this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2024
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Asklemmy

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[–] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 26 points 4 months ago (3 children)

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)

[–] essell@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I started with the last version of DOS, 6.2, on PC.

Unless you count the Amstrad CPC464 I had before that? Ran on tapes, disks were futuristic!

Which of us is older? I'm not sure it natters. What matters is that the kids will never understand the elegance of a command line interface or of running out of memory to store your code.

[–] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 3 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Haha yeah I did some tapes. There was some crazy thing that hooked up to my TV at home that used cassette tapes.

And yeah, BBS culture, and programming on some of the old school machines, PEEK and POKE and pre-OSX Macs, and segmented memory in the 8088-286 era. To this day I have never really understood what the point of segmented memory was, but that was what we had back in the day, and we were grateful.

I also got to do some programming at a place that had one of the massive Onyx2 machines. It lived in a whole separate room and was the size of a refrigerator. Good stuff.

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[–] originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com 17 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] Zombiepirate@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Commodore 64 here, too.

First Linux distro was Ubuntu.

[–] Nemo@midwest.social 2 points 4 months ago
[–] dotslashme@infosec.pub 13 points 4 months ago
[–] folekaule@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago
  • 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.

[–] Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me 8 points 4 months ago

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!

[–] mo_lave@reddthat.com 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

First Operating System: Windows 98

First Linux Distribution: Ubuntu Trusty

[–] Codename_goose@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

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

Ubuntu 4.10 β€œwarty”

[–] Evkob@lemmy.ca 6 points 4 months ago

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.

[–] squirrel@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 4 months ago

Desktop: DOS

Mobile: Android 2.3

[–] rubikcuber@feddit.uk 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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

Anyway,

ZX BASIC SUSE Linux 6.1

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[–] thebardingreen@lemmy.starlightkel.xyz 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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

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[–] megane_kun@lemm.ee 4 points 4 months ago

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.

[–] HarriPotero@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

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.

[–] Disgruntled@lemmy.ca 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 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.

[–] juliebean@lemm.ee 4 points 4 months ago

my first os was windows 95, but my first linux distro must've been whatever version of ubuntu was current around 2007/2008.

[–] Flyberius@hexbear.net 4 points 4 months ago
[–] TheCheddarCheese@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

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.

[–] SeaJ@lemm.ee 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] grue@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

MS-DOS on a Tandy

Same, but mine was running Tandy DeskMate on top of MS-DOS.

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[–] kersploosh@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 months ago

Apple DOS on an Apple IIe in school.

First Linux distro was Debian.

[–] EchoCranium@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 months ago

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.

[–] Carighan@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

C16. Ugh I'm old.

[–] ColossalCoder@fedia.io 3 points 4 months ago

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

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

[–] Asidonhopo@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

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

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.

[–] Xylight@lemdro.id 3 points 4 months ago

Windows Vista πŸ‘Ά

[–] meekah@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

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

[–] grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 4 months ago

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

[–] Klanky@sopuli.xyz 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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

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[–] zcd@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 months ago

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

[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 months ago

Windows 3.11

[–] Cobrachicken@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

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

[–] jax@lemmy.cloudhub.social 2 points 4 months ago

Desktop: Windows XP

Linux: Probably Raspbian on a Pi 2 b

Tech has come a long way since then lol

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Knoppix 3.something

It was ages ago.

[–] mirisgaiss@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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

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[–] eluminx@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Windows 95, Knoppix and Mandrake Linux.

[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

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

[–] Atoms@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Amiga Workbench 1.3. - preemptive multitasking ftw

[–] scytale@lemm.ee 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

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.

[–] thebirdwashere@lemm.ee 2 points 4 months ago

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.)

[–] coaxil@lemm.ee 2 points 4 months ago

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!!

[–] MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago
[–] baduhai@sopuli.xyz 2 points 4 months ago

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.

[–] BasementParty@hexbear.net 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Windows Vista on my old family desktop.

First Linux distro, if it counts, was the Raspberry Pi OS

[–] qprimed@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 months ago

damn skippy, it counts. πŸ‘

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