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.

First Operating System: Windows 98

First Linux Distribution: Ubuntu Trusty

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.

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!

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

Ubuntu 4.10 “warty”

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

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

Anyway,

ZX BASIC SUSE Linux 6.1

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.

Apple DOS on an Apple IIe in school.

First Linux distro was Debian.

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

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.

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.

C16. Ugh I'm old.

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.

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

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.

Windows Vista 👶

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

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

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.

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

Desktop: DOS

Mobile: Android 2.3

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.

Windows 95, Knoppix and Mandrake Linux.

First operating system I ever used was probably Windows XP, first Linux distro was probably either Ubuntu or Puppy Linux on an old laptop (I remember trying out the Ubuntu web demo back in like 2014.)

Amiga Workbench 1.3. - preemptive multitasking ftw

Desktop: Windows XP

Linux: Probably Raspbian on a Pi 2 b

Tech has come a long way since then lol

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

Windows 98 and Ubuntu

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!!

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

Sinclair Basic on my ZX81 with 1k ram. My first personal linux distro was Redhat 5.2. I used VAXVMS at work.

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

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

Windows XP

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

Knoppix 3.something

It was ages ago.

First OS: MS-DOS, I reckon around v3 - was running on an IBM XT PC.

First Linux distro: Slackware, came on a CD-ROM on the front of a PC magazine.

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. 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!

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.

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.

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.

Windows 98, Windows XP, Ubuntu 6.06, some other distros on and off, Arch Linux is the last OS I would ever need for desktop PC btw

PC-DOS on an IBM 5150 (iirc).

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.

Comodore 64 os in the late 80's then msdos, win 3.1, etc. First Linux distro i believe was either slackware or debian.

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.

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

Windows 1998 on a Pentium2. First linux distro was Ubuntu, uh....8.04 I think ? That was much later.

Whatever an Apple IIe ran. Some sort of DOS from what I remember.

C64 Basic, Yggdrasil Linux. I wanted to install Minix, in the pre-Linux times, but it was beyond my abilities

First OS - DOS 5.0 First Linux - Knoppix

Ubuntu Feisty Fawn. 2007. I was looking for new and exotic ways to avoid writing papers.

First OSish was what came default with the Commodore 64. My first full fledged OS was Windows 3.11. My first Linux distro was Mandrake I think 6.

First OS was DOS (I think) on an Apple IIE at school. I think there were a few Commodore 64’s there as well. A couple years later we got our first home computer running Windows 95. Good times playing Doom, Jane’s Apache, an MS Flight Simulator.

My first personal computer was running Windows XP and I switched to Ubuntu sometime in 2004. Ran Ubuntu for the most part till a few months ago when I switched my desktop and laptop to NixOS.

Started self hosting services in 2012 and started with Ubuntu as base OS. Now though most of my servers are Proxmox with the VMs usually running Ubuntu LTS, though NixOS is starting to creep in there as well.

Windows 98. Later the first Linux distro I tried was Mandrake Linux but I didn't really get into it until later with Crunchbang.

Windows 98se for first OS Some version of Knoppix for first Linux experiments First real use of Linux with Ubuntu (ca 2010)

Probably some version of DOS, I can't remember. First Linux distro was Fedora Core 4.

First OS windows 95 First linux distro ubuntu Currently manjaro, windows 11, macos

My first OS was most likely DR DOS 3.41

For my daily driver desktop PCs that was followed by

• MS-DOS 5.0
• Windows 3.11
• Windows 98 SE
• Windows XP
• Windows 7
• Windows 10

On the linux side, I got started with Gentoo, experimented with several lightweight distributions for an old laptop and had a Mint VM for a few years. These days I run Ubuntu on a couple of servers and in WSL. Never got around to using it as my main desktop OS.

For university I had (in order) an iBook G3, a MacBook and a MacBook Pro, so you can add most of macOS 10.x to that list.

Well, this sets a new level of recent here judging by the comments.

Desktop OS: Linux Mint 20 MATE. Yep, that's right. I only got my first proper computer in 2020.
Thankfully, I had to install the OS myself, which was of course preceded by choosing an OS.
I had Windows 10 on that laptop for 2 days which served me to compare different OSs and burn the install DVD. I had no flash drives, and just dug out one old DVD-RW. OK, I'll be honest, hearing about Linux first I was searching for "just Linux", pure Linux, not derivatives. Oh well, GNU+Linux copypasta actually being helpful.

Alright, but why did I "have" to install an OS if I got it with Windows? It was used. I did reset it, but even though it was my first proper PC, I had no lack of paranoia. I thought that someone before me could have put spyware on that.
And I was right. Not the way I thought, but I was. That someone was Microsoft.

