My first Linux installation was of Yggdrasil Linux, using a CD I brought home from a conference. Can't remember the year but it was early in the 1990s.

I was so excited to have a working alternative to Windows. I have been a Linux fan and user ever since. I have not used Windows for years.

Yeah, I was trying Mandrake (don't remember what version and Red Hat 7.1. I had a Pentium MMX with 32MB RAM, 30 GiB HDD that my old Windows 95 only saw 8 GiB's of (I heard it was common problem with Windows listening to the BIOS for information of HDD's, but Linux just talked straight to hardware.
The problem was that I get Red Hat 7.1 installed, but startx (which was the common way to start X11 Windows and GUI - not many distro installed a graphical login manager, like XDM/GDM/etc., by default. Wanted it, you needed to install and configure it yourself.

Yeah, I was trying Mandrake (don't remember what version and Red Hat 7.1. I had a Pentium MMX with 32MB RAM, 30 GiB HDD that my old Windows 95 only saw 8 GiB's of (I heard it was common problem with Windows listening to the BIOS for information of HDD's.

The thing is, even though this Red Hat 7.1 had the coolest automated text-UI based tool for configuring X for your videocard, and it did list the exact card of mine, Hercules Stingray 128 3D (Voodoo Rush), but it NEVER worked right. The best my and my remote friend who talked to me on phone and was trying to configure it via SSH was the black/white raster background and the default X cursor, but even that seemed funny and we couldn't get further. Most of the time no graphics came up when he told me to try.
I booted it into Linux couple times and kept it on for days, just for the thrill it was actually a Linux, but then I started booting to Win95 again.

Then I bought a new computer and used that HDD (left the old one with only it's original 3.6 GiB HDD.).
I tried to make sure that every hardware I get is supported, though the video drivers were proprietary (but easy to install back then, you just had to remember, if you ran update and kernel was updated, to compile the driver against latest kernel headers.
Also I had Sound Blaster 128, which had no officially accepted in Kernel drivers. Sure, it worked fine with older SB drivers, but the only way to get the ALSO SB 128 driver support was apparently to patch the kernel and recompile it. Dam, I learn fast with computers, but I was too afraid it was over my head. Then when I first recompiled the kernel myself (for better compiler directive for optimization for performance), it was a piece of cake.

Since that I've not gone back.

It's kinda funny that you could've replaced the graphical environment (I'm certain they ran X Window Server, just their proprietary GUI on top of it) any of the many (even back then) UI's (well, just WM's (
[Window Manager] and DE's [Desktop Environment] and screw their proprietary GUI

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That's a humongous HDD, unless you mean 10 or 100M, not 10G!? I mean, on a machine with monochrome X11? I mean, almost any distro can be installed with full desktop to 10GB - with some there's even a load of space left after that.

Not being able to get Minecraft to work purely because I didn't know what I was doing. Also better performance once I did figure it out. I was running Ubuntu 16.04 LTS on some old C2D latitude laptop.

I remember nothing working. I tried a handful of different distos, hashed to make sure I had good downloads. It was a nightmare. I gave up for 5 years then I tried again. Been solid since.

Those were the days.

I had played with linux on a friends computer but finally purchased a multi CD set with Red Hat 4.x? and a few others at the Los Angles County fair grounds computer swap meet back around 1994. There were 2 or 3 buildings full of computer equipment, software, video games etc. and other stuff...
Back in the days where RAM was quite expensive.

I decided to install a dual boot with Windows 10. Actually very easy. It was actually more complicated to set up my printer. Went even easier with a full install on a lenovo t440 used laptop. I love Ice and Wine accept I am a bit bummed Wine won't run Quickbooks Pro desktop.

I remember trying about 5 times before installing Caldera Linux from disc on my HDD without overwriting Win95 or 98. Then manually installing KDE from online using dialup modem.

I had downloaded Linux Mint 18.3 and I was sure that I would have a lot of problems. The download went went, had to go through a learning curve, and then Linux Mint 18.3 was a breath of fresh air.

Wow. You really make it hard; my first Linux install was in the 90's. I had a dual boot with Windows. I used both, but Linux was exploratory and work required Windows. I learned a lot with my first foray into Linux, but not enough. I enjoyed it, but don't remember which Linux version except that it was one for 'newbies'. I have a new Windows PC arriving this month with an extra hard drive for Linux. What flavor shall I choose. Delicious!

We probably crossed paths... went out to the big Pomona meet a couple times, but more often to one in the SFV... same vendors, free parking, an hour closer. And holy bleeping chipsets, was RAM ever pricey. I remember driving clear to some shop in south L.A. and paying $400 for 16mb, then running out the door before they recognized their mistake. And that was nothing compared to just a couple years before!

At one or another of these meets I picked up a few early linux CDs, but none of them would boot and I soon stopped buying 'em. I probably still have 'em around here somewhere. Just tried some retro distros on the i7 and discovered that most of 'em from before 2009 won't boot, or at least threw up when booted off a USB stick.

The only time consuming part was getting the BIOS to allow a live boot. I installed Linux Mint 18.3, and everything just worked as promised and my computer (that I thought was dying with Windows 7) came to life and was fun again. Now a good day on a computer can be easily spotted - NO Microsoft!

About 10 - 12 years ago I was using Windows XP having come from a history of working with every version of MS OS from about Dos 3.. Then without notice my screen went black (no response from any input device). I knew it was a virus so I pulled out the hard drive and put into another machine as a slave so I could rescue my data and re-format. As soon as I did the new machine's screen went black (same deal). This was not going well. I went to the local IT professionals and they said they would not touch my hard drive.. and recommended I use a third system an download a LINUX OS to a boot-able USB stick and use it to rescue the data if it still existed. I got Linux Puppy and the rest is history. I have always had to dual boot some version of Windows with my Linux but never again trusted Windows on the net. Thanks to everyone here who helps us all to a better experience with computing..

I bought my first (second hand) computer with Windows 95 about 1988 which I within a month or two upgraded to Win 98 and I was beginning to realise that I simply didn't like the Windows system...Then I heard in passing about Linux but just got blank stares when asked for it in computer shops.... then to my delight, Redhat 5.2 came attached to the cover of a computer magazine. I managed to install it and even got the desktop working but no internet until I found out about winmodems and bought one that worked..... then came Mandrake 6.0 which was very beginner friendly even if it was slightly buggy. Of the early distros my absolute favourite was Redhat 6.2 which worked extremely well and made it possible to dump my Windows partition for good on my hard drive. Currently running Mint but I do have a soft spot for Slackware.