How long have you been using Linux ?

[tonytiger]

Was just wondering on this snowy winter nyc day how long have you all been using Linux as your OS ?

For me its been i think almost 15 years.

i just have 1 microsoft surface which i like very much for its portable.

But Linux is home for me.

[coffee412]

About 24 years for me. I remember having to roll your own kernel and having to have a creative sound card and a cd disk connected to it to even think of it working. Back in the day the compatible hardware was very limited.

[all41]

Both got started before me. I remember Julia, but it was Maya 13 lts when I
realized I could convert but took me a few releases to get there,
By Rosa I became one of us

[TitForTat]

Can't 100% remember but I think it was around 2016/2017, when ubuntu was on 16.xx. It could have been even a little earlier. My first two distros were xbuntu and lubuntu, being on xubuntu for 6 months. After that, the distro and desktop environment/window manager hopping madness began

I converted others to full-time linux users but for myself, my main (gaming)pc is still windows, I use a macbook air m1 as my daily driver (but planning to switch to a framework laptop) and I have now a T450 (old laptop from my parents) as a current playground for linux, to get my hands dirty again. pretty chaotic if you ask me tbh

[Pjotr]

Since the summer of 2006, with the unforgettable Ubuntu 6.06 (not 6.04!) Dapper Drake....

I remember it well. A hot July evening, at a turning point in my life, a lot on my mind, seeking diversion to take my mind off things and something to cure the insecurities of Windows XP. One of the best decisions in my life.

[kc1di]

For me 28 years , started with slackware around 1995. 100% linux since 1998.

[SallyK]

Nearly 15 years for me as well - I'd played with a couple of Linux live CDs, and then I realised I could dual-boot on my laptop. Within a few months I'd pretty much permanently switched - the system did everything I needed from a PC and gave me lots of new toys to play with.

[JTJersey]

Started in 2001 with Mandrake Linux 8.0 Power Pack edition. Bought it for $75 from Best Buy.

[Schultz]

I thought it was 8 years, but I went back and double checked . . . and I have been using Linux for a decade now. Time flies.

[lsemmens]

I've played around with it since late last century. Fully linux (only 'cause of a bit of fruit) for only 12 months.

[majpooper]

I took a linux course at the local community college in 2011 - the distro the course used was SuSe. Went to Ubuntu for a short while then on to Mint in 2013. I started out with both a Windows laptop and a linux PC then moved to dual boot on the PC. A friend who worked at Red Hat turned me on to VM so for a while I ran Windows in a VM. Then finally when I realized I was only using Windows to update my Garmin but I had Nav in both my vehicles by then I got rid of Windows altogether. Now it turns out my wife has a genealogy that will only run on Windows so I am back to a Windows VM for her to run that app.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

A little over 4 years and one month (I switched just before Win 7's EOL).

[spamegg]

A little over 4 years and one month (I switched just before Win 7's EOL).

Same here!

[berndinger]

Since 1998.
First Suse, then Mandrake, Mageia..
Then 2014 ? Mint 17, because I wanted something easy for my wife. It was so good I changed to Mint entirely..

Now 21.3, Looking forward to Wilma...

cheers, Bernd

[rickNS]

I joined this forum a little over 13 years ago, was using Mint 9 Isadora, w KDE DE at the time it was a great OS, and I went Linux full time shortly after that, even to run my small business.

I used Mint 7 Gloria a little before that, and Ubuntu very briefly before that. Ubuntu, at least at that time (2009-10) was not for me.
Mint 9 however was a real treat, everything worked OOTB, except the cooling fan, on an Acer laptop, but that got fixed. Mint 9 was out for awhile when I installed it, and there was some 400+ updates, so I started a thread about which of those were important,
viewtopic.php?p=509656#p509656

None of the members who replied are still with us, but a couple of them were well respected at the time. Being completely sick of windows updates I decided to install none of them. OK so ridicule me now for that.

[Night Wing]

I started to look at linux distros when Windows 8 was released in October of 2012. Demoed a few until I found Mint in January of 2013. Lurked on this site since that time and then registered on this site to become a member in December of 2013.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...Being completely sick of windows updates I decided to install none of them. OK so ridicule me now for that.

I won't. The last two years I used Win7, I stopped installing updates because so many of them were buggier than cheap flop house beds or were disguised attempts to trick me into downgrading to Win 8.0 on up.

[brlfq]

Since 2005 so 19+ years...had to go look up an old forum to see when I was posting up about Linux.

[MurphCID]

I started in 1999/2000 with Mandrake Linux 7.0, used it for a while, got tired of the obnoxious people back then, left and it was 2014/2015 when I got Ubuntu 16.04 and then later Mint 17.2/17.3 and I have been on Mint ever since.

[BG405]

I'm a comparative newbie by the looks of it. Made the switch in February 2016 shorty before I joined this Forum. So that's 8 years now.