What was your first Linux distribution and version of that distribution?

[f33dm3bits]

I just came across this topic in another forum, I thought it would be a good one for here as well.
but I will add a new aspect to it. What is the first Linux distribution and version you ran on your desktop/laptop and also share the picture of the default wallpaper of that distribution's version?

I actually couldn't remember mine until I had a look at old Ubuntu versions.
I only remembered it because of the default wallpaper, I hadn't seen it in years but I will never
forget that wallpaper! My first Linux distribution was Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron).

 

[Brickwizard]

Too far back to remember, back in the 90's A friend who was a M$ engineer kept giving me discs that he had received in his magazines, to play with [being younger than me, he had only ever used windows'] as he was not interested, it was a bit of fun for me, so many different ones, I remember slack, early Debian,Redhat and there were many that didnt last for long, rolling on to the late 90's, I was still using xp, but also had a permanent Debian build on my second drive. this change to Ubuntu for a few years, then came the first build of mint, interesting but rough round the edges, but by Mint 3 it had taken the place of Ubuntu,and still remains my daily desktop build except now its the LMDE build, to my mind the best Ubuntu Mint versions were mint 9 & mint 13.
I still love playing around and currently have about 16 distros on different machines and spare drives. I change my background as others change their skiddies but usually one of the many pictures I have

 

[KGIII]

can you move my topic to the "Desktop" category

Taken care of.

I tried Red Hat in about 1995. It was available from a store on CD. I think floppies might have also been an option and it came with a book.

I think I may have used Slackware earlier - technically speaking. In none of these cases would I be moving to Linux. I was merely getting my geek on.

I played with Knoppix a bunch back in the day. Then, it ate my MBR even though I never mounted a disk. I was pretty annoyed by this. A live instance shouldn't touch hardware and I know I didn't mount anything.

I was already familiar with UNIX. Linux was just the natural path for me to take. It wasn't until 2007 that I'd swap everything to Linux.

 

[f33dm3bits]

Taken care of.

I was already familiar with UNIX. Linux was just the natural path for me to take. It wasn't until 2007 that I'd swap everything to Linux.

Thanks! How come you didn't end up with BSD for the desktop then if you were already into Unix?

 

[Alexzee]

Back in June of 2010 I ran Ubuntu Linux 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" for the first time on my old ZT Sytems desktop.
It was a dual boot with Windows XP and I spent more time booted into Ubuntu than XP!

I had compiz fusion installed and with all the bells and whistles, it really rocked!
Tux was installed to the dock and he walked back and forth from one end of the doc to the other the whole time the system was up and running. It was a good experience.

Back then I didn't know crap about Linux, lol! In fact, I was as nervous as a rooster in a pair of boots!

 

[Terminal Velocity]

My first Linux was the Debian 10 with non-free drivers that I managed to install with the help of this forum some years ago

 

[KGIII]

Thanks! How come you didn't end up with BSD for the desktop then if you were already into Unix?

Oh, I played a bunch with the BSDs. I still have a laptop with GhostBSD (the sexiest of the BSDs).

I use Linux because of logistics, really. Linux has/had a ton of support, variety, and software. BSD lagged in those areas. Linux largely won out due to its popularity.

 

[Alexzee]

My first Linux was the Debian 10 with non-free drivers that I managed to install with the help of this forum some years ago

My first installation was back in Feb of 2016 when Debian was version 6......before Gnome 3--

 

[bob466]

It was too long ago to remember as I did try many Distros but I do remember when I started looking at Linux...it was when that horrible win 8 came out.

I thought if this garbage is being forced on people...it's time to go. So I finally settled on Linux Mint Cinnamon 17.1 or 2 back in 2015.

 

[Pirx]

Puppy Linux run from an USB stick. It was in 2008/9. No idea which version. Then I installed Linux Mint 9 on my hard drive and used it for years.

 

[sphen]

It was too long ago to remember as I did try many Distros but I do remember when I started looking at Linux...it was when that horrible win 8 came out.

I thought if this garbage is being forced on people...it's time to go. So I finally settled on Linux Mint Cinnamon 17.1 or 2 back in 2015.

In my personal opinion, the Windows 8 user interface was awful. I can usually sit down in front of any operating system and figure out how to make it do what I need quickly enough. Not Windows 8.

Worse yet, Microsoft treated Windows 8 as if it were self-documenting, which it was not. You booted it and Microsoft assumed that you would know what to click on and what to do. They though it would be obvious without description, explanation, or tutorial. Microsoft was oh-so-very wrong about that. You could easily find yourself stuck in the GUI, unable to figure out where to turn for a help file or other support aid.

It was that poor support coupled with the disappearance of commonly intuitive Windows user interface elements that made Windows 8 so abysmally bad. Users were desperately confused. Preferences and system configurations were split between the old Control Panel and the newer Settings. Some settings could be configured through both interfaces.

