I started with trying distros in live mode out of general curiosity. My machine had a ton of data and didn't support dualbooting so I didn't want to install something. Then my Windows license broke and I decided that pirating is not great so I wanted to install a distro. I liked Manjaro the most(I know I know but hey back then I didn't know about its issues) but couldn't install it because of a wrong boot device mode (lol I was an absolute noob then). So I flashed KDE Neon and installed it after finally figuring out the BIOS/UEFI stuff (was too lazy to reflash Manjaro lol). It wasn't much of a conscious choice. I just installed one of the KDE distros I liked pretty much the same after I couldn't install Manjaro but that probably saved me a few hours of troubleshooting so that's good. KDE was a requirement though. I did want a Windows-looking distro so my older family members could use it. After that I tried many distros. Now I'm on Cachy just because of the significantly smoother experience (optimization rules!). It's unstable though so I don't recommend it

Fedora 6 back in 2007-8 as a part of my CompTIA A+ training. It wasn't required but my instructor wanted some of us more advanced students to experience a life outside of Windows.

I ordered a laptop (five years ago) that had Ubuntu/Gnome preinstalled, but soon replaced it with Debian/Mate, mainly because of what I read about it on Distrowatch. My new laptop (one year old) shipped bare metal and runs Fedora/Cinnamon.

Slackware, 2005

Knoppix 3.2 Live CD 2003

IIRC it was Ubuntu 8.10

Ubuntu 10.10 on a Dell Latitude D505 with an intel core 2 duo and 512MB RAM running Windows XP. It was a school laptop that i cracked the admin password for and installed virtualbox. It ran like crap!. I knew it wasn't ubuntu's fault and later always booted from a nub sized USB that i always had plugged in with persistance. I can't remember the name of the OS at this moment, but it was made for low-end hardware and was specifically environmentally friendly with a green leaf as its logo.

It was slackware 2.0.

It was the only distro I could get my hands on because who would download a distro on dialup. Also there were no CD burners nor USB sticks yet. So whatever your friend had on CD waa the option. I guess the only other possible option would've been red hat back in those days.

My first, I'm pretty sure, was Ubuntu but for playing around with.

My first one that I stayed with and kept as an actually OS was PopOS. Haven't changed since. Works well and does what I need. Can't wait to see what Cosmic has in store.

As for what made me go to Linux. Windows was cumbersome to program in. Had to use another app to run command lines, putty. Used Linux terminals before and knew that it was easier to run programs from command line so I decided to give the desktop a try. So much better! Ended up keeping Linux because it was faster, more clean, and I was able to accomplish majority of the tasks I used windows for. For the things that don't work on Linux, I have other devices for.

My first distro was Ubuntu because it is a beginner distro and it looked interesting.

Mine was Ubuntu. I can't remember what version but they used to mail install discs to you.

Ubuntu, 2005

messed around some with slack 0.99.

but first one to actually see some regular usage was buzz, which progressed over time through to potato.

and the first to get its own dedicated box long-term was woody.

Raspberry Pi OS. Basically Debian for ARM plus some Raspberry Pi specific addons. It got me curious about Linux in general, led me to try dual booting Windows and Ubuntu on my desktop. Then Manjaro, Endeavour, and now just recently ditched my Windows install in favour of Arch. Will never go back if I can help it.

I started on Debian with XFCE. I figured if there were so many distros based on Debian, then I might as well just use that so I'd be able to configure things myself and learn more about how the OS works.

Anyway, you know the section in the Debian wiki called DontBreakDebian? I did not follow that advice. It went poorly. I've since learned from my (many) mistakes and have been running Fedora KDE for a while now.

Someone asked this over on linuxmeme a week ago: https://lemmy.world/post/13355277

For whatever reason it was Puppy Linux, it was kinda cool and small and ran off a 700MB CD.

I think the first distribution I tried was Fedora on my PlayStation 3 around 2007. From what I remember, you had to use terminal a lot so I couldn’t do anything with it.

Then a few months later I tried Ubuntu on an old Dell computer from my father’s office.

Dual booted windows and Ubuntu for years until fully switching to Linux around 2021.

Now I’m only using Fedora with a few virtual machines for some specific needs.

