What was your first Linux ?

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J_D_ · #1 Post by **J_D_** » Tue 26 Nov 2019, 02:55

What was your first Linux and what do you use now ? When MS said they were ending support for XP I decided I needed something better. I found a flashdrive on ebay that had Mint ready to go for $15 and went for it. Nice OS but I got curious and figured out how to download an ISO and make my own bootable flash drive. Tried a few distros before I found Puppy and got hooked. Tahr 5, then 6 then 64 bit then Xenial 64. It is my current go to.

dancytron · #2 Post by **dancytron** » Tue 26 Nov 2019, 03:15

A very early Puppy. Probably Version 3 something. Just tried it out though.

The first Linux I actually used was Puppy Lupu 5.28.

I try to test most of the puppies and debian dogs, but there are so many, I can't really keep up.

I use Debian Dog Stretch mostly for actually doing stuff.

perdido · #3 Post by **perdido** » Tue 26 Nov 2019, 03:19

I don't know what version it was, back in 2001 I installed it on an MCA bus that was specially compiled for PS/2.
Reminded me of MS-DOS

I always enjoyed DOS and have had a site dedicated to its drivers and utilities online for a few years, used to hang out at VCF before I adopted this forum.

I wish I had found puppy when it was in early developement, I would have had a fun time but better late than never.

I played with DSL a few times around 2010

I never liked the big fat mainstream versions, when I stumbled into puppy back in 2013 and saw what it let me get away with (that I could destroy it with my ignorance and stupidity)
and fix it just as easity (I wonder where fixit ended up at LOL) I decided to completely migrate from OS/2 and WinXP and only use windows when there is absolutely no other program
method to accomplish what I need to do.

I don't see changing from puppy to anything else as I enjoy the total control it gives me along with great support from this forum.

Good question J_D_

J_D_ · #4 Post by **J_D_** » Tue 26 Nov 2019, 03:57

I dont think I ever tried a linux that I didnt like. Mint is great but it does more than I need. Seems too much like Xp almost. That is not a bad thing but Tahrpup is sooooooo easy and fast. I do not use half the features I have available. I have a Windows 10 partition for those times I need it but that is rare.

darry19662018 · #5 Post by **darry19662018** » Tue 26 Nov 2019, 06:20

dancytron wrote:A very early Puppy. Probably Version 3 something. Just tried it out though.

The first Linux I actually used was Puppy Lupu 5.28.

I try to test most of the puppies and debian dogs, but there are so many, I can't really keep up.

I use Debian Dog Stretch mostly for actually doing stuff.

Hey Dancyron,

I too have got to the stage of mostly using Debian Dog Stretch for everyday driver - it is excellent. As for first Linux Redhat 7.2/8/9............

ndujoe1 · #6 Post by **ndujoe1** » Tue 26 Nov 2019, 21:39

briefly Corel Linux, then Fedora. Then our Windows SIG leader at our club brought in Puppylinux 1.08rl in 2005 and the rest is history. I am now using Bionicpup64

#7 Post by **rockedge** » Wed 27 Nov 2019, 01:17

OpenSuse then found Puppy Linux 4.3.1 while looking for a light weight fast Linux OS to work on all these really cheap or free used Windows 2000NT thru to XP computers I was starting to come across or be given. Lucid 5.2.8 is what I started to use exclusively for developing web sites and ran web servers and databases, played chess engines with it which really came to flourish with UPUP Raring 3.9.9.2 that also became the base for CCTV camera security and network video recorder systems using ZoneMinder.

been going forward with all types of Puppy Linux variants plus the DebianDog series and a favorite is the XenialDog and BionicDog.

Now I am also developing and experimenting heavily with wiak's scripts that build WeeDog.
I am really putting WeeDog based on Void Linux through tests and have set up a WeeDog desktop that has a similar look as a Puppy Linux

nosystemdthanks · #8 Post by **nosystemdthanks** » Wed 27 Nov 2019, 03:17

tomsrtbt, pygmy, red hat, mandrake, puppy, dsl, ubuntu.

if it has to be one answer, tomsrtbt. red hat didnt install, i couldnt make mandrake do anything at all, ubuntu was really too slow to use on a regular basis, puppy had driver issues that i spent weeks playing with (this was still in the days of the 2.x kernel and i was a n00b, though using dsl took care of my needs) though today i still use puppy sometimes and i havent used dsl in ages.

unless you count tinycore, which came along years later.

bigpup · #9 Post by **bigpup** » Wed 27 Nov 2019, 03:56

Lindows

J_D_ · #10 Post by **J_D_** » Wed 27 Nov 2019, 06:17

bigpup wrote:Lindows

I never even heard of Lindows before. Very interesting. I am also feeling the need to try some of the other OS posted here. It never ends.......

p310don · #11 Post by **p310don** » Wed 27 Nov 2019, 06:18

My first Linux was Ubuntu Feisty Fawn back in 2007.

I had recently upgraded to a Cable internet plan from dialup and I wanted to see how fast it could go. The ISP had a unmetered download page, so I found the biggest files they had and downloaded them. It was only after they'd downloaded that I bothered to check out what this Ubuntu ISO thing was.

