In What Year Did You Start Using Linux?

fiver22 · 08-13-2013, 10:34 PM

I picked 2004 officially as it was my first (failed) attempt at Mandrake. It wasn't 'til *buntu 6.06 came out that i was successful at gnu/linux. I stayed with them 'til sometime in the 9 series when i started flirting with every distro I could find mentioned. Currently i'm s fan of Debian, Crunchbang, antiX, LMDE, SolydXK ( see a pattern?) and just so I learn non-debian I 'play' with Arch and Sabayon.

allanf · 08-19-2013, 10:14 AM

I downloaded the "disk sets for 5.25 inch floppies) and put them onto 3.5 inch floppies for a intel 386 processor, bought an xserver (from x-inside) and a backup program. The kernel was at 0.98.

I was introduced to Unix in 1976.

matrixworld · 08-21-2013, 05:43 PM

My first encounter was unix via a shell account in 1991. My first linux install was in 1995 and was barely usable for what I wanted to do. I returned to linux in 2000 and use it part time. The year linux became very usable at least for me and my full time OS was in 2007.

BTW, why doesn't LQ have a openbsd icon. All i get is a question mark.

oh well....

Cyberjackal · 08-31-2013, 01:11 PM

2001. Red Hat Linux 7.1 (Seawolf, mid-2001) & Slackware [8.0] was soon after (late 2001/early 2002)

basica · 09-02-2013, 09:12 PM

My first stab at it would've been around 2003-2004. First was a distribution called Lycoris, then ubuntu for many years on and off.

gilead · 09-02-2013, 09:37 PM

Mine was Slackware on the Walnut Creek CDs around November of 1995 - I had no idea at the time how much it would affect my work (and home) life.

penguiniator · 09-02-2013, 11:42 PM

Spring of 2001. That's when I noticed that there was good enough hardware support for most of my devices and immediately bought SuSE Linux Professional 7.1 from Fry's Electronics on Hamilton Avenue. I spent the remainder of the afternoon trying to configure my IDE Zip drive so I could transfer my files to the newly installed Linux system. I had never used anything at all like Linux or Unix and had absolutely no help whatsoever from anyone. I've been using it ever since.

pan64 · 09-03-2013, 12:45 AM

Hm. I started in 1993 with SCO unix and came HP-UX in 1995. next: reliant unix 1997, solaris even later. But I can't remember when I met linux first. Probably RedHat about 15 years ago.

dgeho1 · 09-10-2013, 07:43 PM

I started playing with RedHat as an R & D project in 2004..

It proved a viable option for our project.. but the powers that be had other ideas.

I got re-introduced to Ubuntu as part of an OS class in college in 2011 and have been using it a lot ever since (5 servers now) and one desktop.

PTrenholme · 09-10-2013, 11:04 PM

I started on Multics in the early '70s. Does that count?

grx1us · 09-28-2013, 01:52 PM

I started with Slackware 3-3.x ('94-95), then back in Windows. Extra I tested different distros. Finally, my desktop runs Slackware 12, my daughter's laptop runs PCLinux, my laptop runs PCLinux & Slackware in VM (under Windows).
Also, I reintroduced Linux (Mint/PCLinux) and FOSS in my class in 2012.

axorex · 11-15-2013, 05:28 AM

Zyblin · 11-15-2013, 07:00 AM

I started playing around with Linux 1998-1999. But it was all new to me and I was in MS Windows more times than Linux. Now it is reversed. I am in Linux much more than MS Windows.

pattwo · 11-15-2013, 10:26 AM

My first linux experience came in 1998 or 1999 by way of a Redhat Linux 5.1 box set I found at Future Shop. Came with a great installation manual. I still have that around here somewhere....

geraldin · 11-15-2013, 05:12 PM