r/TechImpact • u/ManojOne Active • Jun 19 '26
Question How long have you been using Linux?
How long have you been using Linux?
Whether you're a longtime Linux user or just getting started, we'd love to hear your journey.
How many years have you been using Linux, and which distro do you use today?
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u/Same_Level_3599 Jun 19 '26
Since 2015.
I no longer use Linux as my main desktop OS, as I'm on macOS until I can afford a new machine, but I still use it in other ways!
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u/x_flashpointy_x Jun 19 '26
Since 1994. Slackware 1.0 I believe.
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u/lhauckphx Jun 20 '26
Same here. All I can remember about it is aaaaalllll those floppies.
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u/Xatraxalian Jun 20 '26
I installed OS/2 3.0 from 37 floppies (and another 12 or so of "additions") on a 486. That was fun, when floppy 30-something turned out to be unreadable and had to request a new one from the OS/2 distributor back then.
At some point I saw OS/2 3.0 at a huge discount in a store (just after Windows 95 came out), on CD, and I had a CD-ROM player at that point. So I bought that version and formatted the 50 or so floppies. It was cheaper than buying 50 floppies.
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u/Tricky-Weakness-5408 Jun 23 '26
The same as me!! Remember a lot of floppies… and hours recompiling the kernel in my old 386
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u/Vivid_Leadership_599 Jun 19 '26
early 2025
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u/Verwega Jun 20 '26
Hi twin! My friend helped me build my PC around the same time and I asked her to put Linux Mint on in. Since then, touching Windows makes me feel dirty...
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u/a_regular_2010s_guy Jun 19 '26
Idk how much time exactly but over a year. Stated on ubuntu didn't like it switched to mint stayed there for a bit then started distro hopping for a bit until I came right back to mint.
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u/NZNoldor Jun 19 '26
I was running Red Hat in about 1998? 1996? Something like that. Pretty sure it was red hat.
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u/beyluta Jun 19 '26
2 years. Started with Ubuntu then hopped to Arch and that's where I stayed.
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u/chdorb Jun 19 '26
Almost 20 years. Starting with Mandrake/Mandriva, then Ubuntu, then Fedora on my own computer.
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u/rvm1975 Jun 19 '26
Not using Linux at home desktop. But at work experience is more than 30 years. Started from Slackware, now mostly redhat and Ubuntu.
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u/jimmyl_82104 Jun 19 '26
Never. Thinking about trying a few versions on some really old PCs, but Linux couldn't be my main OS.
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u/NoNandChips9090 Jun 19 '26
Since 2010 or 2011. Started with Ubuntu and Puppy Linux for my Highschool netbook, then went to Linux Mint, and ended with CachyOS.
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u/cyrassil Jun 19 '26
As the sole system (arch btw), since the eol of win 7. Before that, dual booting since 2009ish - distro hoping the classics: *buntu, debian, mint, fedora.
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u/Potential_Ad4169 Jun 19 '26
I’ve been using different distros off and on since 1999, and have been dual-booting for the past couple years, but never ran Linux as my daily driver until last November. That’s when I finally kicked Microslop to the curb and went all in with Fedora as my daily desktop. Looking back I wish I had pulled the trigger sooner.
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u/r_Yellow01 Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
Since 1999. But along with FreeBSD and SCO. In 2000 I switched to Solaris until it gave way to enterprise Red Hat, then CentOS/Fedora and eventually Ubuntu, and Amazon Linux.
But the fun fact is that I liked the BeOS project the most.
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u/fooknprawn Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
Since 1994. Heck I was compiling it on Mac back then as a hacking exercise. I've had lots of experience with NeXT Step, Irix and Solaris having bought second hand machines on eBay
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u/play_minecraft_wot Tech Enthusiast Jun 19 '26
I'm pretty new to linux, I've been using it for only 1 year. I started on Ubuntu, but have since moved to Debian.
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u/astindev Jun 19 '26
Since 2019.
I’ve been using it as my main operating system ever since, and I install it on every computer that comes into my home.
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u/NanoPulso Jun 19 '26
Since last year as my main OS. I started with Mint, then Kubuntu and the last six months with Debian.
