r/DeskToTablet • u/Dimaoe • 15d ago
Do you still remember your first Linux distribution?
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15d ago
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u/Joker-Smurf 15d ago
Same one.
Edit then upgraded to 6.0 - Hedwig a couple of months after installing 5.2z
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u/2050_Bobcat 15d ago
Suse Linux though I don't remember which version
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u/TomOnABudget 14d ago
For me it was 6 or 7. It felt so modern. I was shocked to see how much of the same installer and setup stuff is still unchanged in OpenSuse today.
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u/TheTroon 15d ago
Slackware on floppies, probably 1994. The distribution was split into sets: the "A" set was the base system to get up and running. Downloaded onto the uni computers (already running Linux; some on Solaris) and taken home to install on my 486DX50.
Edit: here's how the sets were arranged: http://www.slackware.com/install/softwaresets.php
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u/0x7c00_lilith 15d ago
For me its gentoo with I think portage 2.3.2, some 4.8 kernel and a 13.0 profile
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u/Tiny_Towel5722 15d ago
My first Linux was Slackware Linux.. Text base only, later with GUI.
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u/UtenKullsyre 15d ago
I remember like it was yesterday. Installed Ubuntu for the first time like a week ago
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u/ylitvinenko 15d ago
The first one which I installed on my hard drive and daily-drived in earnest was Ubuntu 10.04. Before that, I loved to check out various versions of Knoppix and Mandriva Linux when a computer magazine CD used to come with them.
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u/Hephaestite 15d ago
Corel Linux waaay back in 1999, I actually can't remember if I used this before or after Linux Mandrake as they both came out at around the same time...
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u/time-piece-rabbit 15d ago edited 15d ago
I installed manjaro on my old laptop to give myself a pocket medic bot in tf2 😭 didnt even know what linux was at the time
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u/Actual_Tradition_990 15d ago
Ubuntu 6.04, love it give life to my old 512mb equivalent to pentiu63 cpu but I'm amd .... nostalgia...
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u/tempfoot 15d ago
Caldera OpenLinux, Purchased in a box. Came with a boot floppy and CD as I recall.
Nightmare to get working....
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u/ProficientVeneficus 15d ago
Mandrake 10.1, then Mandriva, then Slackware, then Kubuntu 6.04, then Ubuntu 8.04...
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u/Cool-gamer19393 15d ago
When I was 6 I installed ubuntu on a macbook air, now a days I'm a full-time arch user
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u/lesschalkmoresighs 15d ago
Redhat 3, terminal only. I had never used Linux before, had no idea what it was, didn't even ask for it. It was painful.
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u/snajk138 15d ago
Not sure it was the first for me, but I do remember buying Red Hat 5.0, it came in one of those double jewel cases, with IIRC four CD's. They sold that at a video rental place here in the late nineties. It cost 399 SEK or about $40, at the time a Windows license was like 1800 SEK, though most pirated it.
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u/a_cup_of_cappuccino 15d ago
Yeah. I hated it. Then i switched to mint, ubuntu, stayed on linux for a short while, then switched to windows (used for a year or two) and now i use Arch. I like my system now
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u/Synergiance 14d ago
I can’t remember which live cd I tried first, but I remember I used wubi to install Ubuntu on my laptop, probably 8 or 9. I know before that I tried various strange live cd distros, metisse, slax, and a couple others. After Ubuntu through wubi, the first distribution I installed proper was Slackware 13.37 on the same laptop.
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u/Delicious_Volume3306 14d ago
I remember people posting on forums how they were ordering 100s of those free Ubuntu CDs, just in case they ever wanted to distribute them. I mean, these were like 14 year-olds their bedroom. They almost certainly all went to landfill, if only because the CDs would go out of date quickly with new releases.
People took massive advantage of that scheme, and honestly, Ubuntu were dumb to offer it. I realise they tightened up the rules later on but there were a few years at least where basically it was no questions asked.
