Mandrake Linux

Ubuntu (because I have seen it on laptops in shops), Debian (because I found out that Ubuntu is based on Debian, is a community distro instead of a company distro), OpenSuse (I wanted to try something different to apt, it looked different), Zorin (because I loved the custom desktop environments), Mint (because a software I needed didn’t work on Zorin, and because Cinnamon DE was very friendly), Trisquel (because it’s 100%, recommended by FSF). I also tested other distros in VM’s (Steam, Guix System, Pure OS, Dragora, Dynebolic, Alpine, Slackware and that’s all I remember). A really beautiful journey!

Debian 🥔

Ubuntu Feisty Fawn.

My first was Slackware in the 90s after a friend introduced it to me. He set up a system to use it as a proxy for our network at home to use but would frequently redoing that system so we didn’t have internet for sometimes days. It wasn’t a good time. Took years to use Linux again.

I think it was SuSE 5.1, we’re talking 1997. We got a CD at a show but I can’t remember which or where.

I started using Linux this year. I first tried out Debian, but then switched to mint. Has been very happy with mint every since, so I don’t think I will switch again in the near future.

Slackware, in the 90s, installed from floppy disks. I also used SuSE, Debian and now stick with Fedora.

redhat 4.1 or maybe 5.2 back around 1996-1998 (plus a freebsd release around the same time). I got a pile of probably 15 discs from walnut creek and they were the only two I could get running. I didn’t have internet access at the time.

I guess Ubuntu? 10 years ago or even more? can’t remember… Tried it for a bit but didn’t stick at first and went back to Windows until 2020.

Installed my first homelab and selfhosted application on my old spare laptop with Debian (only over command line).

So I gave Linux desktop another try… Ubuntu for a few days => Manjaro for a few days => EndeavourOS !

Got hooked and are now a proud EOS user for about 3 years and never will I look back into Windows !

I’m still in the learning process, but in the long run I will probably switch to bare bone Arch.

Lycoris in 2002. It sucked. I think I tried it because it was pushed towards newbies. I tried Mandrake with KDE not long after and that is when I really became a Linux fan.

Ubuntu. For Work purpose in 2020 as a development VM.

Since then i moved privately to Zorin and now to Nobara. At Work it still is Ubuntu for me, but hopefully i will soon change positions and can shelve that stuff.

OpenSuse with compiz going hard on an old laptop

Arch in like 2019 maybe.

I still like Arch, I tried all sorts of distros in VMs, most feel clunky to me.

Tiling manager, GUI file explorer, minimal status bar and I’m set.

For my laptop this is swaywm, swaybar, nautilus.

I also use drun-like programs

It’s hard to remember but it was some version of Mandrake probably in the early 2000’s. At the time, they were one of the only distros (along with Red Hat) to offer an installation GUI. As a first time user I found partitioning a hard drive too complex to do on the command line.

I only used Mandrake for a short time before reverting to windows but it wasn’t long after that when I came back and then started using Debian. Since then I went back to Windows then to OpenSuSe, then Debian, Kubuntu, Ubuntu, and now Pop!_OS.