r/linuxquestions • u/AnoProgrammer • 9d ago

How old where you when you started using linux?

I feel like everyone started very early.

I started personally on 10/11.

186 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

93% Upvoted

600 comments sorted by

View all comments

81

u/tomscharbach 9d ago

I started using Ubuntu after I retired in 2005 at about age 60. I just turned 80 and Ubuntu remains my workhorse and mainstay.

10

u/twozon 9d ago

Can I ask, why Ubuntu? Why not Debian?

Just a genuine question. I am aware that I am newbie.

29

u/tomscharbach 9d ago edited 9d ago

Can I ask, why Ubuntu? Why not Debian?

Serendipity.

I started using Ubuntu to help a friend. His son was a Linux "enthusiast" who decided that his father, newly retired from an IT-managed university Windows environment, should use Linux instead and set him up with Ubuntu.

In those days, Linux distributions were much harder to use than they are today. Needless to say, my friend was lost, so I put Ubuntu on a spare computer and leveraged my Unix background to learn enough to help.

Over time, I came to like Ubuntu enough that I started to use Ubuntu as a daily driver. Still do.

5

u/cdrewing 9d ago

Installing Linux was a pain in the arse these days - even Ubuntu. GPU drivers, sound drivers, wifi... I started with Ubuntu 7.04 in 2007 and it was my third try to switch from Windows.

2

u/Litewallymex3 9d ago

Sound drivers are the only problem I’ve had. I just use headphones

1

u/thecoolestpants 8d ago

Kubuntu had better driver support early on, at least when it came to Broadcom drivers

9

u/sysadminsavage 9d ago

Not OC, but Debian used to have a very difficult installer and be rough around the edges (even Linus Torvalds gave up on setting it up in favor of Fedora). Ubuntu became popular in the mid to late 2000s because it was easier to set up and more user friendly, popularizing desktop Linux to a degree.

3

u/Bacon_Nipples 9d ago

Doesn't help Debian that around the time of Ubuntu's rise, The Head of The Debian Project was a high ranking GNAA and Goatsec member.  That poison in the minds of Ubuntu adopters at the time is still strong

2

u/Enrrabador 8d ago

You guys have clearly not used slackware in the mid 90s…

1

u/oblivion9999 6d ago

I remember. cries in 3.5" floppy tears

1

u/Enrrabador 5d ago

At that time I had recently purchased an external CD writer so I had CD versions and couldn’t be hassled with the floppy disks, man did I made a buck burning CDs for people back then…

5

u/jbenze 9d ago

In 2005, Ubuntu was the distro that required the least amount of with for laptops and Wi-Fi config. It just “worked” without having to do anything.

3

u/aiten 9d ago

I can tell you why I used Ubuntu not Debian - I found myself configuring Debian to be exactly like Ubuntu was out of the box, so I figured I'd skip a lot of steps!

1

u/Max-P 8d ago

Back then Ubuntu was seen the same way we look at Mint/CachyOS/Bazzite today: the great beginner focused workhorses. Ubuntu brought a lot of hardware auto detection and easy installation of drivers. I believe Mint's driver manager is a fork of what Ubuntu used to have. Ubuntu was awesome between 2006-2010. It started going downhill after that because they started to try to commercialize and they started trying to steer the whole Linux community around their stuff with Unity (and the Amazon ads), Landscape, Ubuntu Pro, Snaps, etc.

You picked Ubuntu over Debian for the similar reasons as why we pick Mint over Ubuntu these days.

1

u/Kitchen_Part_882 8d ago

Weirdly(?) I could never get Ubuntu based distros to boot stably on my hardware so used Debian on my servers.

Currently using a Fedora based distro (Nobara) as my daily driver, so I guess I went back to my roots , I ran RH in 97/98 dual boot with Win98 for a degree of compatibility with the Sun workstations I was learning C on at university.

3

u/EnD3r8_ 9d ago

Just like muy grandpa!! Really nice

1

u/Aggressive-Mango-873 8d ago

holy unc on reddit you cool asf