I went from Ubuntu to Ultimate to DSL to Puppy. I've been through many Pups, starting at the late 3 series, 4.31, NOP, ran 5.2 for a long time, Tahr, Xenial, Bionic. Today I use Puppy (Carolina VG) and Fatdog.

nic007 · #12 Post by **nic007** » Wed 27 Nov 2019, 07:37

In 2006 I still used Windows 98 SE. Then I got a modem which that Windows didn't support so I started to google for alternatives. I then stumbled upon Puppy and tried it. Puppy 412 worked out of the box and I dual-booted it with 98 SE. Later I had (and still have) Windows XP Pro dual-booting with Puppy. Since Wary I have been using Puppy most of the time. I now have XP Pro dual-booting with Racy, Precise, Tahr and Bionic. I use Tahr most of the time, just really playing around with the other Puppys. I use Windows when I need to make big downloads as the dial-up networking is much faster for downloading and I also use it for printing/scanning purposes I'm probably one of the few Linux users who have never tried any other Linux distribution besides Puppy.

vovchik · #13 Post by **vovchik** » Wed 27 Nov 2019, 09:03

Dear All,

My first Unix was SCO, used on an Intel 80286 with a special MIPS processor board stuck inside. The distribution was shipped on some 50 or 60 diskettes and took forever to install. That was back in about 1984. The first Linux was a totally homebrew version. A colleague had ported over Linux to a DEC Alpha workstation (which had its own proprietary Unix) in 1996 or 1997, and he used that DEC Unix to compile the Linux kernel, drivers and all the other necessary bits. It worked! For my own purposes, I used Mandrake at first, and then discovered Puppy.

With kind regards,
vovchik

nitehawk · #14 Post by **nitehawk** » Wed 27 Nov 2019, 14:37

Mandrake and Simply Mepis. Then I discovered Puppy 3.01. I only briefly tried out Mandrake, to see what Linux was all about. Simply Mepis
just seemed to work on my old win98 computers. I found Vector Linux, and stayed with that until recently. But from Puppy 3.01, I've always had a Puppy on my computers.

Burn_IT · #15 Post by **Burn_IT** » Wed 27 Nov 2019, 16:32

I used Unix long before Linux came out and only really started using it when I was working away from home and could use a client's machine to boot Puppy from a USB drive to access my personal mail etc.
Few companies feel comfortable allowing that, but I always included the request in the terms of my contract and was well respected enough to be able to do it.

I was often the only person at a site that was allowed to access the internet when I had my own PC and that allowed me to look up solutions to problems that other companies had also had. I could do so using my modem and a phone line, if needed, which avoided the risk (to the client) of downloading unwanted viruses. I always use a software firewall and antivirus on my machine when away from home.

Marv · #16 Post by **Marv** » Wed 27 Nov 2019, 19:57

Ah, not linux but Cromix, running on a Cromemco CS-1 circa 1981 or 1982. The grand old gal had a two 5" internal floppies before I splurged and added two external 10Mb HDD, one with a power on/off switch as a failsafe backup. It ran our whole lab. My kid brother also spent much of his career with the Coast Guard riding herd on their Cromemco network/systems. My first true linux was the first puppy release in 2005. Now I'm running upupEE or one of the LXDE slacko derivs on what was my holy grail for decades. A system where nothing mechanical spins.

Lobster · #17 Post by **Lobster** » Thu 28 Nov 2019, 09:43

It was slackware from a CD, that I loaded from a CD I bought at a computer hardware fair.

It was a horrendous experience. I used a spare hard drive and bit by bit over five weeks and many mistakes managed to get a browser running in low res.

Put me off for a couple of years. Then I bought a Linux magazine, I think with knoppix on it. Now that was slow but rather cool.

I knew some very savvy uber geeks were using Linux. I began to distro hop. Linux seemed vastly underpowered, complex compared to Windows. Many distros were not beginner friendly to noobs. I came across Puppy pre version 1 and it was very different (fast, streamlined and early Puppy advice facilitated my distro hopping)
When with Puppy help I got Puppy scrolling at speed I settled.
That is when I really started to learn, gradually weaning myself off Windows ...

Puppy
A history of Amazing Linux

nubc · #18 Post by **nubc** » Thu 28 Nov 2019, 09:52

Austrumi from Latvia. Obtained by dialup download. Never actually connected Austrumi to internet. Mandrake was first distro I connected to the internet by dialup. First Puppy I tried was maybe 1.02. First Puppy I fully adopted was 2.10. Gave up Windows between 2.11 and 2.14. I wrote my only installation tutorial for 2.17.1 because of an argument with another distro member who claimed Puppy doesn't count because you can't full install it. As I recall, the text-only tutorial received over 20,000 hits, until it was superceded by CatDude's pictorial tutorial. I became the de facto Puppy Linux installer for my local LUG, and distributed free Puppy 2.17.1 CDs at LUG meetings. That was back when everybody thought desktop Linux was destined to overtake Windows as the most popular OS.

Howto installation tutorials ca 2014
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... bef#225619

6502coder · #19 Post by **6502coder** » Fri 29 Nov 2019, 00:08

Although I'd been using UNIX for decades, my first Linux was Puppy 4.2.1. Well, okay, the first Linux I ever RAN was Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope. That was such an, er, "interesting" experience that less than 12 hours later, I wiped Ubuntu and tried Puppy 4.2.1. And never looked back since.

J_D_ · #20 Post by **J_D_** » Fri 29 Nov 2019, 02:41

nubc wrote:Austrumi from Latvia. Obtained by dialup download. Never actually connected to internet. Mandrake was first distro I connected to the internet by dialup. First Puppy I tried was maybe 1.2. First Puppy I fully adopted was 2.10. Gave up Windows between 2.11 and 2.14. I wrote my only installation tutorial for 2.17.1 because of an argument with another distro member who claimed Puppy doesn't count because you can't full install it.

Dialup download must have been an all day deal. You had to have been seriously dedicated . Last time I did xenial 64 I think it was less than 1 minute.

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What was your first Linux ?

What was your first Linux ?

First LInux