this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2025
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Linux

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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.

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I'm new to #Lemmy and making myself feel at home by posting a bit!

My first Linux distribution was elementary OS in early March 2020. Since then, I’ve tried Manjaro, Arch Linux, Fedora, went back to Manjaro, and since early January 2023, I’ve landed on Debian as my home in the #Linux world.

What was your first Linux distro?

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[–] hobbsc@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 month ago

redhat 4.1 or maybe 5.2 back around 1996-1998 (plus a freebsd release around the same time). I got a pile of probably 15 discs from walnut creek and they were the only two I could get running. I didn't have internet access at the time.

[–] fembinary@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

genderfluid fetch spotted!!!! also im not sure which was first but i use arch and openbsd ;3

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[–] somedev@aussie.zone 1 points 1 month ago

It was Ubuntu 14.10 (still had Unity) installed on a Mac mini to run a Plex server. I actually really liked Ubuntu then, it was all new and very different to Windows. I had it hooked up to a TV and used the DE to maintain it I.e console, update app etc.

There was this really annoying error that would occur every time it would boot which drove me to look elsewhere. Ended up trying Arch and didn't put a DE on there because I started to get comfortable with the terminal and SSHing in.

I eventually installed Arch on my desktop and dual booted for a couple years using XFCE. Once I discovered KDE there was no going back.

I haven't used Windows on any of devices for years, all running Fedora and KDE.

[–] Mwa@lemm.ee 1 points 1 month ago

Pretty sure tails os :P

[–] hornedfiend@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 month ago
[–] antithetical@lemmy.deedium.nl 1 points 1 month ago

Hmm, the years are a bit faded but first install of Redhat in 1996-7 somewhere as a short experiment, then Slackware, SuSE, LFS, Gentoo, and since then lazy with Kubuntu.. Might switch again soon with the Snap fiasco.

[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Ubuntu, installed on a 256 gb flash drive as an experiment back in 2020. My first daily driver distro was Mint last year, then KDE Neon, and finally Kubuntu today

Distro doesn't matter to me anymore, I just like the Plasma DE and will use anything that uses it. Eventually I'm gonna have to try Arch with it and make my own Steam machine

[–] piranhaconda@mander.xyz 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

Whatever Ubuntu was available in 2015. I only dabbled in Linux over the past 10 years. More seriously switching over in the last year or so.

I have Unraid as a server OS (~~Debian~~ slackware based, running a lot of docker containers and a couple VMs). Debian on my laptop. And Bazzite (fedora based) on my Lenovo Legion Go.

Still need to swap my gaming PC from windows. May try Bazzite on that as well. I've also tried Mint, Manjaro, and Zorin

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[–] TCB13@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] John@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 month ago
[–] DrunkAnRoot@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago
[–] XPost3000@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago

Arch, btw

It was the distro that my friend uses all the time, and I've had to use his laptop on occasion so I'm somewhat familiar with the distro, enough so that I've installed it on persistent USBs before and already chosen it as my next OS after Windows (I would switch now, but I rode Windows 7 till the end date, so I figured I'd ride out 10 until the final day this October)

Also! Gender fluid hello!! It made me so insanely happy to see that flag in the Linux terminal, I feel so seen!! It feels like trans girls hog all the Linux spotlight this side of the fediverse, I'm happy for them! But I still don't feel like I have a proper community where I belong, especially since I stay off of all other mainstream social media >.<

So seeing another enby, another gender fluid especially, for the literal first time since I made my lemmy account just makes me so ecstatic!! We're so rare x3

Anyways, thank u for existing and simply posting this, seeing another makes me feel seen and I can't really express enough how unreasonably happy something so small just made me c:

Thank you! And I should sleep so good night also lol

[–] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

scientific linux. I failed to get most things running and switched to ubuntu. this was about 10 years ago

[–] Zahtu@feddit.org 1 points 1 month ago

Ubuntu. For Work purpose in 2020 as a development VM.

Since then i moved privately to Zorin and now to Nobara. At Work it still is Ubuntu for me, but hopefully i will soon change positions and can shelve that stuff.

Started in 2022 on Kubuntu, moved to Fedora in October 2022, switched back to the Fedora KDE Spin in 2023, and been there since.

[–] helvetpuli@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Debian 1.3, Bo - 1997

[–] SapientLasagna@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago

Mklinux. It was the only thing you could run on one of those jank-ass PowerPC/nubus Macs.

[–] laurelraven@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 month ago

XanderOS way tf back in 2005 or 2006, but mostly just messed around and had no clue what I was doing with it... After that I did a Gentoo install. Been kinda off and on with Linux since, flirting with the possibility of switching to it fully but never actually making the jump until last year when I built a new machine and put Mint on it.

[–] untakenusername@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

arch linux since december

I use arch btw

and I use hyprland btw

[–] boonhet@lemm.ee 1 points 1 month ago

Ubuntu Karmic Koala. To be fair, I was a kid and that was, according to people on the Internet, the most likely to work. And so it did - it had out of the box support for my wifi adapter, which some other distros I tried later did not, I had to use something called ndiswrapper. Of course I did not yet know about compiling my own configured kernel, that came a month or 2 later.

I only stayed on Ubuntu for a while, then tried Mint, used that on and off for years, dabbled with Arch at some point, too. In the last 5 years I've used PopOs, Gentoo, OpenSuse, NixOS. I'm not gonna bother with capitalization and punctuation on some of these.

[–] SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social 1 points 1 month ago

It depends how you define it. I first installed Slackware at work on a retired IBM PS/2 in '94 or '95, because somebody was working on MicroChannel bus support. (That never materialized.) Later, we checked out Novell Linux Desktop, maybe Debian, too. At a later job, we had some Red Hat workstations, version 5 or 6, and I had Yellow Dog Linux on an old Power Mac.

At home, I didn't switch to Linux until Ubuntu Breezy Badger. It was glorious to install it on a laptop, and have all of the ACPI features just work. I had been running FreeBSD for several years, NetBSD on an old workstation before that, and Geek Gadgets (a library for compiling Unix programs on Amiga OS) before that.

[–] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (6 children)

I can't remember if it was MKLinux or Yellow Dog, either one of these around '97~99. At the time I was also playing with BeOS and NetBSD.

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[–] UnfairUtan@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Elementary OS

[–] rosco385@lemm.ee 1 points 1 month ago

My first distro was Debian, probably back around 2008. I used that and Ubuntu for years without having even looked at a desktop environment. For me, Linux was a server OS and I had to teach myself how to use it to spin up Teamspeak/Mumble, webservers, VPNs, etc.

I first started using Linux as a desktop OS in 2016. Tried SUSE and Fedora, but really liked Manjaro and eventually gravitated to Arch. I tried out NixOS a year or so ago and liked it, but I still go back to Arch with KDE Plasma.

[–] mattyroses@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Enlightenment -> Debian -> Ubuntu -> Pop

[–] gitamar@feddit.org 1 points 1 month ago

OpenSuse 5, I think it was called suse Linux back then.

Intrepid Ibex

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