming desktop runs Debian (wrote a blog post about my setup recently: https://blog.c10l.cc/09122023-debian-gaming). My servers, VMs and containers are usually Debian or something directly based on it (Devuan on some containers, Proxmox on my homelab’s bare metal).
I’ve used many other distros along the way, either for work or to experiment. I have huge respect for Fedora on a technical level but still prefer Debian’s philosophy and the apt ecosystem.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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