2005 if i recall correctly.

i downloaded a 200mb iso file over the course of a couple days: a [then] slackware-based distro called slax. i quickly came to understand that its packages were just tarballs overlaid on the filesystem (how simple!) and some of its GUI tools were just bash scripts calling a tool called zenity (amazing!).

i was hooked immediately. the biggest hurdle was my glorified sound card of a modem. booting into win2k to google about compiling a kernel driver, then booting into slax to try what i'd read, was a tedious but manageable task. i believe i sent away for a kubuntu cd soon after and never looked back.

1997, also the year when I got 10Mbit connection at home, which was unheard of at that time. Also, came from Amiga, skipped the msdos and windows almost completely.

A few years ago, 2019 I think was the last I had Windows installed.

2002 SuSE KDE 3