What was the first ever distro you installed and used? For me, it was Mint as I seemed like the closest thing to Windows minus all the forced updates and chappy changes.

Currently on Fedora GNOME now but what about you? What made you choose your first distro diving into the world of Linux?

I wanna hear your thoughts!

  • gramgan@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    My first ever Linux experience was with the crouton project on a Chromebook in school (Ubuntu 16.04). A buddy of mine figured it out and we all wanted to play Minecraft during class. Thing is, I ended up enjoying tinkering with the OS as much as I did playing Minecraft… so now I’m stuck trying to learn NixOS.

  • Sickday@kbin.run
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    11 months ago

    My first non-family PC was a Acer netbook with Linpus [Lite] Linux. I was 12, so my first priority was trying to get Rollercoaster Tycoon to work. Eventually I realized how silly that prospect was and instead managed to install Windows XP via a bootable USB. I used XP for a while until Vista came out, and then I gave Linux Mint a try and really liked it. These days I’m using NixOS and Fedora.

  • unmagical@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    I used Ubuntu until PAE became required and then switched to either Puppy or DSL (tried them both, honestly don’t remember which I stuck with). Eventually got a new computer and used Fedora and Arch (btw) for years. I’ve recently switched to Debian on a machine I just don’t wanna be arsed with worrying about breaking.

  • yo_scottie_oh@lemmy.mlEnglish
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    11 months ago

    I’m on a similar path to you: Started with Ubuntu because a friend of mine had also dabbled in it, plus it has a large online community. Switched to Mint shortly thereafter, where I stayed for a while (more than a year). Currently on Fedora for the more recent packages, but sometimes I miss the familiar look & feel of the Cinnamon desktop environment (came from Windows and still use Windows for work).

    On my gaming PC, I’ve gone from Windows to Pop_OS! to currently on Nobara (again, for the more recent packages).

  • MyNameIsRichard@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    The first distro I tried was Red Hat 5 back in the late 1990s but I never got a GUI working so I guess the first one I used properly would have been Mandrake iirc. These days it’s Tumbleweed.

  • WadamT@lemmy.mlEnglish
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    11 months ago

    My very first linux distro is Zorin OS since it is Windows like and heard it is more light weight. After using it for a while, it didn’t feel like more light weight to me so I switched back to Windows.

    After some years later, I decided to ditch Windows completely and used Ubuntu 20.04 for about a year. When I broke Ubuntu after using about a year, I switched to Arch and still on Arch to this day.

  • HarvesterOfEyes@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    I started with Crunchbang in its final years. It was a great introduction to Linux, to be honest. It was also a very solid distro, as it was Debian-based.

    But, sadly, it eventually folded. It still has a spiritual sequel in BunsenLabs but, in the meantime, I’d moved to Arch (btw).

  • yobananaboy@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    Got fed up of Windows Vista, so I decided to try Linux. I was just a kid messing around, so tried some distros but Ubuntu stuck because I found it noob friendly. I think I went for Ubuntu 6.06. I started to get interested in PC gaming, then I dual booted Ubuntu and Windows 7 since gaming was not really a thing on Linux then. I found that to be a hassle so when Windows 10 came out I stuck with it.

    Then I jumped back to Linux when going back to do an IT degree in uni a couple of years back. Tried Ubuntu, but hated it. I tried Manjaro, but it broke my system. Then I discovered EndeavourOS and have stayed with that. Started to jump DE’s instead. Went from GNOME to Xfce and now I am going for Cinnamon. I have tried some distro jumping in VM. I really tried to get into NixOS, but it was just too much for me. I liked Mint though.

  • Borkdornsorkpor@lemmy.mlEnglish
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    11 months ago

    I started on Debian with XFCE. I figured if there were so many distros based on Debian, then I might as well just use that so I’d be able to configure things myself and learn more about how the OS works.

    Anyway, you know the section in the Debian wiki called DontBreakDebian? I did not follow that advice. It went poorly. I’ve since learned from my (many) mistakes and have been running Fedora KDE for a while now.