What was your first operating system or Linux Distribution?

Holy CRAP, am I literally the oldest person here?

CP/M, with the 8" disks

Then DOS -> Windows -> Linux (Mandrake, then tried a few different ones, then Debian and stuck with Debian)

apple2c, commadore64

MS-DOS 5.0

• Commodore 64 (kernal)
• Amiga OS
• MS-DOS 3.2, 5.0
• Windows 3.1
• Slackware Linux
• Windows NT 4
• RedHat Linux
• Windows XP
• Ubuntu Linux
• Windows 7
• Windows 10
• Rasbian
• PopOS

Roughly in order of appearance. Personal devices only. I used many more for work.

Windows 95 and Macintosh LC, elementary school computer lab stuff. My grandpa had a Windows 3.1 IBM PS/2. Those were all pretty old and practically obsolete computers when I used those, 98SE was out and ME was right around the corner.

My very first Linux distribution experience was Mandrake Linux I believe version 9 or something like that. Didn't last that long though, I revisited Linux later with Ubuntu 7.04 which is when I actually switched to Linux full time.

ArchLinux since 2011. Still running that install to this day!

First Operating System: Windows 98

First Linux Distribution: Ubuntu Trusty

Apple ][ e: pictures of me playing point-and-click story games.

Ubuntu 4.10 “warty”

I'm probably on the younger side of Lemmy, my first OS was Windows 98, but the first one I truly remember using is XP.

When I really started getting into computers, our family PC was running Vista, and the first nerdy thing I remember doing was trying to "downgrade" that computer to XP. My parents were none too pleased when they saw that the PC wouldn't boot, thinking I had bricked it. It took me about a week to getting XP running properly, and that feeling of satisfaction is what started my love for tinkering with computers (I'm definitely a noob compared to the average Lemmy user, though).

Afterwards, I fell into the Apple fanboy pipeline and begged my parents for a MacBook. I was a huge Mac nerd, even saving up money as a teen for an iMac, until I started wanting to game more on PC, especially with friends on Steam. I then started dual-booting, initially XP but then Windows 7, and eventually I realized I was never booting into my Mac partition. I played around very occasionally with dual-booting Linux as well, Ubuntu and then Linux Mint, but this was more for computer nerd clout than a genuine need or interest for libre software, also the command line scared me and I still played too many games to main a Linux distro.

I then built a PC for gaming, and ran Windows 7 on it until around 2 years ago when I got really into FOSS and switched to EndeavourOS which is what I've been happily using ever since. I've always enjoyed tinkering on computers, but with EndeavourOS I feel like I'm less battling with my OS and more with my lack of skill/knowledge, which is much more rewarding to surmount, and makes me feel like my system is truly mine.

Desktop: DOS

Mobile: Android 2.3

I cant help but feel this is some sort of password reset question farming...

Anyway,

ZX BASIC SUSE Linux 6.1

First OS was DOS. Then Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, then Debian when this happened.

my first os was windows 95, but my first linux distro must've been whatever version of ubuntu was current around 2007/2008.

I started with Commodore KERNAL/BASIC 2.0 on the VIC-20, if that counts as an operating system. Otherwise GeOS on the Commodore 64.

First Linux distro was slackware 3.0.

Windows 95

First OS: Windows 3.1 running on top of MS-DOS 6.2

First Linux distro: Ubuntu (forgot the version, but it was circa 2018).

If I'd count an OS/Linux distro that I've used even if not in a machine I own, it'd be Linux Mint of circa 2006.

VIC=20, Commodore 64, Vendex HeadStart, Zenith (forget the model), Tandy TL/2, then I had a 386SX/20 built, then I started building my own starting with a 486-DX4/100.

First dabbled with Linux when I bought a CD from Staples with "Linux95" on it. It was just Slackware. Then Red Hat 4.0 and Corel Linux.

For operating systems in general, my first computer ran Windows 95.

For my first Linux distro, that'd be Debian 12 Bookworm.

Commodore basic on the PET computer, back around 1981-1983. My grade school had three of them in the library, and since my mom was a teacher, she would sign one out for summer break and bring it home if any were available.

First OS was MS-DOS on a Tandy. First Linux distro was Knoppix.

Technically it was Kali on a VM. But I had absolutely no clue what I was doing (I was 9 years old) so I gave up.

Then I tried Ubuntu to get past my parental controls. Same thing.