MSX, some version of MS-DOS, DR-DOS, Windows 3.0, 3.11, Slackware 3.0, Windows 95,98,NT,XP,7, CentOS, and now, MacOS.

At work, Windows XP,7 and 10, and several versions and flavors of RHEL.

Amiga back when you booted off floppies.

Then I guess ms-dos for pc.

For Linux I got a box set for redhat from compusa in 99 and learned from there.

Commodore64 for first OS, taught myself to type and then taught myself BASIC on that beast.

I honestly do not know what my first Linus distro was, whatever was on the machines in the CS half of the computer lab in college. First one I installed myself was Ubuntu, but I abandoned it almost immediately in favor of another distro that I also don't remember.

Technically (but only very technically as we basically never used them and they were obsolete at the time already) it would have been a version of Acorn MOS but realistically it was Windows 3.1.

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

First OS: Win 95 (As a wee lad). First Linux: early lubuntu and backtrack that I used in college around 08-09.

My first OS was Windows 98.

Linux distro was Ubuntu 6.0.

NOS (Contral Data Corp's operating system). For Unix it was probably HP-UX or SunOS and when I started running Linux it was VA LInux then RedHat and finally Fedora Core 1 (which I've done an upgrade of every release since -- Fedora 40)

Le menu.

DOS and Windows 95. First linux distro was Ubuntu in the mid-2000s when I got a used netbook that I wasn't aware had linux instead of Windows on it.

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

Atari 800 basic.

Gentoo was the first distro I used for any significant amount of time (college).

Windows → Mint → Windows → Void → NixOS

First linux distro was Ubuntu but I used it in VM but the actual daily driver was Archlinux. I think Windows XP was the first OS which i used on computer(In home sure but in school maybe it was Windows 97?)

Macintosh System 7. Then I moved to Windows 98, which was the style at the time.

It was a Lisa. Those were good times.

CP/M on a Kaypro II. My uncle was a contractor for the US air force. Even had a modem - a wooden box he built to hold a telephone handset.

Fun times.

First OS: MS-DOS 5

First Linux (many years later): Yellow Dog on one of those dome-shaped iMacs with the PPC chips

I had a Debian PC for a while, it was more of a project. IT work still revolved around Windows back then. Later I discovered Puppy Linux and ran that on a live USB. I encrypted the hard drive in my work laptop and never had to worry about anything making from the USB to my work data. Not a bad way to live, only had to carry around one laptop when I traveled for work.

The first one I remember using was good old Windows 98.

Microsoft Extended BASIC

First OS: I think it was Windows 98. I have then gone through XP, Vista, 7 and staying at 10 for as long as i can.

First Linux distro: Ubuntu 10.04 or 10.10 don't remember clearly but it certainly was before GNOME 3 and in a VM. From then i have also run Fedora, Debian and most recently Linux Mint and Pop! OS in VMs as well. Maybe one day i finally set up a dual boot...

Commodore ROM BASIC; 1980

The first one my family owned, was Windows 95.

Not sure if the first one I used was Windows 3.x, DOS, or MacOS

Windows 3.11

School: if it wasn’t a Macintosh Plus it was something like it. We were given very little time with it and had to go to a special computer room to use them so I don’t remember a lot of specifics about it, beyond the school tech guy having to painstakingly load each program we wanted to use manually from a floppy

Home: Windows 3.1. I don’t think we got the internet until Windows 95, though

First operating system was probably either Windows 98 or Windows 2000. First Linux operating system was Ubuntu 10.10.

First os was whatever was on a apple II. First linux was fedora. I spent 9 years using various red hat disteos as my main work machine.

Gaming kept me on windows at home. Now that proton let's me game i've been running mint debian for over a year and loving it.

My wife uses arch btw.

TOS

Windows '95. My mom didn't know the concept of backwards incompatibility and got it second hand in 2001. It was hard to find something that would run on it beyond Doom.

First OS was DOS, though my parents used a computer with Windows 3.1 on it before we got the dos box.

Excluding Damn Small Linux, first real Linux was Mandrake 9.2 (download edition).

Windows 7 -> Windows 10 -> Kubuntu -> Linux Mint -> Nobara -> Pop!_OS -> OpenSUSE TumbleWeed -> EndeavourOS

First OS: Windows ME (shudders)

First Linux distro: Some random one designed to run on Netbooks (Couldn't get wireless to work if I remember correctly)

Slackware 1.0, dann S.u.S.E

First OS: TRSDOS 1.3

First Linux distro: Slackware 4

Of course Ubuntu was my first Linux distribution. I didn't use it for long.

