• Thorry84@feddit.nl
    20·
    27 days ago

    I started with SuSE 5 and it came with a book. I think it started with something like: “Don’t panic! You can do this!”

    It was rough at first, but once I got into it I was hooked.

    • naeap@sopuli.xyz
      3·
      27 days ago

      YaST and the fucking AVM Fritz ISDN ISA Card…

      A part of me is still crying when opening YaST killed my hand written configuration…

      • Thorry84@feddit.nl
        6·
        27 days ago

        Nah I went over to camp Debian for a long time, switched when Debian Potato was released. Then when Debian kinda stalled I was lured into Ubuntu because they had the latest and greatest. I know it isn’t the cool choice these days, but I have stuck with Ubuntu ever since.

        • Sips'@slrpnk.netOP
          3·
          27 days ago

          Recently tired Ubuntu on my work laptop and it was a surprisingly pleasant experience compared to all the negative things I’ve heard about Ubuntu. Especially the installer was next level simple.

          • Thorry84@feddit.nl
            3·
            27 days ago

            Yeah I love Ubuntu, it’s really fine. But I think because it’s easy and for a lot of people their first Linux, it’s seen as like the baby version of Linux. So people bitch about it a lot, as if it’s somehow inferior to other distros. Like if you don’t compile everything from scratch you are somehow not worthy?

            Hard “Real programmer” vibes. https://xkcd.com/378/

            And yes, I use pico as a text editor, it’s fine really.

  • TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org
    10·
    27 days ago

    Redhat, back in 1999. Then Mandrake 2002. Then Suse 2003. Then Ubuntu 2006. Then Debian 2012-present.

    But it’s funny I kept KDE since Mandrake. Same DE for over 20 years. For Redhat I was using this Win95 lookalike DE, I forgot what it was called.

    Edit: I definitely did not order a couple dozen of Ubuntu’s free CD-ROMs back in the day and throw them at everyone I knew and didn’t know, including random kiosk people at the mall…

  • UpperBroccoli@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    7·
    26 days ago

    I downloaded slackware from a BBS. It took forever. It booted from two floppies, a boot and a root disk. It did not even have X. I still loved it, because I recently got into programming, and all I had ever programmed on was DOS. In Linux, you could actually malloc() with any amount, even a full megabyte! It was marvellous! Later, I installed it on my HD on a separate partition. The installation process was really fascinating, so much choice, so many new programs! At least the first time.

  • stoy@lemmy.zip
    5·
    27 days ago

    I will never forget when I accidentaly wiped my external hard drive messing around snd distro hopping, I lost 6000 songs that day…

  • YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca
    4·
    27 days ago

    Yggdrasil for me, i think. I honestly don’t remember how it went though.

    I had Linux on a second SSD at home recently, but an update to the laptop’s BIOS seems to have stopped it from letting me boot from it. I only keep windows around for games, which is ironic, as I hardly play them anymore.

    Work is a windows shop, but I’d rather use Linux.

    • Exec@pawb.social
      3·
      27 days ago

      I only keep windows around for games

      Most games (well, those without invasive anti-cheats) run on Linux as well

    • gramie@lemmy.ca
      2·
      27 days ago

      I also started with Yggdrasil. A CD-ROM in the back of a massive book (printouts of all the man pages, I think).

  • 21Cabbage@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
    3·
    27 days ago

    First was Puppy on an old Dell back in middle school. Just wanted something other than the shit ass windows box my mom insisted on and the macs my school insisted on.

  • 7rokhym@lemmy.ca
    3·
    25 days ago

    The year is about right. I didn’t lose my DOS partition, but I was already familiar with partitioning. Someone gave me a Slackware CD set. Had a lot of difficulty getting a higher res than 640x480 with my VLB video card.
    Started a BBS at the time, switched to OS/2 Warp, which worked awesome until Windows apps moved to the new Win95 requirements. Started using RHEL for a while, but eventually Debian, then Ubuntu, and now PopOS.

    It’s been a long journey, but now Windows 11 is the weird OS that needs hours of troubleshooting and tweaking and adjustments. It’s just not worth the effort, so I keep an Windows 10 VM around with Office for the odd occasion when I need it.

  • BeigeAgenda@lemmy.ca
    2·
    27 days ago

    I switched to Slackware for some time after I got fed up with RedHat 4’s broken rpm system.

    It was a relief that the tar.gz packages didn’t have the habit of blowing up the OS.

  • Rob Bos@lemmy.ca
    2·
    26 days ago

    Redhat 1997. Slackware, Storm Linux, then Debian 2001 to present. A brief year on the OSS Solaris release.