linuxmemes

I believe it was Ubuntu, likely something like 8.04, but only in a VM. Then a few years later I tried Fedora, DamnSmallLinux, and maybe one or two others. I didn't install Linux on actual hardware until 2017 when I installed Ubuntu 16.04 and never looked back, though I tried it from a bootable USB a few times years before that. Currently on Ubuntu 22.04 on my desktop, my servers all run Ubuntu or Proxmox (Debian).

Suse

I bounced around a few different distros about twenty years ago. OpenSuse, Mint, and Ubuntu. I settled on Ubuntu (6.0X I think) because the others had a lot of trouble with hardware in my Korean laptop at the time. Ubuntu was the only one that had the track pad working right away, and also the only one I managed to get Korean keyboard input working in. I never did get the webcam working in any of them. I used Ubuntu in some form or another up until a few months ago when I switched to Mint. Largely because of Lemmy.

Pardus in 2007

Ubuntu, in 2006.

Slackware. Horrible experience.

Then Ubuntu.

Now Debian.

Manjaro GNOME Edition,
But am now on NixOS 😸❄️🐈✨

I tried Puppy with a persistent live USB first, then I used Ubuntu through WUBI for a while until it borked my MBR.

Linux Mit, im still loving cinnamon

Ubuntu, specifically the netbook edition.

That little guy struggled with Windows 7 Starter, but it got some pep in it's step when Linux was installed!

Some form of Novell-era Suse Linux when I was in college… 20 years ago. I didn’t get it back then. Mint is my daily driver today.

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

it was mine too, in 2020... bring me memories <3

Debian with kde, because it looked a bit like Windows.

Then slackware because it was supposedly a "simple" Linux distro. Apparently simple doesn't mean simple to use for a newbie...

First Debian, then Ubuntu because people said it was better, then back to Debian because it wasn't (snaps really suck and break things), then to Pop OS (bc new laptop preinstalled with it). I also got a SteamDeck semi-recently if that counts (still use the Pop OS laptop).

Mint was my first main. Before that there were some projects on raspbian.

My first distro was Ubuntu 8.04, but my first experience with Linux was Damn Small Linux.

Funny enough, Damn Small Linux just had an update after all these years.

Technically zorin, but kubuntu is why I stuck with it. It's what made me like linux...

My first was Suse Enterpise Linux. Bought from Best Buy in the late 90s.

Ubuntu -> Linux Mint -> Pop!_OS -> MX linux -> EndeavourOS

Xubuntu just because it was the first one I found when looking for something that worked with a really old computer I had

The year was 2002, and the distro was Caldera Open Linux 2.2

edit to add: Currently running KDE Neon. KDE 6 is pretty great so far.

Tried MythTV for a HTPC and had some issue with a log file filling up the the whole drive. Didn't have the skill yet to fix the issue. Does messing around with the terminal in OS X count? It certainly made me more comfortable for the next time tried. I think the next major attempt was another HTPC, but this time, I just used Ubuntu + XBMC and setup it up to also be a headless torrent box. Using OS X as my main desktop still made things easier then it would have been going from Windows to Linux as the file naming and system directories were compatible.

I've been using Mint as my laptop OS for a while now and just recently switched from Mac to Mint on my desktop machine. I made an effort to never get trapped in property file types or an "eco system", so all the apps I was using were available in Linux already and the Majove Hackintosh was becoming less and less viable.

First server was Debian in 2002 or so. First desktop was the first version of Ubuntu (4.10). Back then, they'd send you a free CD upon request, anywhere in the world. Dial-up was still pretty common in Australia at the time, so not having to download it was very useful. That was one of the things that really drove adoption of Ubuntu.

My first distro was Xubuntu. It was 2014-15. I was still in high school. My pc was getting old, and I read online that Linux can make your pc run faster. Since it wasn't my gaming machine, I decided to give it a try. I also read online that Xubuntu is among the lightest of distros, so decided to install that. It really was a night and day difference in performance.

I've switched distros a few times (Xubuntu -> Ubuntu Gnome -> Manjaro KDE -> EndeavourOS KDE, also run AlmaLinux on a few headless server machines) since then, but never went back to Windows ever again.

Mandrake 8.2

I have fond memories of it, as it weaned me off Windows.

Edit: Actually, Knoppix was my first foray into Linux, but Mandrake was the first Linux distro that I actually installed.

CorelLinux

Seems appropriate that he’s about to snap her neck.

Pretty sure Linux Mint back in 2009-2010 that my brother forced all of our family PC's to use. Now over 14 years later I have made it back to Linux Mint and oh how I've missed it.

Ubuntu -> Mandriva -> Zorin -> Ubuntu -> Debian

I had the amazing luck of being introduced to linux at such a young age that i don't remember the distro. I just remember the penguin.

But the first time I try linux for myself it was mint, of course.

Actual first was I think knopix or whatever it was called. My friend had a bootable floppy and we booted it on a school computer.

First real daily use was Ubuntu somewhere around 2006.

Pop OS. I honestly feel like it was a great transitional OS for me as a lifelong Windows user. Kind of like riding a bike with training wheels.

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed

Slackware, either the first or the second release IIRC.