Ubuntu Studio 8.04, I believe. I was a broke high schooler looking for free recording software.

Linux Lite lol

The first distro I used would be CentOS, followed closely by Gentoo. CentOS was installed on the computers in the computer lab in college, and Gentoo was on the computers in the library. I think I went to the computer lab first. I'm probably biased against those two now, since every time I was using them I was banging my head against the keyboard trying to get some programming assignment to work, or desperately finishing a paper before midnight. :P

The first I installed and used myself was Ubuntu, which I still use. I just bought a System76 laptop, though, and I'm debating if I'll just go with Pop OS or switch to Debian.

I wanted to try Ubuntu on a live disk back in highschool (~2012) but ended up wiping the drive on my laptop. Had to ask a friend who knew Linux for help so I could actually use it. That was eventually followed by debian and Manjaro. Later I tried arch on my desktop, got tired of that and switched back to windows for a few years. I've been running nixos for a while now and have been really enjoying it.

Because my first computers were shitty, I started with antix as main system, Ubuntu or others were too laggy for my systems.

First UNIX was QNX, random free CD on a magazine.

First Linux was Mandrake 7.0, then moved to RedHat, then distro hopped for about...20-25 years so far I guess :-p

The first I used was some version of Red Hat Linux. The first I installed was Mandrake 10.1.

Fedora Linux thanks to some random YouTube video. I liked it, slowly made it my daily-driver, and still use it today. It just works, often, at least.

Caldera linux 1.2.

Those days were magical.

I had just started my university days and I had two young kids who wanted to watch cartoons but we couldn't afford cable. I ended up scrounging parts from the garbage bins in and behind the computer lab to scrape together a workable desktop.

If I recall correctly it was 333 MHz. Originally installed Windows 98 SE on it. But media would stutter no matter what I did, even if all other processes were killed.

A monk friend of mine (my university was geographically attached to a Benedictine monastery) asked me if I had tried Linux as it should be easier on the system resources and still allow me to play most media.

The rest, as they say, is history.

The very first one was Fedora but it seemed very bare and I had no idea how to get apps etc.

So I switched to Ubuntu and used that for a while before distro hopping.

Now I've settled on Linux Mint Debian Edition

My first was Linux Mint as well because it was more simplistic and cinnamon is really simple to use, good extensions available and stable for the most part, sometimes happened memory leaks but fixed on version 5.8; currently using Debian RC

I had messed around with various distros in the mid 2000's but never more than a day. Just as a "this seems neat" kinda thing. Recently I wised up, tried Zorin OS was on that for a year, then went back to windows for a while. now I'm running EndeavorOS and there isn't even a windows partition on this machine, I will not be going back. Still debating setting up QEMU for the only windows only program I miss though.

First full time distro was Manjaro. First exposure to desktop Linux was Ubuntu on a crappy school netbook. Now I use Arch (btw)

Ubuntu, and I've been using it for 10 years without trying anything else until this week, I use arch now.

Mint of course, then Manjaro and MXLinux. The weird stuff people recommend. Then Kubuntu, KDE Neon, Fedora KDE and now various Fedora Atomic variants.

• mint crashed randomly
• manjaro is very shady but was awesome, convinced me of KDE
• MXLinux was great but horribly outdated. Will never use a "stable" distro as desktop. Nextcloud was incompatible so I needed to switch
• Kubuntu crashed and many Ubuntu .deb apps where horrible, Flatpaks where awesome
• KDE Neon was an unstable mess and likely still is
• Fedora KDE was nice but also had KDE blackscreens
• Fedora Kinoite also gave me issues but either they are hardware related, or upstream KDE issues, or upstream Kernel issues, etc.

Zorin then AntiX I had a potato PC

Back Track 5. Now Kali Linux.

I had not suitably prepared. I was a Windows Vista power user who heard how I could crack some Wi-Fi and gave it a whirl.

My chips went into one basket and me, oh my, was the transition ever so uncomfortable. What was dual booting? Who knows. Long story short, I made a mess for myself. I went through a significantly steeper learning curve than most, though it introduced me to script kiddie tools, programming, and eventually exploits.

Now a decade or so later, I've settled away from Arch to Debian. Though I miss the bleeding edge, my update frequency has lost much of it's zealous edge.