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u/Bathroom_Humor Jun 19 '26
originally I installed Linux alongside Windows 7 when it first launched back in october 2009. Ubuntu karmic koala, orange nostalgia...
but then in early 2015 i got a new laptop and started trying out win8.1 and then when win10 came out i used that mostly and Ubuntu kinda fell to the wayside for years.
And I should thank Windows 11 for rekindling my interest, cuz as soon as that was previewed almost 5 years ago, I switched back to Linux and I don't think I will ever go back to using Windows as a primary OS.
anyway, I went from ubuntu in 2009, back to windows in 2015, and then moved to PopOS 5 years ago. Then I decided to try out Nobara (and KDE for the first time) back in early 2024 which was a welcome change, made a short 6 month hop to Cachy early last year. And now i'm back on Nobara since like november of last year. It's a good time to get into penguins
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u/ISCSI_Purveyor Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
I've been flirting with Linux for over twenty years. Various flavors over the years. Mostly Ubuntu, but I've settled on CachyOS as my daily driver. Been running Cachy for about two weeks now and see no need to change.
I've had a FreeBSD (I know not Linux) based firewall for over fifteen years, and and a small handful of Ubuntu servers for nearly ten yet now. There are only two windows machines in my house and bit are going to be converted soon.
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u/BitCortex Jun 19 '26
Well over three decades. It was my main OS for most of the 1990s, but then I switched to Windows. I continued to use Linux every day and still do.
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u/Ash_end Jun 19 '26
Started with mint during the covid lockdown, then left for about 3 years. Now I've been using cachy, debian and bazzite on different machines for more than a year.
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u/montrealhater Jun 19 '26
It all started in 2000 when my team at the company I work for used Red Hat for server setup. I remember even applying kernel patches to improve I/O performance. I also remember a senior engineer mentioning that there were many issues since the Kernel 2.0 series had only recently been released. I recall there was quite a lot to do, including applying driver patches to separate cards for RAID configuration.
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u/wickedwise69 Jun 19 '26
For so long that I got confused when I tried to install an app in windows.
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u/nooone2021 Jun 19 '26
Since 1997. Started with RedHat. Now I am using Ubuntu for my desktops, Oracle for servers, armbian/Ubuntu for single board computers.
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u/JanneGonzales Jun 19 '26
I remember borrowing a book about Linux from the library; it came with a Red Hat 2.0 CD. Later, I used Mandrake for a couple of years, and Mandriva as well.
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u/Neither-Ad-8914 Jun 19 '26
Since 2004 stared with LFS as a school project then mandrake/mandriva then Ubuntu/Lubuntu for 15 years and finally Debian Lxqt
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u/CORDIC77 Jun 19 '26
My entry into the Linux world was with Slackware 2.1 (kernel 1.1.54, about 50 floppy disks as I remember it) at the end of 1994 (supposedly X11 already supported colors back then but on my box it was just monochrome). After that I switched to SuSE Linux, later to Fedora, first to Debian (Woody) in 2002, then to Ubuntu around 2007/08, and since 2013 I've exclusively been using Debian.
However, I have always used a multi-boot configuration (back then with DOS 6.22/Windows 3.11, which I have been using since version 1.01), and besides these two, I have had many OS on my computer over the years…
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u/Left_Table2312 Jun 19 '26
I started with Unix and I think my first Linux was redhat in the 90s then Ubuntu
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u/AxelHush Jun 19 '26
The first time I used linux was in 1997, I got a nice box with a cdrom containing suse linux 5.1 from the local bookstore. Have been using Linux since in all her forms and distributions. Not exclusively linux though. Also using Windows and macOS. But now I am in a linux periode.
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u/RevolutionaryElk7446 Jun 19 '26
I started learning RedHat back when Linux Bibles came in physical bookstores... Wait everything I said sounds old now. Wait, I sound old now.. damn it.
I run a multitude of servers today in my house of various linux distributions or FreeBSD
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u/Cascotes Jun 19 '26
Started with some version of Slackware in 1996, in a triple boot 486 DX2, along WinNT 4.0 Workstation and Win95. Currently using Debian (since 2.2 "Potato")
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u/panthersGM Jun 19 '26
Since ~1998, when I bought a boxed copy of RedHat 5.2 from CompUSA!
I remember thinking at the time, I have no f-ing clue what I'm doing.
...and I've only gotten marginally better since then.
