I started somewhere close to that as a teenager. Was my first dip in to the Linux world. I remember using rawrite back then. I wasn't on T1 but on dialup using ppp and ip masqurade to share with a Windows 95 PC.

Started with SLS (kernel 0.99pl9) on cdrom coming from a book editor (micro application): Le grand livre UNIX, with a nice blue cover. But the book itself was based on SCO Unix /o\ with a lot of typos included.. Had a pb with my french keyboard, asked micro application by phone for a tip, answer: no solution Discovered later that i needed to recompile the kernel for a fr keybord support. Installed my first Slack v2.. don't remember exactly.

Since 2003-ish. Started with Mandrake, then migrated over to Slackware.

Started in 2002. I think the earliest version I remember installing was 7.1 on a really old PC. Wow! Over 21 years. I owe Slackware my current professional career.

Started with Slackware 14.1 on the 23rd December 2014 09:49 AEDST according to the timestamp on the first DVD install ISO I downloaded. Best Christmas present ever (couldn't resist, I opened it early).

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Slackware 3.2 from the book. I still have the book and cds.

1995 with Slackware 3.0 . Before that, I was using MSDOS+Desqview first and OS/2 later to run my Fidonet BBS in multitasking on i486.
But around that time cheap retail internet access arrived in Italy and I didn't run a BBS anymore.
On year 2000 I managed to finally register an internet domain name and install an internet connection with fixed public ip addresses at home, and started running services of my own, always on Slackware

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Ditto. I really liked both Desqview and OS/2.
For business purposes, i.e., getting the work done, DOS and Desqview were a great combination.

First distro was Redhat 6 in April 99 that a university student used to sell on cd in the local rag but sometime after that I must have changed to Slackware 4 as I remember being very impressed with kde 1.1 and pissed when Patrick relented to pressure and bumped Slackware from version 4 to 7 in September.

Have experimented with other distros since 2008 mainly debian but returned to slackware current in 2019 as I was getting fed up with configuration issues and systemd. Now on 15 using slackpkg+ and slackbuilds and very happy with it.

I started using slackware around 2005 where my new laptop didn't work with other linux distribution i tried at that time. Slackware is the only distro that works out of the box and so i tried to use it and fell in love since then. I think it's around 10.1 or 10.2

2013 I started using Slackware 14. Kubuntu was my first linux try. I had gotten an extra computer along with a bunch of office furniture so i sacrificed it as a Linux experiment. I found kubuntu to be "messy" and a friend suggested to me "Slackware, dude". I tried Salix at first because I feared partitioning the disk after bad experiences with microsoft partitions. Later I realized that I could have real Slackware instead of Slackware "Lite" (Salix). I soon graduated to --current and have stuck with it. I was a great decision. I still have Win11 on multiboot but Slackware 64--current is my daily driver. My desktops are fluxbox and KDE5.

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I started with 7.1 myself. Fell in love immediately and have been a slacker since. I had used 4.0 and 7.0 on friends machines a bit prior to that however.

very few people, at least here, after 2018~2020 ... (and even over the last decade)

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Hi,

I like that Slackware is the best UNIX like distribution and fills my needs.
Sure one must delve into the workings of a OS but that is a big plus for me. I just cannot see anyone performing maintenance on my systems but me. The intrinsic sense of Slackware is another good reason to use it. PV as a maintainer does provide the stability of the system so we can continue a stable OS without worry.
It's good to see new users participate within the thread.

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Yes, it would be nice to see some of the 'new blood' join in ?

We need new Slackers ... I am getting old and forgetful and I am set in my ways and I learn ( a lot ) from new Users.

-- kjh

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