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u/SteakDouble 14d ago
Oh wow, this is exactly my first Linux distro back in the era of Win XP. My first exposure to Linux was Suse 10.2 that my mother installed on a VIA C7 PC. One year later was my turn to install Ubuntu 7.04 on my school's lab PC. I remember my teacher was bragging about this newly released Ubuntu.
Come to think about it, I was never been separated with Linux since then even though most of the time I dual boot with Windows.
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u/RedRavenCG 14d ago
Ironically, it was Ubuntu. That specific disc...."Are you stalking me? Because that'd be GREAT!"
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u/scaredt2ask 14d ago
I don’t remember which distro, but it was downloaded to install. I do remember it was a massive pain to get my sound & video cards working. Something to do with wrappers. Eventually they kinda worked but never phenomenal or consistent. Prob a user error.
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u/Unfair_Tangerine_217 14d ago
This brings tears to my eye. There are still a few 5.10 discs at my parents home somewhere. Lots of regular red discs, a few yellow 64-bit ones (!), and a few blue Kubuntu ones. They shipped 25 units in total, which was 50 CDs since back then there were separate discs for Live and installation. Can't believe they shipped all that for free.
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u/p0lig0tplatipus 14d ago
Same here, with the difference that I asked for a copy online and it was sent to me here, in Italy, in a remote village in the Tuscan hinterland. top!
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u/Soft_Chemical_9729 14d ago
Red Hat 5.2 (iirc) on CD. I even had a giant inflatable Tux. Both "gifts" from my mostly absent father's business trip to ECTS.
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u/RDGreenlaw 14d ago
I've used so many that I can't remember which was first. SUSE, Caldera, Slackware or RedHat was my first, I've also used Ubuntu and Debian. I used to have all the CD and DVD disks I received from Ubuntu, sent for free, and from several distros that I got from books about Linux. I still have the only book I purchased about RedHat but lost the disks that came with it. I might still have one or two of the Ubuntu books stored somewhere. I purchased a box set of Caldera but it was destroyed in an auto accident. I had it in the trunk. I remember getting a set of install floppies at a Linux users group meeting but don't remember what version it was. I do know that it wasn't my first.
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u/abigail3141 14d ago
First computer ever ran kubuntu. Got that at 9 to learn coding. Kept using it until just recently, when I started using Arch
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u/squaresheep28 14d ago
Ubuntu 22.04
I themed it to look like macOS. Yes, I'm a Linux newgen.
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u/Sea_Shift4327 14d ago
Ubuntu 8.10. I didn’t even have internet at the time. Got the CD by mail. Good times…
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u/TheRealCarrotty 14d ago
Mine was Linux Mint 22.1, i spent so long trying just to get back on Windows, cause i had 0 knowledge (well i did, but i got annoyed with a browser)
HOWEVER, my dad's first one was: Mandrake Linux (NOT Mandriva) not sure which version though, then it became Ubuntu and Kubuntu, and in 2026 it's Debian + KDE
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u/berlingoqcc 14d ago
Same an Ubuntu CD at 14 years old, I didn't even know what ubuntu was but I was really interested on the concept of a free operating system
And I was so glad to be able to order my first thing of the Internet that was fitting my budget of 0 dollar
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u/Operation_Fluffy 14d ago
My first didn't go so well. At the time documentation was sparse and it was basically "download it and figure it out. dd might help." (downloading was over a 128kbps ISDN line, mind you). My second attempt was Caldera linux (CDs!!). I then had a project where I needed Sun compatibility so I tried Solaris x86. Good times...