Microsoft restored some UI elements in Windows 8.1 in response to the torch- and pitchfork- bearing hordes attacking their headquarters over Windows 8, but Windows 8.1 was still awful and the damage had been done.

One benefit of Windows 8 poor UX design was that it drove many people to learn more about the power and capabilities of Powershell and the old CMD window.

I disliked working on Windows 8 and its variants, including Windows Server 2012 and 2012R2 versions which has the same UI. Of course, nobody paid me to like them. Once you figured out how to launch the applications and tools you needed and how to navigate between them, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and their Server versions were merely another Windows.

 

[MattWinter]

My memory might be off, but I think I had a copy of Red Hat (4.6?) On cd a long time ago.
I think I also installed Mandrake at one point.

 

[Alexzee]

In my personal opinion, the Windows 8 user interface was awful. I can usually sit down in front of any operating system and figure out how to make it do what I need quickly enough. Not Windows 8.

Worse yet, Microsoft treated Windows 8 as if it were self-documenting, which it was not. You booted it and Microsoft assumed that you would know what to click on and what to do. They though it would be obvious without description, explanation, or tutorial. Microsoft was oh-so-very wrong about that. You could easily find yourself stuck in the GUI, unable to figure out where to turn for a help file or other support aid.

It was that poor support coupled with the disappearance of commonly intuitive Windows user interface elements that made Windows 8 so abysmally bad. Users were desperately confused. Preferences and system configurations were split between the old Control Panel and the newer Settings. Some settings could be configured through both interfaces.

Microsoft restored some UI elements in Windows 8.1 in response to the torch- and pitchfork- bearing hordes attacking their headquarters over Windows 8, but Windows 8.1 was still awful and the damage had been done.

One benefit of Windows 8 poor UX design was that it drove many people to learn more about the power and capabilities of Powershell and the old CMD window.

I disliked working on Windows 8 and its variants, including Windows Server 2012 and 2012R2 versions which has the same UI. Of course, nobody paid me to like them. Once you figured out how to launch the applications and tools you needed and how to navigate between them, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and their Server versions were merely another Windows.

I haven't used Windows in about 13 years and truthfully, I don't miss it.

Are you running Linux now?

 

[kc1di]

I like other on here have a memory block on the version but it was 1994 and Slackware. Many many distros since then.. But always will have a fond space for Slack. Just got lazy and like Mint for most things and PCLinuxOS for some. Kubuntu for others. There are many good Distros today unlike in 1994 when you pretty much had to do most configurations yourself.

 

[darry1966]

I like other on here have a memory block on the version but it was 1994 and Slackware. Many many distros since then.. But always will have a fond space for Slack. Just got lazy and like Mint for most things and PCLinuxOS for some. Kubuntu for others. There are many good Distros today unlike in 1994 when you pretty much had to do most configurations yourself.

Yes Linux has come along way since then. Mounting USB drives for example and configuring Xserver for example.

 

[KGIII]

To add to a couple of comments above...

Take away my geek credentials, I don't mind. Man, I absolutely love a modern GUI installer. It's so much nicer and easier. Then, with modern hardware, it's also a very quick process.

 

[bob466]

Looking back I should thank win 8 for the freedom I enjoy today in the wonderful world of Linux.

 

[Alexzee]

I like other on here have a memory block on the version but it was 1994 and Slackware. Many many distros since then.. But always will have a fond space for Slack. Just got lazy and like Mint for most things and PCLinuxOS for some. Kubuntu for others. There are many good Distros today unlike in 1994 when you pretty much had to do most configurations yourself.

Been very fond of Slackware for 10 years now.
Me too, Mint for most things:-

 

[guiverc]

I don't remember what version, but it was Debian (1.3 or 2.0)

I was back at school (late 90s) & I was using a portable compaq III for taking notes.. It's an old thing with 80286 & 5.25" floppies, and another guy in my classes who worked in IT felt it was so out of place. He introduced me to ComputerBank where I got a much newer refurbished 80586/pentium laptop that had Debian GNU/Linux installed on it.

I'd worked in DP/IT years before hand, but it was always ~pure IBM shops, thus I used OS/2 at home (though it was [IBM] PC-DOS on that compaq). I actually still considered GNU/Linux as a hobbyists toy (I actually respected GNU, the idea of linux kernel not so much), but in using that Debian GNU/Linux system, I could just treat it like it was 'unix' and I was happy.

It took a few years before I changed my mind & saw GNU/Linux as equal to say BSD; but GNU/Linux has been my 'home' for many years now.

I do remember I could have sound OR networking operational & not both; but that may have been related to lack of RAM (32MB I think) on the box initially.

 

[tinfoil-hat]

Ubuntu Gnome 14.04, Il liked it very much, but now I settled on Linux Mint Cinnamon