Just curious again.

For me, it was summer 2001, with BestLinux 2000 I got from sale with 20mk. In autumn I was already using dual-boot in our 1.4ghz machine, running Mandrake 8.2 now.

My first computer that I owned had no OS at all, I was stupid enough to save some buck and get myself a system without OS pre-install, adn you know what I expected it to work out-of-the-box (he-he ). Then I learned I needed an OS, and I grabbed the copy of Caldera because it was the cheapest in a computer store I went to - I was on a tight budget back then. And that's how it stared - it was terrible at first - I blaimed every computer hardware/software manufacturer for putting me into such situation. Then there was windows era - then dual boot - and now I am using only linux on my home workstations.

Lets see, I knew about it in '98-'99, didn't bother with it until probably mid-late '99 when I installed it and played around with it.
Didn't really start using it as my main OS til around 2000 or so.

I don't remember when it was. For sure between 1994 and 1998. Linux bacame my only OS in 1999, I think. But I'm not sure about the date

I got my first copy from LinuxCentral, it was of Mandy 7.2 in (I think) 2000? It was a while before WinME came out, so I am pretty sure it was 2000.
I installed it, and like everyone else, immediately found out how to make a dual boot. Then just went from there.

Ive been using it since 1999. However its been an off again, on again kind of thing. Really only since last year have i decided to switch my primary PC over to Linux. Im still in the process.

My first experience came in '98 when my friend tried to help me install Debian on my machine, but we couldn't get the sound to work and I gave up pretty quickly. Then around March of this year I decided to try again and bought Mandrake 8.1 from Best Buy, then 8.2 and I downloaded it, and then about a month or two ago I made the switch to Slackware and I love it I, unfortunatly, still use a dual boot to play counter-strike as anticheat software kicks me when I run it through winex and the microphone doesn't work. Sucks that I need windows for one damn program But my laptop runs Slack 8.1 and my other computer is running Libranet 2.0 because I wanted to see what it was like.

I've used it off and on for years, but it wasn't until 1999 that I finally had a machine with enough HD space to make it practical. A year later, I exchanged my LoseModem for a cablemodem, and Linux became my primary system.

I started using it around 2000. I was having problems with my CD burner, and thought that it might be a software problem, so I tried it under Linux... it didn't work, so I guess it was a hardware thing, but I then got hooked. Don't have any Linux solo machines, as of yet, because my Linux-only-to-be box still needs to dual-boot in order to use the TV card... but that's another story.

I bought Red Hat 5.2 in 1998, but I didn't install it until 1999. That's when I bought Partition Magic 4.0 and that's what I used to partition my drive so that I could dual boot with win98.

After I installed it , I couldn't get it to boot into linux. I always got the install program. I couldn't remove the cdrom disk from the drive, but I didn't think that was the problem, since I couldn't boot from the cdrom drive. I spent about an hour trying to get it to boot linux. Then I happen to catch the cdrom light come on while booting. I thought that was odd. The computer shouldn't have been checking the cdrom drive. It turned out that the computer could boot from the cdrom drive. It just was not listed in the boot sequence in the bios, because it always tries to boot from the cdrom first. No matter what you set it to boot from in the bios, the cdrom is always checked first. Something that Packard Bell left out of the manual. Thanks Packard Bell. Oh, I still use it. It's the only computer I have. 75Mhz pentium. Yes, 75Mhz not 750Mhz. 40MB ram, 4.3gB hd, 256kB cache on board memory for the cpu. It's not too slow.

I tried TurboLinux Workstation 6.0. I now use Caldera eDesktop 2.4 and ZipSlack.

My first linux distro was from Suse...think 5.xx, in 1998, installed it in my Pentium 200 mmx and I clearly remember my first thought when the black screen appeared...

"Now what do I do with this? ", had no X, nothing at all...just the basics...then I bought a manual...but I got the wrong one..it was for Unix System V...lol...well, 5 years had passed and now i`m running LFS and linux is my main OS...

those days....sigh...

hehe, my first ditro was slackware 3.2, oh yeah!, back in 96.
Unfortunately I had a Compaq presario, after which I learn not to ever get a brandname computer and just build my own. I installed slackware...except it never supported the damn built in video chip on the mobo so I was never able to run Xwindow sucessfully...so I sort of quitted and just used windows and played a lot of Quake 1, damn I was good , and then I tried Debian...but same result with video card....it wasn't until Redhat 5.0 came out that heaven showed me the light in 97, but then still at that time very few people had cable modems...so I was stuck with no internet for another 2 years...of wich I only used Windows...and then late '99 the light once again was shown from the heavens and I finally was able to make my cable modem work. Ever since then I've used Linux every day,

My friends inesperatelly began to talk of Linux and tried install it (Slackware), but not with good results, I see the text interface and liked me, after I tried to install a rare distribution named "WinLinux", this version booted in the same partition of windows, after I installed the Suse distribution, but the version of XFree don't supported my card. After I discovered Mandrake and Red Hat, but I like Mandrake because is the one that I know what show the penguin of logo.

When: June/July 2000
Distro: Red Hat 6.2

I also in about Febuary/March 2000 tried Corel Linux 1.0, but it stuffed up hard drive partitioning, grr

I started with Slackware late 93 I think. After a couple of month and a lot of reading it was up and running. I have been using Windows for some years now.. sorry
I am reading up on Linux now. Looking forward to installing it again sometime soon.
And I will have NO stinkin dualboot.