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How Long Have You Been a Linux User?

linuxjournal.com — * From the beginnings of Linux - 1994 and earlier. I was hooked by kernel 1.0! * 1994-1996. Pre-2.0. * 1996-1999. Version 2.0. * 1999-2001. Version 2.2. * 2001-2003 Version 2.4. * 2003-2005. 2.6 got it right, and I came aboard. * 2005-2007 Linux was everywhere, and I had to check it out. * 2007-2008 I am a new user! [Welcome to the party!]

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  • RadonPL, on 05/15/2008, -0/+5Since Mandrake 10.0 :)
    Right now using openSUSE 11 Beta 3!
  • Kingoftherings, on 05/15/2008, -0/+5The first distro I used was Fedora Core 5, so I haven't been using Linux for that long. :P
  • insllvn, on 05/15/2008, -0/+5I played around with Linux a few times over the years, but I didn't switch completely until I tried Ubuntu 6.06. Wiped my drive on install, and have never looked back.
  • n0odles, on 05/15/2008, -0/+43 years ago, but I used it prior to that for 2 years on and off. Thats when Mandravia was called Mandrake. MP3 support was hard as hell to configure. Yes, Linux has come a long way, and there simply no stopping it from progressing beyond proprietary Operating Systems.
  • darthchaosrspw, on 05/15/2008, -0/+4July 2004 with Linspire 4.5. Used it for a few months then switched to Xandros 2.01 OCE and then upgraded to 3.01/3.02 OCE and finally switched to Ubuntu in June 2006 with the Ubuntu 6.06 LTS release. Now using Xubuntu 7.10.
  • Cryoniq, on 05/15/2008, -0/+6Since Slakware around 1994. Still using Slakware today, but mostly PCLinuxOS on Desktops/Laptops clientwize.
    • Wacer, on 05/16/2008, -0/+3Back in those days, www.gnu.org, ftp.cdrom.com, ftp.unc.sunsite.edu , www.gnu.org were the hopping sites to be at.
      XF86files had to be configured by hand. There was no Gnome or KDE. The best display one could get was fvwm. Making menus and putting things on the desktop was a tedious chore of manually configuring the users script.
      Makes me kinda miss those days as a person really learned the Linux system throughly.
  • ruiacp, on 05/16/2008, -0/+3I started with Red Hat in 1999 but command line only because of an unsupported video card. That issue was "solved" by Mandrake 7.
    After that: Mandrake 9, 10, Red Hat 9.0, Mandriva 2003, Fedora 4, Fedora 6 aka my liberation point*, Ubuntu 6.06, 7.04, 7.10, Kubuntu 8.04 and probably Fedora 9 (looking for the best KDE4 distro). Also used Debian, Slackware and Ubuntu Server on a VM to learn server configuration/administration.

