Ok I appoligize for the date being wrong. I started with Redhat 7.

Unnecessary, all in good humor. And you weren't the first in this thread to predate Linus!

me and my friend heard about linux in our C programming class and those days we used to open up the PC and experiment on it. We thought it would be good to go out and get Linux and try it out. We got RedHat 7 that came in 3 CD disks. We successfully installed it in our first try, it was easy. We were totally blown away by the whole install to GUI process. We managed to get internet up and running and then there is no looking back.

I discovered Linux when Linus Thorvalds got a lot of attention with Linux. Have tried many distributions. My favorit is Linux Mint, Live version.

I started to work with Linux professionally as a tester of some software based on Linux in 2004.
Then I interrupted using Linux for long time, but I turn to Linux personally after Microsoft launched Windows 10, forced anyone to use it and and had been annoying by unceasing updates which was unsuccessful on my notebook.

1-Exposure to the noun had to be reading a magazine, most likely PC Magazine, possibly PC Computing or Computer Shopper, whenever the magazine reported something about it. That likely was 1991, when Linus released his first kernel prototype.

2-First media acquisition was around the time Warp 4.0 became available in an upgrade from the Warp 3 version, probably as a result of reading an ad in Computer Shopper. I bought a 6 CD set produced by InfoMagic dated Sept 1996 that included RedHat 3.0.3, Slack 3.1 and Debian 1.1.4, along with various .edu archives, some HOWTOs, and some commercial demos. Having committed all my 200MB Maxtor to DOS, DesqView and OS/2, I never got around to installing anything from that set, which I still have.

3-First installation was from a CD included in a 930 page book from either Waldenbooks or Borders, "Mastering Linux", ©1999, in soft cover. It claimed the CD included RedHat 5.1, but the installation turned out to be 5.2. I found little to appreciate about Gnome, so didn't boot it more than a little bit several now and thens, being happy enough using Warp 4.0 for Internet access and continuing use of the DOS apps I began to grow dependent on over a decade earlier.

4-First boxed set purchase was the Deluxe Edition of Corel 1.0 with WordPerfect and included Tux doll. I don't exactly remember the nature of the hard time it gave me, but it was probably putting its elilo bootloader on the MBR, making OS/2 and DOS unbootable. After the standard edition upgrade to 1.1 and then 1.2 produced no material improvement, it too was relegated to non-use.

5-First shrinkwrapped CD that produced pleasing results was KDE on Mandrake 7.0. KDE3 remains my primary DE. Still, OS/2 Warp 4 remained pleasant enough to use, so Mandrake saw relatively little use.

6-First distro to run 24/7 was SuSE, after discovering it could be installed for free via HTTP, and to initialize an installation required prior download of no more than a kernel and initrd. I started with 8.0, but upgraded to 8.1 and then 8.2 within a matter of a few days. 8.2 likely included my first installation and use of Apache. KDE was 3.1.1.

7-First distro to use for primary DE (Mozilla for web, email and IRC) instead of OS/2, which had morphed into eComStation along the way, was openSUSE at the end of September 2009, either 11.1 or the 11.2 beta. 11.2 made available both KDE4 and KDE3. I continued with KDE3 only.

Most of the machines used for what I described above, and more, remain bootable. All were and remain multiboot. Most have not only several openSUSE releases on them, but additionally various releases of Debian, Fedora/Rawhide, Mandrake/Mandriva/Mageia/Cauldron, Mint, Kubuntu and a smattering of others. Some also have Win98, WinXP or Win10. More also have DOS than have Windows. A few have Warp or eCS. Total functional OS installation count is probably >200. Very largely because of the pre-release installations, discoveries here using Linux are more or less continual.

We were using the MQX OS on our self made embedded hardware. About 4 years ago we switched to linux.
This year we developed a new board based on the AM335x family (ARM CPU from TI) and used Yocto.

I was developing a "REAL HATRED" for windows and a friend suggested I try Linux, and suggested Mint cinnamon. Been HAPPILY addicted since. I think of windows now as that real bad hangover that made you quit drinking. Using Mint 18 now and couldn't be happier.

I discovered Linux through web articles. Since the late 1990's starting with Red Hat and then Mandrake, I was trying to find a solution to stop paying Microsoft. Today, I'm using LMDE2 and very happy!!

I was in Korea. The year was probably 2008. Somebody on one of the Thai forums mentioned that "This is supposed to be good." I then did a WUBI installation of Ubuntu Hardy Heron.

I got a bit carried away with the different distros over the years.

Now, I've "settled" on Mint and Ubuntu, MATE for both.

Now, I'm in China and I find myself using Windows as a necessary evil. My VPN works on one version of Windows on one of my netbooks.

I look forward to returning to Thailand so I can operate without a VPN and get back on Linux.

The pc group in the company where I worked got my interest in Linux. I now use Ubuntu and Mint.

I bought a computer which came with Linux and a friend, a computer geek, said Linux was good.
Sadly, I installed Window$, but years later I started to work with statistical
computing and also wanted to be "virus free". Now, I'm 100 % Linux in my workstation

Cheers,
Viny

In the 1980's I was trying everything from m/c & Forth for agricultural stock-feeding, control & data gathering. Unix would have been a possibility but employer could not pay for multiple user licenses required at that time ... then along came Linux I cannot read my Forth programs now - that notorious write-only language. :>)

My son, who was a junior at Harvard at that time, introduced me to Slackware in 1995.

I think it was 1986 when I started to pay interest for PC`s, especially because the smart guys from the Data Team behave always hostile, patronizing us terminal users of their paper printouts "products", where we couldn`t propose any changes, because their work was more important and "difficult". The PC entering the market at that time seemed a solution for everyone. Well it was not so easy .....
... for my work, I remain Microsoft user until the Win10 and soon after my retirement I installed Mint 17.3 distribution. I feel good at very competitive package for most of my needs. I still need to learn much, but I think I am on good way. My family is still using it, but soon the transition will be imminent!(?)
I admit, I checked RadHat or I do not remember well when and which distribution, found it interesting, but never had time to make better acquaintance with and the interoperatibility was still bad,... Time brings us to the solutions, that is clear.
The independent, still running win7 in parallel.