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·
        2 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·
    2 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
    61·
    2 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…

  • walden@wetshav.ingEnglish
    61·
    2 months ago

    Linux Mint

    … or maybe it was Ubuntu, but it didn’t last long so I don’t really count it. Linux Mint stuck for a number of years.

  • Lvxferre [he/him]@mander.xyz
    51·
    2 months ago

    My first “test” was Conectiva. I lasted a few days with it, then ditched it. (I think this was in 2002? Conectiva would eventually merge with Mandrake.)

    Then a few years later I went for Kurumin. It was a local Knoppix derivative, focusing on ease of use. Eventually Ubuntu became popular enough that Kurumin’s maintainer saw no reason to continue the project.

    • christopher@programming.dev
      2·
      2 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?

    • Gobo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 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

  • christopher@lemmy.ca
    3·
    2 months ago

    It was Ubuntu. Can’t remember which version but at the time they would mail you a cd if you requested one.

  • tofu@lemmy.nocturnal.garden
    41·
    2 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

  • ClipperDefiance@lemmy.worldEnglish
    41·
    2 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
    41·
    2 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.

  • kinetic_donor@lemmy.zip
    41·
    2 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.