Mine was Knoppix because back in the day Libraries used to let you borrow all sorts of computer software and games and that’s what they had and I was stuck on dialup lol

      • higgsboson@piefed.socialEnglish
        3·
        5 months ago

        No, but bonus credit. I went Vax VMS, DEC Alpha DUX, Slackware, slowaris (x86 Solaris), Redhat, then LFS, Gentoo, RHEL, Solaris 9, and then eventually a little of everything else.

  • klu9@piefed.socialEnglish
    8·
    5 months ago

    BeOS ;)

    I know, not Linux. But it was my first OS other than the one that came pre-installed.

    Can’t remember exactly which was my very first Linux distro but probably Knoppix or another early live one.

    My first “wipe Windows and install on bare metal” was PC-BSD. I know, again, not Linux.

    And again, can’t remember exactly the very first “wipe Windows and install on bare metal” Linux, probably Puppy or Ubuntu.

  • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
    6·
    5 months ago

    Debian because that was the one I had read most about. Then I tried many other distros, some for years, until now when I am once again a Debian user…

    • Gobo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      5 months ago

      You beat me by 1 year. I switched to slackware when windows 95 came out because I liked cli from ms dos 6.22

  • mustbe3to20signs@feddit.org
    4·
    5 months ago

    Ubuntu 12.04 was my starting point. Made my laptop feel like a brand new device compared to Windows 7…

    EDIT: Who downvotes every single comment on this thread? I mean it’s perfectly okay to dislike Linux but that’s petty and dumb.

  • Ada@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    4·
    5 months ago

    It was probably Ubuntu Hoary Hedgehog, though it didn’t stick. I tried other versions of Ubuntu and even gentoo again over the following years, but none of them would stick. I would eventually tinker with something I couldn’t repair, and rather than re-installing and starting again, I’d just return to windows.

    Linux finally stuck for me last year, and Linux (Arch and then CachyOS) has been my full time OS for about the last 18 months

    • cRazi_man@europe.pub
      1·
      5 months ago

      The Ubuntu story is exactly what happened to me.

      OpenSUSE Table weed is what got Linux to stick for me though. Once I learnt enough with that to get started and my OS needed a reinstall, I ended up going with CachyOS too eventually.

  • kinetic_donor@lemmy.zip
    4·
    5 months ago

    SuSE 1992 (1995?) (don’t remember the exact number, but the year was on the accompanying paper manual), on some 1.3.xx Kernel, I think. Good times.

  • tofu@lemmy.nocturnal.garden
    4·
    5 months ago

    I don’t really remember, I think Ubuntu? My girlfriend installed it for me in 2010 but I went back to Windows after a year or two. I think I started messing with Linux again around 2013 and have been on (K)Ubuntu for a while before eventually trying Arch. I’m on Endeavor now.

    Most of my servers are Debian

    • christopher@programming.dev
      2·
      5 months ago

      I still have a 9" netbook with Debian 12 Bookworm on it. Sadly, it’s 32 bit so won’t be getting Debian 13 Trixie. Maybe Void?

  • ClipperDefiance@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    5 months ago

    It was Fedora. Most of the recommendations for beginners at the time were for Ubuntu or derivatives and I was being contrary just because I could.

  • mohab@piefed.socialEnglish
    4·
    5 months ago

    Damn, how long did you stick with Knoppix?

    I had two firsts—I messed around with Ubuntu around high school or so, but I don’t count that because I was only curious and had no intention to actually try and use it for any decent stretch of time.

    Second, which I consider the “true first”, was Fedora, and man was it dope. It’s the distro that made me realize Linux is a lot more accessible than I had thought.