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Did you start with Debian?

Here you can discuss every aspect of Debian. Note: not for support requests!

Was Debian your first distro?

Poll ended at 2014-08-14 17:00

Yes
13
19%
No
57
81%
 
Total votes: 70

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sjukfan
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Re: Did you start with Debian?

#16 Post by sjukfan »

I might have had Red Hat or something on floppy once back in the 90s but back then I was into OS/2 so I never bothered to install it. Years later I got a Linksys NSLU2 and installed Etch on it. Back then I was still running Windows XP but after a week of Windows 7 in 2009 I finally had it and installed Lenny on my main computer. Been running Debian only since then and never bothered with any other distros.
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kedaha
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Re: Did you start with Debian?

#17 Post by kedaha »

My very first distribution was Slackware 96 as posted in Your path to Debian so I reluctantly voted no even though I never got beyond tinkering with Slack and really started with "linux" properly when Debian Etch was released. A regret of mine is not having started with the earlier Debian releases and followed its development from the start.
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llivv
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Re: Did you start with Debian?

#18 Post by llivv »

I started in 88
It was about 10 years later then I would have had I not been warned to stay away from others crap.
others will go unnamed for now.
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Randicus
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Re: Did you start with Debian?

#19 Post by Randicus »

Six years ago, I believe (it is getting hard to remember such things) I wiped Windows off my computer and installed Debian, then Mandriva, then Ubuntu. So technically, Debian was the first distro I tried, but I did not stick with it. So my attempted vote was no, although I also go an invalid form notice. After almost three years using Ubuntu, I went through a phase of probably two months testing Debian, Mandriva and Fedora. I chose Debian and used it for, I guess four years (the memory thing mentioned earlier). I just switched to Slackware.
vbrummond wrote:Debian is democratic, so it is again my choice.
Democratic? I do not remember the developers asking for feedback on their monumental decision to adopt systemd. It is an oligarchy, not a democracy. There is nothing wrong with oligarchy, but the idea that Debian is run by a democratic process is not true.

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golinux
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Re: Did you start with Debian?

#20 Post by golinux »

Randicus wrote:
vbrummond wrote:Debian is democratic, so it is again my choice.
Democratic? I do not remember the developers asking for feedback on their monumental decision to adopt systemd. It is an oligarchy, not a democracy. There is nothing wrong with oligarchy, but the idea that Debian is run by a democratic process is not true.
IIRC, the oligarchs function in a somewhat democratic manner. It's just that the rabble isn't invited to the table.
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confuseling
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Re: Did you start with Debian?

#21 Post by confuseling »

More of a meritocracy, assuming the process of becoming a Debian member isn't corrupt (and I have no reason to believe it is), if you want to go that way.

But it's still a democracy in a meaningful sense - we're just not 'the people' ruling. By analogy if a company's employees voted on its decisions I'd call it democratic, even if it would be even more democratic if the general public did.
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vbrummond
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Re: Did you start with Debian?

#22 Post by vbrummond »

Why are we debating this? Stop nitpicking my comments, you knew exactly what I meant.
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mardybear
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Re: Did you start with Debian?

#23 Post by mardybear »

Try to stay on topic boys :lol:

I'm a Linux newbie compared to most and started with Ubuntu in 2006, including versions 6, 8 and 10. Stopped at version 10.04 as i didn't like the direction canonical was taking. The systems still work great to this day BTW. Only been using Debian since last year.

Ubuntu gets bashed quite a bit in this forum but i'm thankful for their efforts as i may not otherwise be using Linux. I have a healthcare/non-technical background and even found the earlier Ubuntus a fairly steep learning curve. Now that i've found Debian, however, i no longer feel the need to distro hop. I always preferred Debian-based distros so now that i have a bit more experience why not just stick with Debian and install systems to my preference rather than what some other developer envisioned.
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dasein
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Re: Did you start with Debian?

#24 Post by dasein »

Hmmm... Starting when N (number of responses) was like 6 or 8 right up through N=25, the relative proportions have remained relatively constant. It's no guarantee, but that constancy is suggestive of actual signal in this small sample.

Interesting.

(Does anyone at all care what I mean by that?)

Randicus
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Re: Did you start with Debian?

