Where, and when, did you start using Linux? Where are you now?

bbbhltz , 5 months ago

Went full Linux in the early 2000s. Never went back. Started with Debian and Ubuntu. Tried many distros for varying amounts of time. I always come back to Debian.

I’m just a regular desktop Linux user. It’s great.

technologicalcaveman , 5 months ago

About 3 years. I wasn't good with computers because I mostly just didn't want to mess with them, due to Microsoft being who they are. I started with Ubuntu, went to Arch, Nixos, and now Gentoo is my standard. I got into it because my brother who's a security programmer recommended it to me. I use much, much more linux than my brother does now. I don't have any proprietary systems in my home now. All is FOSS.

GadgeteerZA , 5 months ago

@hai I started in about 2006 when my work was going to fully convert to Ubuntu. At the last minutes the CIO left and our project champion also left, and Windows continued, but I'd been bitten by the bug and continued to use Ubuntu at work and at home since then. Now on Manjaro KDE.

BiggestBulb , 5 months ago

I started a decade ago on Ubuntu for an after-school cybersecurity club. From there, I eventually tried Mint and then Lubuntu and Kinoite. I'm now using Debian in WSL.

9488fcea02a9 , 5 months ago

15 years now. First few years part time messing around with ubuntu and mint. I’ve been full time 100% debian on all my servers and desktop/laptop for at least 10 years now.

Debian is the best

RattlerSix , 5 months ago

1999. I liked fooling with computers and installed it just to see what it was. I went through several distros over the next few years, Mandrake, Suse, Red Hat, compiled Gentoo from scratch, and finally settled on Slackware. It was my only OS for 14-15 years until I started a business in 2016 and needed software that’s only available in Windows. I only use Windows on my PC now because my computer does weird boot stuff that screws up dual boots and I don’t really use the PC that much anyway. I still use Linux on small servers for media and home automation

scytale , 5 months ago

Sometime in the late 2000s. Bought a used netbook and didn’t know it was running on Ubuntu. Over the years I went through PeppermintOS, Crunchbang, BunsenLabs, Antergos, Arch, and many others. Now I’m on Mint because I don’t have the time to maintain my OS and just need something that works. The graph meme where long time users end up with a “basic” distro in the end is somewhat true.

tunetardis , 5 months ago

I am also fairly new to the game. I had an iMac from around 2010 that was starting to show its age. Newer macOS versions were glacial on it. I eventually realized they were meant to boot off SSDs, but my options in that regard weren’t great. I would either have to take the whole thing apart to replace the internal drive or live with USB2 speeds on an external SSD. Then it dawned on me I could just put Ubuntu on there and call it a day. This worked great and bought me a few more years out of that machine.

More recently, we started buying threadripper workstations at the office for scientific modelling. These have since migrated into a server room where they are currently acting as a small compute cluster.

And most recently, I’ve been tinkering around a bit on my Steam Deck. It’s a little walled-garden-ish but it let me put VSCode and a few tools on there so I’m playing around.

regitseroms , 5 months ago

Dabbled in Linux Mint in 2013-14. Recently started using Linux more frequently. Started out on Pop OS this past June/July but moved to Opensuse Tumbleweed as my main OS. I do still have my Windows drive but havent ran into any issues where I needed to boot it up.

Montagge , 5 months ago

I broke the ever living hell out of I think hink it was Ubuntu 8 back in the day. I ended up giving up because I was constantly causing issues that I just didn't have time for while going to college. Started using again when Windows 10 wouldn't stop breaking itself and started using Ubuntu 20.04.

corsicanguppy , 5 months ago

1. College. Kernel 1.2.10 I think.
2. Ran out of money before a degree. Haven’t stopped working since.

agressivelyPassive , 5 months ago

When I was 14 and got my second PC. That must have been around 2005 or so?

Installed Red Hat, printed a book about C and gave up rather quickly.

Ubuntu 6.04 or so (Dapper Drake?) Was the first one that I actually used for real.

Petter1 , 5 months ago

I started using linux as my mac got unusable with macOS First touch with Linux I had in Work, i test our products which run on an embedded Linux yocto build.

Now, my phone and my buisness windows are now the only proprietary OSs I use (have a pinePhone, bit it is not daily drivable for me)

Now I have the old macbookpro5,2 running Arch and my iMac running openSuse TW. For my smart home, I have a pi Zero 2W running hombridge via hoobs. Ah yea and a router on a board that I got from a friend running on OpnSense. With him I have a proxmox server running.

TimeSquirrel , 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago)

2001, I was 19 in USAF tech school in Biloxi, Mississippi, just bought a second hand computer from someone else in the dorm and needed a budget OS, and the local BX/PX had a copy of Corel Linux for $30. I had no idea WTF it was at the time, I thought it was just some kinda cheap bootleg Windows or something, something with half-ass compatibility like OS/2. I had no clue how to use it and I couldn't get any familiar programs to work, so I just paid another dude like $20 to burn me his copy of Windows 2000 for me.

Didn't even realize its potential until later, 2004 when I got a civilian IT job. Now Debian has been my daily driver for ten years.

Edit: oh yeah, the box came with an inflatable penguin, which I gave to the dorm guard on duty when I got back because he recognized it and I didn't think anything of it. If you ever see this post I want my penguin back now, dude.

guh65 , 5 months ago

Datamining thread

sping , 5 months ago

…I was almost tempted to answer it literally (geographically)