Did you start with Debian?

[dasein]

This poll is now closed. Thanks to all who responded.

I find myself wondering how many folks actually started their Linux life using Debian, versus how many migrated to Debian from other distros.

I figure the best way to find out is to ask.

Just to be clear, I am specifically interested in folks who started with Debian and stayed with it. So even if you tried Debian early in your Linux life, but ended up choosing a different distro to "cut your teeth on," and then returned to Debian sometime later, that would be a "no."

(I don't expect scientifically defensible results, but even the crudest sampling is going to be more informative than introspection and guesswork from N=1.)

TIA to all who choose to respond.

[vbrummond]

I started deciding between openSUSE and Ubuntu, and moved to Debian during the Lenny release.

[golinux]

Unable to post a choice. Is this a trick question?

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[dasein]

The submitted form was invalid. Try submitting again.

Odd that you would receive an error, especially since it looks like your vote was recorded. (It looks like you answered "no.")

[deltaflyer]

started with S.u.S.E. which then changed to openSUSE,got fed up with all the hand-holding and decided Debian was for me,as i like to tinker with my O.S. & Debian lets me tinker a lot,but, reminds me when i shouldn't

[golinux]

The submitted form was invalid. Try submitting again.

Odd that you would receive an error, especially since it looks like your vote was recorded. (It looks like you answered "no.")

Yup. It was a 'no'. BTW, I tried voting several times so don't know if that skewed the results. Started on Red Hat/CentOS before Ubuntu came on the scene. Local LUG members were into RH and they did the install. Ubuntu was cool until it was not so cool anymore.

[confuseling]

Red Hat Linux briefly, many moons ago... (X didn't like my Matrox video card, so that didn't last long).

Then Xandros (came installed on my netbook). Played around with a few after that, including Ubuntu, Zenwalk and Fedora (edit: and Arch, thanks mor for the reminder )

Settled on openSUSE, then after a few years decided monolithic repositories make more sense (although I still rate openSUSE highly for beginners - people sneer at YaST, I found it very good), so Debian.

[mor]

I don't remember exactly which was the first distro I have ever tinkered with, there was Gnome on it though (I think it could have been before 1.x).

But when I started distrohopping as a serious process for chosing my new system, I tried Debian first, then cycled pretty much all the other major distros in the span of circa 6-8 months, all on secondary machines, still not my primary system.
After distrohopping I made my choice and installed Debian (Stable) as my primary system, and kept Arch and Slack on the the secondary just for kicks (although still trying out other distros, always on secondary machines).

When Ubuntu came out I moved to it for almost the entire first release cycle, then moved back on Debian, Testing this time (and mixed Unstable later on) from then up to today.

I guess I can say that Debian (and the stint with Ubuntu which back then was still like Debian) is basically the only distro I have ever used for "production", all the other were only tests.
I'm voting "yes".

Bye

[PhilGil]

That'd be a No for me. Started on Ubuntu and was pretty happy for a couple of release cycles. Switched to Debian after experiencing graphics regressions in Ubuntu. Even when it was still Testing, Squeeze was less buggy on my older hardware.

[aicardi]

Caldera Open Linux 1998-99. Slackware 1999-2002. Debian ever since.

[vbrummond]

Settled on openSUSE, then after a few years decided monolithic repositories make more sense (although I still rate openSUSE highly for beginners - people sneer at YaST, I found it very good), so Debian.

I actually prefer rpm packages and like the focus on graphical configuration (sure I can and prefer to manage my own system with commands and configuration files, but my family members do not). So I really considered moving completely to openSUSE. The only issue I have is it is more or less run by SUSE, and I no longer want to use any distro even partially controlled by a company. Debian is democratic, so it is again my choice.

The new rolling release factory with automatic Q/A is pretty nice though.

[RU55EL]

I tried Red hat a years ago, then SUSE for a while. Then about every color of the GNU/Linux rainbow, including Debian. A few years ago, I began dual booting Windows with Ubuntu on all my machines and liked it well enough, but now that Win_7 is getting a little long on the tooth, I began looking for an alternative to Win_8 (an OS I've work with a little, but never installed on any of my computers because I really don't like it.) I recently tried Debian again and found It much more stable than Ubuntu, and fell in love with it. Lately, I've been running Debian stable almost exclusively. It is installed on all of my computers, and a couple are Debian only. It took me a long time to get here, I still run Win_XP, Win_Vista, Win_7, and Ubuntu, but Debian stable is my favorite and primary OS.

[Gyokuro]

Started with FreeBSD but went later to Debian due to not all hardware was supported but I still use FreeBSD from time to time (spare machine for testing various applications or whether my hardware is supported now - which isn't - most of the basic UNIX stuff I learned with FreeBSD and worked for a year with Solaris which got replaced with RedHat machines). RedHat/Debian for job/university and Ubuntu for relatives which I'm supporting (I'm the computer guy in our family) - Mac for girlfriend but my laptop boots only Wheezy/XFCE.

[confuseling]

vbrummond:

I'm fairly package manager agnostic - seems they all have plusses and minuses.

Human readable and directly editable config files are important, but if people want to build GUIs on top of them so much the better. Only when the system starts overriding the hand edited files does it become a problem.

Same with auto detection / configuration. Always a good thing when it works, and forgivable when it doesn't, provided I can override it.

I agree that democracy is useful in a distro. But I think the GPL provides good protection against shenanigans anyway...

[edbarx]

Human readable and directly editable config files are important, but if people want to build GUIs on top of them so much the better. Only when the system starts overriding the hand edited files does it become a problem.

Same with auto detection / configuration. Always a good thing when it works, and forgivable when it doesn't, provided I can override it.

+1

My first distribution was Knoppix 3.7 after which I went straight to the source for 'purer water'. I have been using Debian non-stop since 2006 even though switching to GNU/Linux has meant to me to disqualify myself from a Windows power user to a clueless beginner! Mind you, when I used Windows I could write programs for it, so the plunge meant a good deal of suffering and determination on my part.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

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.

[golinux]

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.