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What was your first Linux distro?

Posted by jimlynch on · 26 comments
ITworld; By Jim Lynch 		Mail this story
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Today in Open Source: Your first Linux distro? Plus: Mark Shuttleworth and desktop Linux, and WordPress 3.6 is out!

As far as I can recall, my first distro was SUSE. I remember buying it in a box, and installing it on my computer. Yes, I actually bought it on a disc rather than downloading it. I don't think I had a disc burner back then, so that may have had something to do with it.

Plus, I think I wanted to support it by giving the developers some money for their product. That's still a good idea. If you use a distro and there's a "donation" link somewhere on the site, drop the developers a few bucks to help support your favorite distro.

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Comments (26)

6 earlier comments in the full thread.

herzeleid ·
@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 ·
Slackware
jdixon ·
> 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 ·
Red Hat Linux 3.0.3

Yes, it's been that long.
DrGeoffrey ·
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 ·
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 ·
@herzeleid: Was that from "The Linux Bible"?
herzeleid ·
@gus3 - Both the SLS and the slackware were installed from downloaded floppy images.
CFWhitman ·
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 ·
Yes, it's been mentioned many times.

Debian .94
gary_newell ·
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 ·
"Used in anger"? Do tell!
notbob ·
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 ·
SuSE Linux 6.1 in 2001. Kernel 2.2.6. A late bloomer.

Scott_Ruecker ·
Mine was Fedora Core 3 that came in a book with 5 CD's in it. No idea where it is now either. ;-)
herzeleid ·
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 ·
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 ·
OpenBSD 3.1. Hehe.
caitlyn ·
Nothing against OpenBSD, but that isn't a Linux distro last I checked.
hkwint ·
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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