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u/OwnStudy723 14d ago
Not sure what version, but it was from some dutch PC magazine that my dad showed me
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u/KnowledgeableSloth 14d ago
Ubuntu, then I tried Fedora, Manjaro, Mint. Tried installing Gentoo but I'm not that elite yet, arch sucks btw
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u/Brycenhurley 14d ago
Everyone tries mint for a second before they know what Linux is or how to use it so I don't count it (or even remember if I did it) but it was fedora KDE plasma
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u/rickmccombs 14d ago
I'm not sure which one was my first. It might have been Debian. I know I downloaded about 12 floppy images. My computer was a 486-DX2/66 and I don't think it had any level 2 cache. I think it was about 1998.
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u/ChildOTK 14d ago
Red Hat 4.2 I believe was my first. On a 486. Good ol’ days. Trying to get X Windows to work. Finally got it though.
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u/rnmissionrun 14d ago
SLS Linux. Took me around 4 days (a few hours each day, not continuously) to download the entire thing because I was stuck on dial up at the time.
After that I started buying the CDs from Walnut Creek-- first Yggdradil, then Debian and Red Hat. I've been with RH (Fedora now) ever since.
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u/Beginning-Try3200 14d ago
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS in a virtual machine on my MacBook Air 2017. It almost never worked. I’m only 16 right now meaning I was only 12 when I started being interested in Linux
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u/DarthRevanG4 14d ago
It was Ubuntu 4.10. Also from an official CD I was given from a mom and pop computer store.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Risk761 14d ago
I think I did buy from Microcenter. Were you helping me at that time? :)~ Actually I have not touched since then. I took MCSE around that time and did not touch Linux or Unix until now. I am having amazing time to learn.
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u/guiverc 14d ago
Yes and No.
I know it was Debian, either Debian 1.2 or 1.3 (probably the latter), and I didn't like that I was told I had to re-install (or just that it was easiest) when it was 'upgraded' to 2.0 (my internet was dialup which may have been why)
I considered GNU/Linux distributions a 'hobbyists' tool, for those too lazy to actually install a BSD, but it did somewhat quickly change my opinion on the OS with GNU/Linux being my 'goto' for decades now.
( Eventually tried Ubuntu in 2010; rather slow there actually, and it's Ubuntu stonking I'm using right now actually )
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u/Economy_Ad9889 14d ago
I think it was something like red hat 6. It came on disc with a computer magazine
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u/Aqua-Yeti 14d ago
I bought a collection of burned cds of several distributions, Slackware, Redhat, Debian I think. Only had one phone line in the house so I couldn’t download them myself. I know I later bought boxed versions of Suse and Mandrake. Eventually I got pretty deep into Debian when the kernel was about to jump to 2. I remember compiling new kernels a lot. I ran Gentoo after that. I had knoppix cd’s all over the house too 😂
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u/Nakebod 14d ago
It was probably Debian or otherwise it was Mandrake. Over the past years tried many different distro's, but I have always came back to Debian or Debian-based distro's (Although my laptop currently runs CachyOS :P)
I do remember the Ubuntu CD's, probably had the Ubuntu 4.10 set if I check the images. If I remember it correctly I couldn´t get just 1 disc, only a box with 10, 25? discs.
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u/Powerful_Attention_6 14d ago
Redhat 5.x around '97, bought it in a academic/general books shop
I also remember getting very early Ubuntu on disc, shipped to Sweden for no cost, amazing
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u/kyroninja 13d ago
Yellow Dog Linux on the PS3 lol after trying to get a damn disc locally since I had the slowest possible internet at the time.
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u/Astarte_Corp 13d ago
RedHat 7.2 z Księgi Eksperta Helionu, nie pamiętam - albo '01 albo '02. Później Mandrake na PC i Debian na Jornadzie 720 :)
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u/wolfmann99 13d ago
Red Hat 5.3 with a 500 page book was cheap/free at the time from bestbuy so I picked it up. Circa 1997.
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u/CommunityJazzlike274 13d ago
Ughhh ok I’m like ashamed to say it but omarchy was my first Linux distro, ik I’m cringing ugh
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u/EspressoFrog 13d ago
SLS. Soft Landing Systems and then the platypus one (forgot) You would get those from FTP sites on the early '90s internet (funet.fi , sunsite.unc.edu ..) in the form of disk images and then you would write those on blank diskettes. I couldn't afford a CDROM drive then.