    *liberation point - the day Linux replaced window$ as my main OS. I still have dual boot just because of gaming, but with Linux my game addiction is reducing (maybe the lack of originality in recent PC games too)
  • valis, on 05/16/2008, -0/+3Wow. That read like an AA meeting. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
  • bratterscain, on 05/16/2008, -0/+2Since 2003 with Redhat and Mandrake (Mandrive now). Now dual booting Vista and K/Ubuntu. Good to see how much Linux has grown.
  • InuX, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1I have linux on and off over the years,but now I am certain I will switch within a month or so. My first attempt was with red hat 9, since the install failed due to a bad cd I tried linspire 4.5 which was pretty bad. I gave up for a while and finally tried ubuntu 6.06 which then lead me to experiment will different distributions.
  • AwesomousPrime, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1Mine was Corel Linux. From CompUSA.
  • ghindo, on 05/16/2008, -1/+2Started with UBANTO a couple years back. Great intorduction to Lunix.
  • DontEatTheFish, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1sometime when they switch from 2.2 to 2.4, I remember it being a big deal, and not knowing why.
    Started with SUSE, and later moved to Ubuntu.
  • Stonekeeper, on 05/16/2008, -0/+2Started in 1995/1996. Those were the days of 40 floppy disk installs.
  • boobyman, on 05/16/2008, -1/+2I dual-boot between Ubuntu and Vista. I would use ubuntu primarily if I had photoshop, lightroom, illustrator and inDesign.
    As a webdesigner it's hard using ubuntu :(
    • Cryoniq, on 05/16/2008, -0/+2I'd say that it isn't about Ubuntu in that case, it is about that it is hard to relearn. But fear not.. Photoschop CS and more work good in GNU/Linux thanks to Wine etc. And there are many replacements for those products, that in fact are better and much more stable and productive when you relearned to how they work. People assume that windows and MacOS offer the most productive software, but basically that isn't because of the OS:es they run on etc, but depends of course very much on the individual, but also on how the structure in a software actually connect with an individuals brain in the far run. And I feel that most open source and GNU/Linux/*NIX software does that a lot.
  • TheLoneWolf071, on 05/16/2008, -0/+16th Grade. So about 9 year. Remember using Redhat 6 as my first distro
  • andywebb95, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1Started with Redhat as a server around 2002.
    Played with Mandrake as a desktop.... moved to Redhat on the desktop.
    Moved to SUSE as a server just recently.
    Started using Ubuntu as a desktop around a year or two ago.
  • JazzClutchkick, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1The only reason I stop using linux on and off is because of gaming support. I love my games and XP gives me all that Ubuntu does...except compiz, amarok...etc but it also has ventrilo and Counter Strike Source. I started with Red Hat, then yellow dog, then ubuntu, then fedora, the zen linux, then ubuntu. Still using ubuntu to this day
  • linharesalex, on 05/16/2008, -0/+32008; they got me with compiz
  • LittleLORDevil, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1Fedora Core 4 was my first experience then migrated to Ubuntu Dapper and through the Ubuntu sequence.
  • Wacer, on 05/16/2008, -0/+3My first linux was Slackware 1.01 kernel 0.99. This was back in 1993. Those were the days.
  • weizbox, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1Mandriva 6.x in 1999, Gentoo since 2000.
  • GreatDrok, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1Slackware back in 1994. Initially, I didn't have a CDROM drive so I bought 40 floppies and downloaded the installer from sunsite using my office Sun SparcStation which could dd the discs. Installed it on a 486DX33 with 8MB of RAM and a 120MB drive. To have a fully functioning gcc compiler suite and X11 was amazing. I bought a SoundBlaster Pro CDROM drive and bought a CD copy of Slackware from Walnut Creek. Added a 14.4 modem and I was on the net. I have used Unix systems since 1990 so Linux was a perfectly natural step for me.

    I find it funny today that so many people wonder when Linux will catch up with Windows on the desktop. Back in those days, Linux was far far better as a desktop environment than Windows was. More powerful, internet capable, compilers, the lot.
  • badassninja, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1Ubuntu 2007. Reading about Vista and knowing that XP support wouldn't last forever I made up my mind to learn Linux as much as I could so that when people felt like they "had" to leave XP I could be a Digital Jedi and show them the way of the force. Vista was just moving to far int he direction of your computer serving Microsoft and other major corporations and by nature open source places the user above all things. The point of a computer is to do what you want, how you want and when you want and NEVER do I ever want to hear, " I'm sorry but I can't do that dave."
    • knight666, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1Exactly my experience.
      It started with a thread on Digg about how Microsoft was going to drop XP at the end of Q2, coincidentally my birthday.
      A commenter on Digg stated that Ubuntu was like, totally betterer anyway, so he didn't care, and I figured "What the hell, I have two machines running XP, might as well try this 'Ubuntu' thing".
      I spent three days getting sound working, but other than that, LOVED it.

      The only gripes I have with Ubuntu is that Adobe Flash CS3 and Game Maker do not run on it, which I need for my education as a game designer.
  • buffyangel108, on 05/16/2008, -1/+1Since we had a President who could pronounce 'iguana'. It's been a while.
  • mintblogger, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1I've been using it since the release of kernel 2.4.x.x . The first linux distro that I tried was Red Hat 7.2 .
  • oobuntu, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1Redhat 5.1 (manhattan) 1998. Took weeks to get a network card working. I used the machine to run a squid internet proxy for the whole company (>200 employees). I never told them that machine was an old pc running without a lid on (because the case was broken). Uptime/stability was awesome.
  • shadus, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1I was using slack in 1994. Linux has come so far in driver support, I can remember the hellish problems I had getting some of my devices to work back then, now except for video everything is pretty much detected and ready at first boot.
  • christianc, on 05/17/2008, -0/+0Slackware 3.0, kernel 1.2.13, around Christmas 95. This was a P75 win95 dual boot, the linux partition was like 50MB.
  • Tamimi, on 05/25/2008, -0/+0I think I have set up the first linux/samba sever in Amman Jordan . It was 1998 and we used a Redhat Linux at Zine Technological Applications to provide shared files storage to a 200 node network mixed between Windows and Apple Talk. I know others have done a lot of work on Unix and Solaris in Jordan , but I dont think anyone did actually put a linux to real business services before that time.
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