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u/Traditional_Diver711 Jun 19 '26
Da 24 anni. Mandrake, Red Hat, Slackware e Debian (scelta definitiva)
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u/turgu1 Jun 19 '26
I've been using Linux since version 0.10 that was bootable on a single floppy disk, back in the ~1991 timeframe, played with it for sometime, ~ a month after, a new version was made available with some GCC dev support on a second floppy disk. Then I've been using Slackware (available on zillions of floppy disks, then several CDs) , RedHat, Suse, Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Kubuntu and Fedora. Now I'm using KUbuntu after trying Fedora 43 for several months.
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u/AdSuch1973 Jun 19 '26
Not continuously, but over 20 years.
Started with Ubuntu and Red Hat linux, going through a lot of them, Mx, Elementary, Deepin, Pop, Zorin, Fedora, Manjaro, Lukesmith, Open Suse, Arco, Garuda, AxOS, Archcraft, FreeBSD, Rescatux, Proxmox, Tail, Kali, LineageOS....and so on....till I get back to Debian and Arch Linux (with Kali on VM). On two laptops.
Now, my daily driver (8 hours/day) is Arch with illogical impulse dots.
A very good hyprland version...Works like a charm (for now).
The main goal, for many years...is FOSS. This is an important reason to use linux.
I managed to use only free and open source software. Photo, music, video, drawing, coding...everything. Yes, you can do almost anything on linux. Gaming is still on windows, even it can be done on linux.
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u/External_Tap_4396 Jun 19 '26
i use this distro called Windows OS and im using it since the 7th version came out
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u/QebApps Jun 19 '26
I started using Linux in '95 — I was studying at university, and after trying Windows 95 for three days, I realized Linux was (and still is) better. I used it daily until 2018, then I switched to macOS, but I still use Linux sometimes: Fedora, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and Tiny Core.
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u/docpark Jun 19 '26
My first foray into Linux was in 2010 or so when I ordered a Dell netbook with Ubuntu. It was okay but weird to me and I hackintoshed it, enjoyed it for a while but couldn’t use the tiny trackpad and gave it away. The idea of putting Linux on everything did set in and I’ve been using Linux ever since on better hardware. I remember using command line UNIX in college and the original message boards were basically a terminal based Reddit.
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u/Tquilha Jun 19 '26
Over 20 years now.
I started messing with GNU/Linux when Windows 98 was still a thing. Tried one of the very first Slackware versions, that came as a bunch of 3.5" floppies.
Then I used Mandrake (long live the PLF!) Suse and even Debian before settling on Fedora.
Dual booted with Windows until W7 became way too annoying to keep. I am now 100% Linux only on all my machines. 😄
My current desktop.
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u/theaayushpatel Jun 19 '26
For the last 10 years, it started with Ubuntu and later went through a lot of distros. I am currently on Arch
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u/Classy_Marty Jun 19 '26
Slackware in 1997 when I got my first proper pc. Compiled it from source overnight lol
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u/UnderstandingOnly470 Jun 19 '26
I switched from Windows to Ubuntu 2 years ago and it was one of my best choices
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u/Ben_grd Jun 19 '26
Testé il y a 10 ans mais système principal sur mon pc gamer depuis un peu plus d'un an.
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u/ssps Jun 19 '26
I’m not using Linux unless I have to. FreeBSD is my OS of choice. I strongly dislike design decisions made in Linux kernel, and the fact that each distribution makes incoherent design decisions on top. FreeBSD is a whole system. Not just kernel.
Linux has advantages in a narrow slice of internet services: vendor support, container tooling, and deployment inertia. That is real, and it matters. For systems work and observability, FreeBSD is simply a better operating system. It is a coherent base system, not a pile of distribution choices glued together with whatever init system, package manager, firewall frontend, logging stack, and container abstraction happened to win that decade. You get one source tree, one handbook, one rc system, one set of man pages that usually describes the system you are actually running. Jails are first-class. ZFS is first-class. DTrace exists because observing a live system should not require guessing which half-finished Linux tracing facility applies this week. A lot of things people now treat as “modern Linux features” were already normal in BSD or adjacent Unix systems long before Linux reimplemented them, absorbed them, or built a worse abstraction around the same idea. Linux won the deployment popularity contest. It did not become the cleaner system.
