First Linux Distro

Story: What was your first Linux distro?Total Replies: 25
Author Content
GDStewart

Aug 03, 2013
1:35 AM EDT
Linux Systems Laboratory Linux Release 0.99, on over fifty 3 1/2" 1.44 MB floppies (I still have some of the floppies).
herzeleid

Aug 03, 2013
1:56 AM EDT
SLS - softlanding systems, kernel 0.99.6
r_a_trip

Aug 03, 2013
5:59 AM EDT
I feel positively young now :p

S.u.S.E Linux 5.2

Edit: kernel 2.0.33
dag

Aug 03, 2013
6:15 AM EDT
My first distro was ubuntu after I got bored of hacking windows so it would do what I wanted. I ended up with arch for a nice medium. Ubuntu got on my radar with its advartising. I will always have a place in my heart for ubuntu as introducing me to a system that does not shy the user a open system. Transparancy is key to a happy user/developer relationship and most times these can be seen as mud or the users are developers as a developer is a user. In a open community there is cooporation and we are all mud!
kikinovak

Aug 03, 2013
6:34 AM EDT
Slackware 7.1. And a subscription to the - now defunct - basiclinux.net mailing list to learn the innards of a GNU/Linux system.
jdixon

Aug 03, 2013
11:24 AM EDT
Whatever version of Slackware it was that came with the 1.0.9 kernel.
herzeleid

Aug 03, 2013
11:36 PM EDT
@jdixon - Ah, that brings me back...

I do remember that by the time I was running kernel 1.2.13 on slackware, everything was working perfectly.

jsusanka

Aug 04, 2013
12:04 AM EDT
Slackware
jdixon

Aug 04, 2013
7:10 AM EDT
> I do remember that by the time I was running kernel 1.2.13 on slackware

I seem to remember that something was not supported by the 1.0.9 kernel, but that the next upgrade to 1.1.19 fixed that.
hughesjr

Aug 04, 2013
12:00 PM EDT
Red Hat Linux 3.0.3

Yes, it's been that long.
DrGeoffrey

Aug 04, 2013
1:15 PM EDT
Then this should serve as a counter-balance:

Mandriva 2006.0

Very much a newbie. At least my latest mistakes have not been awe-inspiring.
notbob

Aug 04, 2013
2:05 PM EDT
Very first was Caldera linux in '97, but immed changed to red hat 5.0. Clowned around with RH until 7.0, then changed to Slackware and got serious. Still a slacker.
gus3

Aug 04, 2013
5:21 PM EDT
@herzeleid: Was that from "The Linux Bible"?
herzeleid

Aug 04, 2013
6:59 PM EDT
@gus3 - Both the SLS and the slackware were installed from downloaded floppy images.
CFWhitman

Aug 05, 2013
8:37 AM EDT
I think we've had a thread on here about this before, but in a college course, it was Slackware 4. Then at home it ended up being Mandrake 6 (because that was what I could find to buy, and I didn't have a practical way to download).
Bob_Robertson

Aug 05, 2013
9:19 AM EDT
Yes, it's been mentioned many times.

Debian .94
gary_newell

Aug 05, 2013
11:13 AM EDT
I also started with Mandrake. I had a rubbish internet connection so the only way to get Linux was on a CD and so I bought a magazine with Mandrake on the cover disk.

The first one I really used in anger was openSUSE though.
gus3

Aug 05, 2013
11:30 AM EDT
"Used in anger"? Do tell!
notbob

Aug 05, 2013
5:44 PM EDT
I first used it in anger. Anger at Windows!!

It was my 3rd driveby download of a toxic virus/exploit/whatever on w98se. Totally corrupted my 2ndary HDD and the worst of the three attacks. This with all kindsa $$$$ anti-hacking virus/firewall/etc software installed. Changed to Linux and never suffered another prob.

Embrace the learning curve or PAY ($$$) the piper. Simple choice, really. ;)
djohnston

Aug 05, 2013
7:39 PM EDT
SuSE Linux 6.1 in 2001. Kernel 2.2.6. A late bloomer.

Scott_Ruecker

Aug 06, 2013
5:13 PM EDT
Mine was Fedora Core 3 that came in a book with 5 CD's in it. No idea where it is now either. ;-)
herzeleid

Aug 07, 2013
1:16 AM EDT
We used archie in those days, as the web hadn't been invented yet, and the place to download linux install images was sunsite.unc.edu. Those were the days of ext, minix and xia file systems - good times!
caitlyn

Aug 14, 2013
1:50 AM EDT
I once wrote, in a bio, that it was Red Hat Linux 3.0.3. I was wrong. The right answer, Red Hat Linux 2.1, kernel 1.2.13, followed very closely by Slackware 3.0. A coworker recommended I try those two and choose one. I chose Red Hat, which was what she used in the office to manage the Linux boxen. I found it easier than Slackware at the time.
hkwint

Aug 14, 2013
8:47 AM EDT
OpenBSD 3.1. Hehe.
caitlyn

Aug 14, 2013
8:12 PM EDT
Nothing against OpenBSD, but that isn't a Linux distro last I checked.
hkwint

Aug 15, 2013
2:40 AM EDT
I know, that's why I was laughing when I added it. I think in the beginning, for the Windows-user, when just getting started with OpenBSD, you don't notice the difference between BSD and Linux that much anyway. OpenBSD is a distro which comes with GNU-tools and most other things you can find on a Linux distro, except the Linux-kernel.

Saying again I started with Gentoo becomes boring after a few of these threads, I'm sorry for trying to spice up the forum and checking who was awake, ahem.

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