Eventually had success with Mint 5 years later. Never looked back.

Apple DOS on an Apple IIe in school.

First Linux distro was Debian.

Windows Vista 👶

Texas Instruments ROM Basic, then later PC-DOS (not MSDOS)

XP. I only got into Linux about 6 months ago.

As a kid Amiga Workbench was my first desktop environment, and then later Win 3.11 in MS DOS.

I remember my dad toying with Linux but can't remember which one (he did settle on SuSE though I recall). My first linux distros was Ubuntu.

C16. Ugh I'm old.

C64 -> MS-DOS 3 -> 4DOS -> Win 95 -> Win 2000 -> Debian -> Ubuntu -> chaotic smattering of various distros that changed almost weekly -> Mint -> Arch -> Manjaro -> MXLinux -> SteamOS (SteamDeck), Rasbian.

DOS s.u.s.e. 4.x or 5.x

my first was windows for workgroups 3.11 with msdos 6.22 back in 1994; later upgraded to windows 95.

my first linux as mandrake linux (aka mandriva) in 2002 on kernel 2. i use linux fulltime now and no longer own a windows computer.

MS DOS v4.somthing. (1995)

Slackware that came on three 5.25" floppies. (1997)

First hard drive Linux: Debian.

Eventually red hat for several years, then back to Debian based (mint etc) around 2005. Been using Sid (Debian "unstable") for a long time.

DOS -> win95 -> win98 -> debian (and i'm still here 24 years later...)

My first OS was Apple OS and what the NCR's ran in 1978. My favorite game was snipes on Netware in 1986? My first OS distribution via retail box was windows 1.0. My first Linux distribution was FreeBSD 2.0 er wait.... My first Linux distribution was Debian 1.1 buzz on 3/5" floppies.

Windows vista

Was the worst

Then xp, 7, 10

Then I saw teachings of Prophet Stallman

Switched to manjaro (too buggy), pop OS (good) finally a fedora user (the penguin guide me)

DOS 5. 286-12. first Linux was slackware in... sometime in the 90s, installed from 1.44mb floppies. took a while.

Whatever Commodore 64 ran, back when I was a little kid in the early 90s.

Hmmmm Amsdos on an early amstrad CPC machine

First I put real time on would have been the Atari TOS, man those machines where the biz at the time!!

If you could call it an OS, ZX spectrum basic was my first. My first Linux was Slackware 6 or 7 installed from a string of floppies. Good times.

Windows Vista on my old family desktop.

First Linux distro, if it counts, was the Raspberry Pi OS

PC-DOS on an IBM 5150 (iirc).

DOS. Not sure what version, I was far too young to care. But not so young I couldn’t learn how to operate a command line interface!

Amiga Workbench 1.3. - preemptive multitasking ftw

In high school I got my hands on an old Sun workstation with Solaris, and eventually after a week or so of compiling switched to Gentoo

Windows 95, Knoppix and Mandrake Linux.

First OS was C64's Commodore KERNAL/BASIC 2.0 GEOS, if that even counts as an OS, the next was Amiga 500's AmigaOS

First Linux distro was Fedora

DOS/Win3.1 I was pretty young. It was far back enough that it was still common to find Apple II's in my grade-school classrooms off to the side for when we had downtime. I regret that I was just a little too young to experience the Commodore 64 craze.

Knoppix 3.something

It was ages ago.

First operating system was DOS 4 or 5, I think. On big 5.25” floppy disks on an 8088. Unless we’re counting whatever was running on a commodore vic20.

My first Linux distribution was Red hat Linux, somewhere around 1997, 1998 and I had a really tough time getting it installed.

I also once had a trial version of os/2 warp. Which was fun but pointless.

MS-DOS 5 or 6. I guess technically I used whatever Apple IIes had, first, but really I just loaded games from disk.

Windows 3.11 and Kubuntu 6.06LTS (still have the CD!)

My desktop OS history:

1. Windows 98
2. Windows XP
3. Windows Vista
4. Windows 7
5. Ubuntu
6. Linux Mint
7. Antergos
8. Arch Linux
9. NixOS

I've used others, but not enough to warrant a place in the list above.

Briefly some form of DOS on an Amstrad PC when I was very young, then Windows 95

My first Linux was a few years later with Mandrake IIRC, which I dual booted with Windows 98SE

Been running combinations of Linux and windows since then, with MacOS getting involved in the 2010's too