Back around 2001ish my das brought an old laptop home and we put Knoppix on it. I think that was when I fell in love with Linux lol

Now I am using Arch btw.

4-5 years ago. Started because my one machine won’t get security updates from Microsoft and my main machine isn’t eligible for the Windows 11 update.

Started on Ubuntu and then did some heavy distro hopping. I’ve ended up preferring only 2 distros; Debian and Arch. There’s plenty of others that I like but those are my top 2.

2009 i started studying computer science. Having windows on my Laptop wasnt helpful when compiling c, that was my first encounter with Linux (especially Ubuntu). Was running Xubuntu most of the time because i didnt like Unity.

Stopped using Linux after finishing my degree, since Linux wasnt useful for gaming or my work.

Skip forward to 2020. Hadnt really used Linux for anything for years, then windows 11 was announced. Didnt like where this was going and tested out Manjaro, since gaming on linux was supposed to be “okay”.

Didnt like Manjaro and tried out EndeavourOS. All games that mattered at the time ran good. Switched to AMD graphics, deleted windows completly from my drive and use Linux exclusivly for private usage.

Also installed EndeavourOS on my work laptop and use a Windows VM if needed.

I dont want to go back to using windows for daily stuff ever

When I was 14 and got my second PC. That must have been around 2005 or so?

Installed Red Hat, printed a book about C and gave up rather quickly.

Ubuntu 6.04 or so (Dapper Drake?) Was the first one that I actually used for real.

Ages ago, perhaps over 10 years ago (not keeping track because then I’ll have to admit I’m getting older). I think it was because of the surprisingly common issue where wifi would just… Stop working in Windows. Installed Ubuntu and basically had fun tweaking it and learning Linux.

Then Windows 8 happened and everyone decided that they needed to change how everything worked to copy their example. Hopped between Unity, Gnome 3 and Gnome 2 for a while, looking for something that suited my tastes before eventually settling on Mint and Cinnamon.

About in 2008-2009. I was about 15 years old. One of my teachers installed ubuntu on school computers. Remember playing around with wobbly windows and desktop cube and having a blast.

I didn’t use much linux at home though until college about 2013 when I put it on my laptops. Took until like 2018 to fully switch. I ditched the last windows VM with GPU passthrough when its boot drive died.

Startet using Linux in 1999. Then I did a lot of distro hopping:

• Redhat
• Suse Linux
• Gentoo
• Sabayon Linux
• Debian
• Kdenlive
• Arch
• Ubuntu Studio
• Fedora
• Fedora Silverblue
• since 2017 NixOS

NixOS feels very contemporary and will stay a while. It is very advanced and usable in many diverse environments. In the past I did learn a lot installing and maintaining Debian and Arch – which has a great community.

I started with RedHat 6.1, codenamed Cartman, on an i386. My god, the pain, the failed boots, the fail testing and source building by way of multi CD’s provided through magazines. It was great

Now, many years later, after many, many different distros, after several immutable distros, I’ve ended up with NixOS, because I still like getting punished by my software.

Suck it, nix users. You know it to be true.

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In the early 90s I was running a BBS on DesqView over DOS and was annoyed by the limitations. My older hardware didn’t have grunt or RAM (SIPP at $50/MB) to run OS/2 like the big dogs. I also had nearly no money (grad student).

I started experimenting with MINIX, and from there to linux. IIRC I started with Slackware, flirted with Red Hat, then found Debian and it was true lurve. Since that time I’ve generally run servers on Debian stable and workstations on Debian testing.

Half a year ago I tried it but I have destroyed the system so bad, that even live usb wouldn’t boot. Few months ago I have tried again, seems in time what was broken before got fixed by itself also I stuck with it this time and love using it.

I first installed Ubuntu on a laptop in 2016. I started using linux full-time in 2017 with Ubuntu MATE and I’m now on EndeavourOS after trying these:

• Ubuntu
• Lubuntu
• KDE Neon
• Antergos
• Manjaro
• Arch

I use Debian and Arch on home servers, and I want to install OpenSUSE Slowroll to replace my Arch server (it hasn’t broken yet)

As far as I’m concerned it’s still 2018 and the year of the linux desktop…

Started with Ubuntu back in 2016 when it still had the reddish brown mud theme. I still have some.of the installation discs you could order back then.

I started using because I started Computer Science university and I thought I should finally learn Linux. Fell in love with it and have been using ever since. I now use Fedora.

At the time I tried (2009), I was too young and afraid of messing up my Windows (I didn’t even know if I was able to remove Windows and not loose the warranty), so I was finally did thanks to the marvelous Wubi installer. It let you try Ubuntu without messing around with partitions. Thanks to that, I was able to start learning Linux until I gained confidence and did a proper dual boot.

Now I only use Arch, even for work.

Oh boy. I definitely started with Ubuntu 17.04 in 2017 when I started uni, then soon downgraded to 16.04 because Unity was soooo much better than Gnome. But afterwards it’s a blur, I was distrohopping basically every few months, sometimes even more often. I used Antergos (RIP), Manjaro, all flavors of Ubuntu except Gnome, Mint, then I was into the whole minimalistic tiling wm suckless no-systemd rabbit hole with Void, I also did KDE Neon at some point, I definitely did pure Arch as well, and Artix too. Sometimes I even hopped at work when I had a bit more time. God I miss those days…

Right now I’ve settled on Mint for work and Endeavor for personal use and haven’t hopped for over a year which is as long as I’ve ever gone. I miss hopping but I’m so comfy right now. I’ve been thinking about finally giving Gentoo a go full time as I’ve been flirting with the idea forever. And there’s also Nix. And I’ve been meaning to try a system where I fully embrace flatpak (right now I never use it). I’d also like to try something like Qubes eventually. So yeah, plenty to see still after all these years.