Windows -> OpenSUSE Tumbleweed -> Ubuntu -> Debian GNU/Linux -> EndeavourOS
Currently using Debian and EndeavourOS in parallel as the distributions I have settled on.
Windows -> OpenSUSE Tumbleweed -> Ubuntu -> Debian GNU/Linux -> EndeavourOS
Currently using Debian and EndeavourOS in parallel as the distributions I have settled on.
Windows 95 - Windows Vista - Windows 7 - Ubuntu - Fedora - back to Ubuntu Think that's it, can't recall the years exactly The switch to Ubuntu was like in 2014 or something
I played with linux a bunch between 2014-2019 but I was not ready for the commitment of learning a new operating system. In 2020, I started to get annoyed at how bad windows 10 was getting, and at some point I saw the insider previews of windows 11 and put my foot down.
I fully switched to linux in 2021, I started with a brief spell of manjaro. I hated it.
2022 I had alot going on in my life and didnt use a computer very much at all because I did not have internet access.
Towards the very end of 2022 I moved and got a laptop which I put Fedora on. I used this daily until the first half of 2023
Sometime mid 2023 I switched to opensuse and I used that for a few months before finally switching over to Debian which I still use now.
I've come to the conclusion that I prefer LTS distros. I very rarely need new software besides for maybe WINE, but I can get that from the winehq website easily enough so its not a big deal. If I could get drivers to play nice out of the box, I would unironically put alma linux on my laptop and run it the full 10yrs.
MacOS (old one like around 2012 or so) -> Windows 8 -> Windows 10 -> Several Linux on VM(Kali, Ubuntu(s), Fedora…) -> WSL1(Kali, Ubuntu) -> MacOS (with a newer OS) -> NixOS -> Void Linux ->
Now I’m currently using Void Linux, Windows 11, MacOS Sonoma.
I’m planning to put ~~Fedora~~ Debian (because it’s well supported by linux-surface community) on my Surface Laptop 1st gen which I’m not using right now.
Was a Windows user up through Win 7.
I started to play with Raspberry Pis and mostly Raspbian on the side largely related to my amateur radio hobby.
My laptop died, I bought a new one. Windows 8.1. Figured I'd rather use that slow-ass single core Pi 1 running Debian Wheezy than this.
First I tried Ubuntu Unity. I thought "Okay this could work, let's keep shopping."
Next I tried Mint Cinnamon. "Here we go."
I've taken a look at Manjaro a couple times over the years. I have stopped this.
I briefly tried to run Pop!_OS when I first built my desktop, that lasted 3 weeks.
My desktop and laptop run Mint Cinnamon, I've got a tablet running Fedora Gnome. I kinda found my home fairly quickly and I'm not really interested in moving out.
Windows 7 -> Windows 10 -> Mint -> Kubuntu -> Arch -> Fedora -> Mint -> Fedora.
Windows 8.1 (~10 years) -> Xubuntu (a few months) -> Arch linux (present).
DOS -> Windows (3.1 through to XP) -> Slackware -> Red Hat -> Fedora -> OpenSUSE -> Ubuntu -> Mint -> Ubuntu -> Arch
It’s been quite the journey.
Windows 95 -> 98 -> XP -> 7 -> 8 -> OSX -> Arch (1 month) -> Gentoo (1 year) -> VOID (3 years) -> NixOS (4 years) (transitioning to Guix System now)
For reference, this was my editor hopping journey which started during my OSX days since I learned to program during this time: Sublimetext -> vim -> neovim -> emacs
I left OpenBSD reluctantly when I found that it wasn't meeting my needs anymore. I needed an iPad Pro and an iPhone to fill in the missing functionality and they don't play nice with OpenBSD for things like transferring files, photos, etc.
I've since converted the family to Debian stable. Backports and flatpak make it incredibly reliable. We can do everything from here and its well documented for every use case. Video chats, zoom conference calls, file sync/sharing, bluetooth music through Spotify, etc. Started with buster when it was the stable distro; jumped early to bullseye during the freeze; and now holding onto bookworm.
Windows -> Ubuntu and Arch on some other computers -> Windows -> Arch -> Nixos
Windows (XP to 10), Manjaro, Arch, Artix, Alpine (for like a week), NixOS (for like 2 weeks) and finally think I have settled on openSUSE mainly because of the curated rolling release and already setup snapshots. (I was swapping back and forth between Windows for all of these)
Distros I've tried but not really used: Ubuntu, Gentoo, Fedora, OpenBSD and FreeBSD (not really linux but you get the point).