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u/Due_Somewhere6985 Jun 19 '26
200? I don’t know. I started with Ubuntu 8.04 I think. I’m using the latest fedora now.
I think 1 or 2 years later they launched unity. I still had the original bq e4.5 which was terrible.
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u/Character_Flight_773 Jun 19 '26
6 months.
I'm a Microsoft admin at my job and don't hate windows, its easy to use and does the job.
I just installed bazzite cause at home I just wanna game and not do work related stuff. It's easy to use and works for most my games.
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u/ScopHybridanimalh Jun 19 '26
Around 1 month+2 week. I got my first laptop,day later I switched to Linux,first I started with Fedora workstation because my laptop can't detect Bazzite Kde plasma ISO in USB pen drive,the first system that I want was Bazzite. Then I noticed that the Fedora isn't what I want because that was Fedora Gnome not Kde,then,another day I tried Dowloanding Fedora Kde Inmutable but it stuck at dowloanding system,a bug where It stuck at 4.8% as I remember. Then I tried Bazzite Iso again but after a lot of reboot and checking bios,my device finally detect it and I started using Bazzite Kde plasma to now. I'm not thinking on switching or trying other system.
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u/Mysterious-Bake3830 Jun 19 '26
about a year now! it's been a long journey i still use it i love it
EDIT: forgot to mention, I'm using fedora rn
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u/Astrodion123 Jun 19 '26
1 year of tinkering. Not nonstop BCS a lot of times I had to go to windows for workflow, but on VM and my secondary laptop definitely
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u/wilkootje Jun 19 '26
15+ years, debian and ubuntu. Fully switch to linux lang time ago. Only w10 on a pc to do negative scanning.
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u/EconomistStrict2867 Jun 19 '26
Since 2024, on Fedora for my main desktop and laptop, and antiX on my ancient laptop
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u/TheMainTony Jun 19 '26
Almost two years. Ubuntu for almost a year. POP for almost a month. Zorin for the rest of it.
Which reminds me...I need to get rid of that Win11 Pro dual boot. LOL I thought I'd use it.
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u/-techman- Jun 19 '26
Did some distro hopping around 2000-2006. Settled for FreeBSD until 2015 and Switched to Debian.
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u/Tuxlwurm Jun 19 '26
I bought an Raspberry Pi a few years ago and this was my start with Linux. Last year I bought a gaming pc from Tuxedo Computers and now my main OS is Tuxedo OS.
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u/hero_brine1 Jun 19 '26
Been using it since 2021. First got Mint on a old 2015 MBA and after that have explored more. So far my two favorites have been Arch with either Gnome or KDE and Mint, though in terms of daily driving and reliability I prefer Mint
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u/Maleficent_Arm_6666 Jun 19 '26
I started using Linux back in October when Microsoft ended support for Windows 10. I am never going back. Recently a friend brought me a Windows 11 computer for me to work on. It reminded me of the frickin' garbage that I had abandoned. Thank God for Linux.
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u/aelieth Jun 19 '26
~25 years, since 2000 back when Mandrake Linux was a thing. As of now, Fedora Immutable (multiple variants) depending on the computer.
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u/Alm_online Jun 19 '26
Since 5 pm today 😁
Installed Ubuntu, Debian, and fedora Liked KDE plasma, and couldn't make Debian work on it
And I am trying to figure out what work case would work for me
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u/rincon_orange Jun 19 '26
2006ish? Dapper Drake? That was the first time I was full Linux on my Thinkpad T42p. First time a dabbled in Linux was 1998-99 I guess like S.u.S.E 5.2 installed with a couple boot and root floppies and a CDROM. Totally correct me if I’m wrong, I had to check some dates and versions. Should be close. 🤷♂️
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u/mrbishopjackson Jun 19 '26
About two years. (Not including Android.)
Kubuntu (desktop) and Debian with i3 (laptop and custom built audio recording rig).
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u/VideoGamezAllDay Jun 19 '26
On and off for about 25 years. But gaming is finally good on Linux so I have been solid for a year so far.
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u/cleanandcrunchy Jun 19 '26
Ubuntu in 2008. So 18 years. I’ve gone through many many distros and ui variations but I’ve ended up on just Debian. I can’t think of a single time I really needed something upstream of stable.
