I don't recall my first (unsuccessful) install, but I was ecstatic when I got Yggdrasil Linux up and running. Later I settled on Slackware and I'm still using it.

Mine was Slackware, 2.0 if remember well.
The second one, Caldera distribution when acquired by SCO.
Some attempts with Ubuntu and Debian, still used for dedicated application.
Then RedHat and CentOS.

Ah yes I remember, 1997/8 Windows 95 crashed on me for the last time. I installed Mandrake Linux. Don't even remember the version. Life was good once more.

Floppy disks, late night at work using old excess computer. Set up a web site, tried to hammer to test security until USAF complained so switched to USA network to do testing. Computer had two NIC's on separate networks but hammered from the same server as the web.

Thought I was god since I didn't have to use WINDOWS NT 3.5!

I remember booting from a diskette! (Caldera OpenLinux)

My first introduction to Linux was Mandrake 8 and what a great salvation! No longer totally bonded to M$oft and its Windows. The start of a what has now resulted in a complete break free!! I am currently a Happy and Free user of Linux Mint 19.2. Love Linux and what it stands for!

It was 1992 or 1993. The distro was Slackware on 3.5" floppies. I remember being astonished that I could get such a good performance on an Intel 486 PC. Remember running GRASS (GIS from the US Army Corps of Engineers at that time)and a hydrologic modeling program from the USDA called SWAT on it. Never stopped using it. All my PCs since then had double boot Windows (work requirements) and Linux. After Slackware, I moved to Redhat, used Centos and now am using Debian, since I also develop applications for the Rapsberry Pi

My first Linux install was a Slackware on a 486 with 16 MB of ram in the fall of 1995 after moving on from OS/2, while in graduate school in Purdue. I did my thesis on it with all the exhibits, and the text with Latex, produced by vi. I compiled and ran the same Fortran code without much modification as was running on the school's server, using g77. It was exiting to know that my PC was 100% Microsoft-free. I wish I could be 100% Google-free today....

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I had so much trouble with Windows that I asked my expert about Linux and he installed it for me. I can't remember the date but he also installed Open Office, I think 1.5. I have used it ever since and wouldn't go near Microsoft again. I am now on Debian 10. My first version was Mandriva and I only left that because it couldn't handle my printer and Debian could.

I'll start with my panic-history era of hosting:
When I used to pretend-admin netmode.com as a novice;
back in 1996, my partner was the real admin.
All Unix commands via Verio's (Iservers) Apache at the prompt.
180 servers at the helm.

Then... my brain partner rewrote the (Michael Sonn) Apache servers, and we migrated to our own dedicated's, (debian & at least 1 penguin linux install), moved most of the accounts, ran them for a while as dedicated, and then our rack provider; Digital Nation kept moving around Florida, until we lost most of our accounts from excess downtime.

After godaddy completely ran us out of business;
our domain money maker: thebigwhois.com wimped away.

and yes countermania.com was my idea, in 1995. Yet, as the $5 checks rolled in,
I panicked, as we couldn't expand from anchorage alaska.
---------------------

Current: What was the ?

Window exodus 2009-2010:
I couldn't stand the constant anti-virus updates, from norton etc,
so, I deleted windows with ubuntu install of 10.04 Lucid Lynx. almost 10 yrs ago.
via a writable cd.

Instead, that global unresponsive script keeps getting me, so sometimes I remove recent cookies
or, wait it out, or reinstall.

The gulping "accessing your hard-drive" sound is different,
and annoying, but not as horrible as the global script.

I'm on bodhi*, which is kind of like ubuntu.
(*& a few Ubuntu 18's,
and for the robbers, some 18's on externals,
because I'm a computer freak by now,
and can never be without at least 2 distros per machine)

Those above obnoxious hard-drive access problems; persist no matter the distro.

I had a friend of a friend that had been running Linux for some time, this was 1995, and me and my friend wanted to try this.

I borrowed a cd with Yggdrasil from the school I was taking a programming course at.
My friend had an AST 486 DX2 computer. It was a live cd so we booted it up and it took some time on the 2x cd rom.
When X Windows appeared for the first time we just shouted out in the room in excitment.

From that day I was in love with Linux and have never stop using it since.

Later on I installed Slackware on my Olivetti Pentium 75 with no support for the Cirrus Logic graphics card so I spent two years hacking around in clii/bash.

After that I used RedHat for a few years, Suse Linux, Ubuntu and Centos.

At the company that I’ve been working for 22 years I’ve always been able to work with linux systems, I’m a system consultant.
It was not as much linux systems then as it’s now and it’s so great!

Cheers,
Håkan

Not a lot...

From what I can remember, I think the first distro I was given a copy of by the network admin at the school I was attending, was Ubuntu, and I think Kubuntu as well. I do remember that there was nearly always problems when Ubuntu loaded GNOME, so from memory, I think I ditched Ubuntu and tried Kubuntu at that point. I do remember liking KDE, which didn't constantly give me problems, and I haven't looked back since (well ok, KDE 4.x just wasn't ready when it was first released, but it's much better now). I still had Windows XP Home installed as a dual-boot system before I got the components to build my current desktop system, then I got rid of Windows along with the previous desktop I had. And now I only have Linux installed on "bare-metal", particularly since unlike when I first started using Linux, we have better multimedia codec support, and more application software available for Linux.

I do remember trying Ubuntu again some years later, but it's "bug reporting" program kept popping up telling me there was a problem (even though nothing I could see wasn't working), even after I closed the window it would still bring up another one straight after I'd closed the previous one. And I hated it's Unity DE, so I done the distro hop again and haven't looked back.

Well,
It was around 20 or 21 years ago, if I remember correctly it was 1998. I installed Red Hat Linux and what I remember the most had to be the stack of floppy disks that was required. I am not sure how many but Debian back then had around 20 disks.

My first install was back in 95 or 96. I ordered a Slackware by mail an received a stack of 17 floppies. Install went through slowly but smoothly.

No graphical interface.

I then move to Redhat (4.1 or 4.2) and had to buy a separate Xwindow implementation. I am still on Fedora.

In 97, I wrote on the Intranet of the company that Linux would become important, I was overwhelmed by answers saying tht the game was over and the winner was Windows NT, that would go on any system...

I had just purchased a refurbished T430 in great shape except for an old 5400rpm HDD with a corporate copy of windows installed. I was not going to spend money on a new copy of windows. I had some years of experience with Ubuntu on the job doing tech work for a kidney dialysis company and so I started looking at what was available. I was used to imaging new dialysis machines using USB sticks so it was nothing new for me to do the install. PCs are different than dialysis machine PLCs so it took some time to customize my computer but it was an enjoyable experience to be able to get a smooth OS and not pay a lot of money for it. Like many folks, I used Windows because I had to. Now I am retired and free to use Linux on all my PCs.