NixOS was actually my favorite of the bunch, it was like linux on easy mode, just type in some config and the system manages the rest for you.
I don’t even remember all of them, let alone the correct sequence. I’ve also had multiple computers at one time (still do), and usually they have different distributions (still true).
First experiment: Mandrake
First serious use: Ubuntu edgy eft or something
Spiraling out of control: kubuntu, xubuntu, lubuntu, debian, kaos, mint, easypeasy, fedora, korora, rox, manjaro, openmediavault, rockstor, + many niche distributions
Current: arch and debian
Before you ask, no, I’m not a diagnosed psychopath.
Didn't really hop much, started with Windows, went on to OSX, got annoyed at it and ran Arch in a VM until I was comfortable with it, then went bare-metal with it.
Happy Arch user for some years now, though recently I'm using Fedora for work and I really like it. It's not a good fit for some machines I'm running which need a lot of customisations to run properly.
Despite my username, I ditched EndeavourOS a few days ago because an update broke it and installed fedora
Windows Vista → Debian (pre-systemD) → Devuan → Void Linux.
I don't like systemD.
I still have Windows installed as a dual boot setup for Adobe CC.
Windows into I went to college for development and decided to check out this Linux thing. At the time, I wanted something as different from Windows as possible, so I went with Ubuntu with Gnome 3 (I know) for about a year. Tried out Fedora, couldn't get my sound to work and accidentally uninstalled the desktop environment trying to fix it, slunk back to Ubuntu, tried out a Debian briefly, and eventually ended up on Linux Mint with Cinnamon and KDE.
At one time I really wanted to try a bunch of stuff and probably would've hopped a lot more if Fedora didn't shatter my confidence, but nowadays I want as little disruption between machines as possible. I have to use Windows for work, so I keep my Linux setup pretty vanilla so I don't miss features between the two very much. I'll probably still play with other distros every now and then on old laptops, but I've fallen into a "if it ain't broke" mindset with my daily machines.
Windows 95 -> Windows 98 -> Windows XP -> Windows Vista -> Windows 7 -> Dual Boot Ubuntu -> Windows 7 -> Dual Boot Ubuntu -> Windows 7 -> Windows 10 -> Ubuntu (VM) -> Pop_OS! -> Windows 10 -> Manjaro -> Fedora -> Manjaro -> Open Suse -> Linux Mint -> Linux Mint DE -> Fedora -> Debain -> Linux Mint
CP/M, GCOS, DOS, Windows, BeOS, Debian a few years, Ubuntu (a lotttttt of years), Mint (~3 years), MX (6 years now).
I played/installed with a couple of distro like Mandrake, LFS, CentOS, Arch, etc and basically all distro in the 90s were a bunch of floppies for the kernel and gnu utils, a bunch for X, that we downloaded from university usenet.
LFS was nightmarish, so is Arch a little bit when you install everything from basically scratch, now I prefer something that is working fine, MX AHS is a really good distro.
I also always prefered simple window system, coming from mwm/twm. Cinnamon was pretty but in the end I hated it, Xfce is my DE of choice now.
Windows 98 -> Slackware dual boot (with big ol' red grub screen) -> windows up to win 10 -> debian(laptop) win10 (pc)
Gonna try getting a new m.2 drive and dual booting soon to test playing the games I like on Linux. If all goes well, I'll be moving away from windows
Windows -> Ubuntu 10.04 ... 11.10, -> Kubuntu 12.04 -> Debian 7 (stable)... 8 (testing... stable) ... 12
Fedora → Ultramarine → Arch Linux → NixOS → dual booting NixOS + EndeavourOS → dual booting EndeavourOS + something I don't remember the name of → something I don't remember the name of → NixOS → SolydXK → NixOS → CROWZ → NixOS → Ultramarine Linux → FreeBSD → Devuan → FreeBSD → Arch Linux → Parabola GNU/Libre → Ultramarine Linux
All of that happened around September of the last year and this year! I also did not count how much I stayed in those!
Fedora was my first, it being recommended on somewhere made me install it on a USB stick, After doing so, I did the installer without knowing what it was for and ended up purging my hard drive. I did not think too much of it, and continued using it until I found about Ultramarine Linux; I was tired of the Fedora login loop that I had, so I decided to just install Ultramarine, and guess what? It happened again! I was annoyed (angry), so I installed Arch Linux instead. As expected, I had to fix stuff from time to time, which was tedious. Er, I decided to install NixOS and — Okay, I'll end it here. My hands already hurt from all the typing and I didn't think it would take this long just to write this thing. Feel free to ask anything, but be aware, I do not remember a lot about this!
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.
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0