#25 Post by Randicus »

Stop nitpicking my comments, you knew exactly what I meant.
It is not nit-picking. You pointed to Debian's supposed democratic nature to emphasise how Debian is different than the distributions owned by companies that dictate to users what the system will be. In reality, Debian is no different than those other distributions. A small number of people make decisions and the users either take it or leave it. Again, I am not criticising that model. I am just pointing out that Debian is not a shining beacon of something different. Just like Red Hat, Suse, Butnut, etc., Debian users have no say in the distro's future. (Other than stop using it.) And what about the decision making processes of corporate distributions? I would be willing bet they all use a similar "democratic" development model. A small number of people making collective ("democratic") decisions and dictating what the users get.

vbrummond
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Re: Did you start with Debian?

#26 Post by vbrummond »

Whatever, I am adding you to my ignore list. All you do is rant and troll.
Always on Debian Testing

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mardybear
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Re: Did you start with Debian?

#27 Post by mardybear »

(Does anyone at all care what I mean by that?)
I care and the results thus far seem to make sense.

Debian isn't the easiest distro to learn/utilize plus there are so many others to choose from.
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Re: Did you start with Debian?

#28 Post by Bulkley »

I started with Caldera if my memory serves.

If anyone is interested, here is a distribution chart.

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dasein
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Re: Did you start with Debian?

#29 Post by dasein »

mardybear wrote:
dasein wrote:(Does anyone at all care what I mean by that?)
I care...
You may be sorry you said that! :mrgreen:

Generally speaking the whole point of doing any sample is to try to make a guess about the True Value of some phenomenon of Nature. Sampling is both effective and cheap.

It is also subject to error, and statistics is all about understanding the impact of sampling error. Small samples are suspect for a very good reason: they are more badly affected by small, naturally occurring fluctuations, both in the phenomenon itself and in its measurement. (Stat wonks call those fluctuations variance, and small samples can have seriously whopper variances; that's exactly why they're suspect.)

As sample size grows, the effect of any one extreme score starts to be balanced out by all the run-of-the-mill scores, and variances become smaller, which means that our confidence in the readings increases. The thing that I find interesting is that the "reading" (as a proportion of yes/no) hasn't changed +/-5% since folks started responding. Again, it's no guarantee, but that constancy is more consistent with signal than with noise.

Which is not to say that these results will ever say diddly about anything outside of the small-but-fascinating Universe called FDN. Again, this is just me scratching an itch, not trying to do Real Science (TM). (Although I am finding it fascinating to speculate about how the results of a poll like this would have changed over the years since Debian's first release.)

Edit: Glaring grammar error corrected.
Last edited by dasein on 2014-08-14 04:05, edited 1 time in total.

Randicus
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Re: Did you start with Debian?

#30 Post by Randicus »

If the poll had been conducted a few years ago, the result would almost certainly have been different. Most of the long-time Debian users who populated the board in the past have long since left the board, but still use Debian. They have been replaced mostly by former Buntu and Mint users. The only surprise in the poll is that there are still any members left on FDN who began with Debian.

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Re: Did you start with Debian?

#31 Post by sunrat »

Started with Mandrake 9.0 in about 2002, and used Suse and a couple of others. Been primarily Debian for the last 8 years, dabbling with Knoppix and Lenny when it was Testing.
Now, I have Wheezy installed but my main system is siduction - I still count that as Debian. :)
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naednaem
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Re: Did you start with Debian?

#32 Post by naednaem »

Whats the actual question...

Did you start with debian?
Was debian your first distro?
Who started with Debian and stayed with it?


I am still answering yes but was confused about the actual question

Randicus
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Re: Did you start with Debian?

#33 Post by Randicus »

naednaem wrote:Whats the actual question...
Reading the first post in the thread might be enlightening.

naednaem
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Re: Did you start with Debian?

#34 Post by naednaem »

dasein wrote: (Although I am finding it fascinating to speculate about how the results of a poll like this would have changed over the years since Debian's first release.)
This board did not exist when debian had its first release or the first few releases actually. The first I recall of this place was about the sarge release around 2005. Before that the libranet forum was the best debian forum, at least i thought it was. It had just three sections - help, discussion, and suggestions...perfect...
Last edited by naednaem on 2014-08-14 13:18, edited 1 time in total.

naednaem
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Re: Did you start with Debian?

#35 Post by naednaem »

Randicus wrote:
naednaem wrote:Whats the actual question...
Reading the first post in the thread might be enlightening.
not so much, that is actually where the confusion started

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