what was the first linux distro you used

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in2media
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what was the first linux distro you used

#1 Post by in2media »

just a thought i had the other day. after reading numerous posts here i noticed a vast difference in backgrounds and expertise etc and was wondering where we all started. i bought my daughters the first pc back about 98-99 and all i could do was turn it on and off again. if any problems arose i had a good mate at work that would come and sort it out. the pc had windows me installed and i bought a heap load of magazines to learn about computers. one such magazine did a 4 page topic on something called linux and i read it with great interest. anyway we moved to another town and my mate could no longer fix my pc so i learnt the general workings of the insides but still wanted linux. i saw linux magazines in the shop and one had redhat 9 as a freebie. it took me nearly a year n half to get it installed as i didnt know what i was doing but once installed i was hooked. so now i have linux on 3 laptops but still have a windows pc for the family
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entropyfoe
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Re: what was the first linux distro you used

#2 Post by entropyfoe »

I think it was SuSE 7.0.
I bought the boxed set with 6 or 7 CDs.
A colleague told me about linux, and got me interested.
It must have been 2001 or 2002.
I played with that and BeOS before that.

Then around 2007 I read about Mepis, and have been here ever since.
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chrisb
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Re: what was the first linux distro you used

#3 Post by chrisb »

For me it started when I got an old 286 computer from my dad which he had no more use for. Ms dos and win 3.0. Still in the days dos was the main os, win was just a fancy interface. Never liked it. Norton commander quickly became my prime interface. Sadly microsoft windows (lowercase m & w to highlight the dishinour) ate up the business interface became the industry standard. Within my company we use win7, no choice to use anything else, expecting win10 to ship as soon as IT dep approves it...not really looking forwards to it. Now, working mainly with iot and macineconnectivity , sarted playing around with linux which provides all the tools needed more or less by default. Discovered mx linux just a few months back and running it inside virtualbox. What a wonderful distro! Fast, stable, full featured. Did I mention fast? I find myself spending about 98% of my time using MX. By far the best os I’ve ever used. Everrything just works. Was it not for the heavy restrictions and my companies choice of apps ( still mainly windows) I would not hesitate to switch to full time MX! I am so impressed. I am still a Linux newbie in every sense but I am so looking forward to learn more about the system. Never before have I felt to be more in control of the system. Keep up the good work. Midnight commander rings all sorts of nostalgia bells an is definately my main choice for getting work done efficiently. Installed MX on my home pc an never switching back. It is so good there is no reason not to use it.

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chrispop99
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Re: what was the first linux distro you used

#4 Post by chrispop99 »

Xandros in 2001.

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richb
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Re: what was the first linux distro you used

#5 Post by richb »

Xandros sometime in the late 1990's or early 2000's. Then Mepis in 2003.

But the first foray into personal computing was with a Heathkit H89 and CPM in 80's. And before that an IBM mainframe and punch cards in college around 1968.
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Jerry3904
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Re: what was the first linux distro you used

#6 Post by Jerry3904 »

Mandrake, in 2002 I think (still have the box of disks).
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in2media
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Re: what was the first linux distro you used

#7 Post by in2media »

yes i tried a few suse early ones. think the last one was 13 or something. tried quite a few different distros. i actually bought the xandros box set and the mandrake gaming edition which came with the sims game.
Last edited by in2media on Sat Mar 10, 2018 6:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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kmathern
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Re: what was the first linux distro you used

#8 Post by kmathern »

I first started with Mandrake back in 2000 or 2001, but I couldn't really figure out how things worked linux-wise, so went back to Win98SE.

A year or two later I decided to give Linux another try, first with Lindows and then a 2003 version of MEPIS. Have stayed with MEPIS and MX since then.

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Richard
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Re: what was the first linux distro you used

#9 Post by Richard »

MuLinux in 1998 on 720K floppies for learning.
Tried Redhat & Debian but couldn't install either.
Bought SuSE-7.2 in early 2001 which was my first usable distro. Began dual booting with Win98.

But my first real distro was Mandrake-7.2 Ran Mandrake for several years on a 286 Dell Latitude.

A friend from Maracaibo LUG gave me a copy of Mepis in 2003. Started to hop when Warren switched to Ubuntu base: Kanotix, sidux, Debian testing, Peppermint, OpenSuse, Xubuntu, others, SalineOS, Manjaro, MX a couple of days after release of MX-14. Thanks.
Last edited by Richard on Sat Mar 10, 2018 9:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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GuiGuy
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Re: what was the first linux distro you used

#10 Post by GuiGuy »

SuSe 6.2 from a boxed set - installation was a nightmare, but I did manage eventually, and it worked reasonably well.
For me, desktop Linux really took off when Warren Woodford published (on two CDs) the first distro which could be tried
out live and then installed to hard drive. Been using Mepis ever since - yes it still works well, especially M12.
I liked M8 best of all, but it is now lacking necessary updates.

MX is now my main OS. It continues the spirit of Mepis with many huge improvements.

Thanks, all of you MX and Antix developers :number1:

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