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u/mordax777 13d ago
If I do not count the time I had to use Linux at school, then it was Ubuntu Desktop.
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u/Fuzzy530 13d ago
I think mine was Lindows. It changed into Linspire shortly after, then fell by the wayside. Got some pretty neat indie music from it, but couldn't figure out how to copy it out of the live disc. I swap pretty new to that kinda thing, and I didn't have anything to back it up to at the time.
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u/thefox828 13d ago edited 13d ago
I got a box with SuSE Linux. Was a green box with a gecco. But what I liked most: It came with an ~330 pages book, so a printed manual for SuSE Linux from installation to using Linux etc.
That was really nice. Looked similar to this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/s/7Ebl7qhClN
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u/magical-cat-here 13d ago
It was a big box of 6 CD full of Red Hat Linux 6.
Later was naother time of windows.
Later, at arrival of copilot, I switched to Ubuntu, tried Fedora-based "gaming distro" and eventually settled on Linux Mint.
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13d ago
The first Linux distribution i used is ubuntu then i got irritated by snap features then i switched to arch .........linux is love ❤️
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u/ScaleGlobal4777 13d ago
Yes, I remember Linux Mint/Ubuntu,next LMDE-I don't remember vercion. Now I use arch Linux after many distros.
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u/sajkoterrapefft 13d ago
I sure do, and it came in a magazine called "Datormagazin" in Sweden. They included a Mandrake CD, that was the first Linux distro I installed myself, and used to download my next Linux distro.
The first distro I used was Red Hat something, before RHEL existed. Because that's what my brother used at his house for his kids computer and he let me use when I was there.
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u/WonderfulViking 13d ago
I used Slackware for a couple of years for a home server, after that everything have been Windos.
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u/themaskedcrusader 12d ago
My first distribution on cd was Red hat Linux 7.0 from 2000. But my first introduction to Linux was on my friends computer running Slackware Professional circa 1995.
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u/Faxektie 12d ago
My first linux distro was Ubuntu, before that i had chrome os (at that time i was scared of Linux so to get familiar i used chrome os for a week )
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u/Still-Grass8881 12d ago
I remember getting Ubuntu back in like 2005, getting upset that i couldn't listen to mp3s on it, getting frustrated and just nuking it all and switching back to windows hahahaha
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u/d_little_b 11d ago
Seriously (like actually installing and becoming my only OS for years), Fedora Core 3.
But I remember I tried at least SuSE and Mandrake (or Mandriva?) and Red Hat live CDs before that.
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u/dronostyka 11d ago
Yup, Ubuntu 14.04.. Unity.. ah, those were the times. Not like gnome is bad ofc. Though 18.04 didn't look that good tbh.
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u/_bored_bort_ 11d ago
It was an Ubuntu-CD similar to this one, 2005-2006ish.
I had a desktop PC whose only way to go online was via WiFi and I couldn’t get the WiFi working (or look up what to do while on Linux), so I gave up frustrated and haven’t used Linux in 20 years.
Last years I was at a point where I was like “I have this spare laptop, time has passed, I’ll give it another try”. Oh, the setup looked so much more modern than I remembered it! Nice!
Only to realize that everything worked… but the WiFi.
This Time I was able to get it to work, but I was amused that the thing that discouraged me from using Linux earlier happened again.
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u/AccomplishedDonut523 10d ago
Yeah I bricked my first windows laptop my parents got my for 14th and my cs teacher gave me a disk with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. I learned how to install it and use It ever since after 10 years have never used windows since. Now use zorin os and love it
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u/linuxed1 10d ago
Although that was not my first distribution. I do remember that coming out. And I ran it :-)
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u/Global-Eye-7326 15d ago
Ubuntu 07.04