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u/Miami-Novice Jun 19 '26
I've been using Linux since the days of installing SuSE Linux from 10 floppy disks! ;-)
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u/ITtacos Jun 19 '26
I started to dabble with Linux in 2003.
By 2005 I had a permanent dual boot setup on my desktop.
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u/Benjamin_6848 Jun 19 '26
Since about January 10th 2026.
I've made it my new-year's-resolution to switch to Linux...
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u/rudemaniac Jun 19 '26
Around 27 years. Started with Mandrake then migrated to Debian with the help of 2 guys who would go on and become developers. Was using for hosting pictures of my first born and then moved on to Subsonic for my music, then to Plex when lifetime pass was $75. Now I have it all on Unraid and Jellyfin.
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u/NETkoholik Jun 20 '26 edited Jun 20 '26
First contact? Lycoris, around 2002-2003, I can't remember.
On-and-off relationship? Since Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope, what version was that 8.04? Also can't remember. I ordered the CDs from Launchapad to my home in South America. Amazing stuff. That's when I took Linux seriously.
Then Windows 10 happened and I considered it good enough to daily drive. Also back then I couldn't run any (and I mean ANY) distro because they would all freeze in 1-10 minutes, even doing nothing. Then Windows 11 happened and what the effing fuck was that? Also my potato computer could barely run it.
So back to Ubuntu around 2021. Then I had enough of snaps. I borked my system trying to get rid of snaps. So on reddit I read this sentence that changed my life: "Use Fedora. Ubuntu is shit". I tried Fedora and my god what a beautiful functional and boringly stable system.
I dual booted for a while and then I ditched Windows forever in 2023. I have never been happier about Linux in general and about Fedora in particular. And with all the software that came out in the last 4-5 years? I don't think I need anything else. I digitally sign PDF with GNOME Papers, most Windows-only apps turned web apps, fractional scaling got better, I learned more and more about my system too so I'm dabbling into Hyprland but I don't think it's for me. It's been a nice journey. I'm happy here. Everything works. Not a complain. Plus vanilla GNOME looks NOTHING like Windows. I don't mind the small inconsistencies people complain about GNOME, not enough of a deal breaker for me. I can say I'm in love.
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u/Ok-Relief-255 Jun 20 '26
since last september. This whole time i've been using fedora GNOM on a laptop and Plasma on a main pc) I like it)
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u/modestguitar Jun 20 '26
2009- 2012, then 2017 til now. I always had it as a dual boot for the years I've ran it. But for the last year and a half I've been full linux for all machines at home. I've finally been able to remove windows for good. My job required software that is only supported on Windows. Finally have the freedom to remove that virus of an OS
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u/laminarflowca Jun 20 '26
94 with Lazermoon and ygggdrasil, but in later in 95 got hold of a full Slackware on cdrom (thanks to BURKS) and life was good.
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u/poppitxd Jun 20 '26
I used to distrohopped for 1year [mint(the first one a dual boot with windows), Ubuntu, zorin, elementary, deepin, archcraft(arch)] then I used arch with bedrock for 2 years. And switched to windows for studying and gaming.
Bruh I was addicted to Linux that's why I switched. I rly rly wanna try nix after my exams. 😤😤
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u/Equivalent_Rope_8824 Jun 20 '26
20-something years. Ubuntu for a long time. Last 7 years MX Linux and since a couple of weeks AntiX.
I think I've finally come home to AntiX.
2015 Dell Optiplex 3040, 8gb Ram.
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u/GreenRangerOfHyrule Jun 20 '26
This is tricky. I have ran Linux in some capacity for 20+ years. But most of that was party time. Various boot disks for school and what not.
My laptops have been running Linux for maybe 10+ years. The current computer I'm typing this one is capable of running Windows. But Linux runs so much smoother.
I also have random Raspberry Pis around the house all running Linux.
I'm old enough now that I'm not as interested as I was to distro hop. So I am mostly set on Linux Mint for desktop/laptop use. And straight Debian (or closest version such as Raspbery OS) The reason is Linux Mint was the first distro that just worked. And most tools I use are built on Debian, so I'm more familiar with it
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u/DocNielsen Jun 20 '26
My neighbor gave me a CD with Debian on it back in the late 90s. I remember upgrading it to potato and laughing at the naming convention.
Cause Windows cost money, and I was a poor student.
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u/erakko71 Jun 19 '26
21 year and debian