Zx spectrum --> msx-dos --> ms-dos --dr-dos --> win95 --> Suse (before it was bought by novell) --> win98 --> debian

Reading the comments I want to say I feel old (25y) but compared to others I feel like a gen alpha

I came late in the tech world. I started with Windows XP

And my first distro was Ubuntu 10.10 till Ubuntu 17.10. Now I just hop from distro to distro. Right now using Pop!_OS for a year now.

Apple ProDOS yo! Then System 6 and on.

First Linux was a Debian disto packaged with Linux for Dummies somewhere in the late 90s/early 00s.

Windows 3.1, 98SE, XP, 7, 8.1, 10 and now 11.

I did once use Ubuntu for a few weeks but this was after someone at school goaded me into acquiring a copy of Norton PartitionMagic to try and merge two awkwardly partitioned drives on my computer, which then nuked my C:\ partition. I didn't have a backup copy of Windows XP to reinstall from so I had to go open source.

Needless to say, we didn't remain friends after that.

Windows XP on a laptop. Then Windows 7 on a new laptop. After that, Windows 10 and Windows 11 on desktop and another new laptop.

Tried Debian on my laptop. Later, switched completely to Linux Mint on desktop. Distro-hopped to Kubuntu (KDE Plasma). Wanted to get Plasma 6 immediately after release, so I installed EndeavourOS on my desktop and laptop.

Now switched to pure Arch Linux on my desktop PC, didn't boot Windows on any of my private PCs for months (no dual boot, only GPU passthrough VM).

The first OS I recall using is Windows 7 (yes I’m young), and for Linux, I switched from Windows 11 to Linux Mint, which is what I use in the present day.

First time --> Basic (???)(Amstrad CPC464) --> MS DOS Windows --> 3.11 (yes, 3.11)-> W95 -> W98 -> Win Me -> Win XP -> Win 7 -> Win 10 (only for some games) GNU/Linux --> (2013) Mint -> Debian ->Manjaro (2-3 days) -> POPos (2-3 days) -> Mint -> Nobara --> Fedora (last Year)

Personal computer? Windows 3, I believe, but worked on computer earlier than that by a couple of years - I'm not sure what OS, it was maintained by this old guy named, no kidding, Mr. Fox. Had a rudimentary spreadsheet program.

First os: technically the Wii's os and android

First Linux: Ubuntu 16.04 (I remember it like it was yesterday 🥲)

My first OS was whatever ran on a Commodore 64. I guess the Commodore kernel and Basic?

My first distro was whatever version of Fedora was current in the fall of 2008. I'd gone to university that year and my laptop crapped out. Couldn't afford a legit Windows license at the time to replace it, and I'm pretty sure I just remembered that Red Hat was a thing and found Fedora that way. One thumb drive and 16 years later, still using linux, so I guess that was about the only good thing to come from my abortive first attempt at higher education.

Mac OS 7. By the mid-2000s, I adopted Arch Linux after looking into some other Linux distributions.

DR-DOS

On my first PC it was DOS 2.0, but before that I had a Vic-20, then a Commodore 64.

MS DOS 2.11.

Apple DOS Edit: Apple ProDOS
First Linux, I'm not sure anymore. Whatever was prevalent in the mid 2000s.

Windows XP, but it was during its ending phase, so I think it really was Vista. My first Linux distro was Kali Linux because I wanted to be a cool hacker when I was a kid. I never got too much into it then, though. I then found Ubuntu, and strangely enough, I switched to Trisquel, which wasn't too bad. I decided to go all the way and buy a T400 with Libreboot/Trisquel when I was about 15 years old and used that as my second computer for about two years. I learned how to start installing Libreboot myself. It was a really fun experience (not really, there was a lot of quitting and crying), but it taught me more about GNU and the entire philosophy. I started to learn more about GNU and RMS when I was 18. Now I'm 20 and use Arch. The end.

My first Linux distro was Ubuntu 5.04 that I got from a free magazine cd from my university.

DOS - Win3.1 - Win95/98 - BeOS - Red Hat Linux - WinXP - Mac OS X - WinVista/7/8 - MacOS X - Win10 - Debian Linux (and staying with it).

On the Linux side: Crunchbang Linux when it was running Debian

I tried Microsoft Windows & Apple OS X before that, but that is is now behind me… as is Debian & Arch being a NixOS user for the last few years.

First OS: DOS 4.something on dad's PCXT clone.

First Linux: Kurumin Linux

mint->chromeOs->kali->windows->arch->openbsd->arch->nix

Red Hat 7