That is not windoze 95, it didn’t have gradients in title bars. This is windoze 95:
Looks a bit like MATE, only with sharper, more 3D buttons 
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When I was a small kid, I would visit my dad who had an IBM mainframe at work. Sometime around 1990 he bought our first personal computer: Amiga 500.
My first very own PC was a 386 IBM compatible, with a mathematics coprocessor, running MS-DOS.
The last windoze I used on my PCs was XP. I stopped using it sometime around 2015. I bought a laptop in 2014 which came with windoze 7 preinstalled (by that time, windoze 7 was already quite outdated), I really hated it and installed Linux on it (I think it was 'Buntu 16, some unicorn or something).
I used 'Buntu on and off for the next 5 years or so, until they switched their desktop to ɢɴᴏᴍᴇ, which really sucks. So I switched to Kubuntu for about a year, but I was vexed by all the snaps and Canonnical… Then I switched to Manjaro and then EndeavourOS.
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My father bought me a 486 DX-2 66MHz. I believe it was around 1993… maybe 1999, really not sure…
At that time, I used to play Doom, Duke Nukem and then Quake 1 (Quake World online).
I was a member of a famous Quake clan at that time…
Me and my friends usually met up at a club with our computers to set a LAN network and play games through IPX, that was the protocol to play in a LAN at that time…
We used coaxial cables and a terminator at both ends and man, that used to be a mess hehe…
Lots os pizzas, coca cola, swimming pool, football and games 
Very fun times…
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I started in May 2022 with Fedora 35. I was just experimenting on a gaming laptop I hadn’t used for a year because it didn’t have enough RAM. I ended up going down the FOSS rabbit hole and sticking with Linux, although I ultimately upgraded the laptop to have more RAM.
My next distro was Nobara, then EndeavourOS.
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A colleague introduced me to Linux with a Debian from 2004 I guess. KDE 3 as Desktop. Can hardly remember. Played around on a second laptop. Then as dual boot on my main machine.
Then moved on to Ubuntu Feisty Fawn in 2007 as only OS until end of 2021. Hopped from Gnome to XFCE (Xubuntu) until I chose KDE in ~2020.
Due to all the snap shit and other *buntu specialities I decided to try Endeavour with Plasma end of 2021. And here I am. Still lucky
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Windows 95. And then I loved XP. After XP I started looking around. I didn’t love 7.
Ubuntu really briefly cause I hated gnome, and mint became home for a long time.
Then I got a Chromebook and GalliumOS was home for quite sometime until Manjaro where I started to learn about Arch and really started to love Linux.
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omg your right & i did start in windowz 95 (VERY bad memory) lol
also i remember my dad was all about gateway computers back then
i still own my old gateway computer could take a actual REAL pic of mine in my basement but right now i am to lazy to even move but i might haha someday when i got more motivation (this one actually honestly looks cooler than mine… mine is OLD)
So long ago, it all…
After years with DOS (Siemens DOS 2.0, not compatible w. anything else) and Windows 2.x on a Siemens 286 XT Personal Computer that came with a type-wheel printer and 10 meters of handbooks in the shelve…
Then Windows 3 on MS-DOS 3 run on an IBM 386 AT, along came 256 colors(!) with a vga graphics card, and Bill Gates having struck a deal to buy all DOS patents, and thus incorporating them, suddenly all of DOS’s incompatibilities were gone in an instant one might not remember, or be aware of anymore, these days. - Whoosh… a whole new world of software at everyone’s hands!
This kept going all the way through Windows NT/95 (many years) and even up to Windows 7, until I began looking for something else.
Luckily, someone handed me a used MacBook Pro and from there I was cured from Windows for good. Well, except for repairing my external NTFS drives occasionally, but that I did in a Virtualbox-VM on the Mac. I loved the Mac much more than any Windows puter I had ever taken care of. No need for complete re-installs of the M$-Os every 6 months or so, again, ever since…
I still use an iMac (late 2009) and a MacBook Pro (early 2011) as daily drivers, both having Linux, alongside MacOS these days, as both machines are long out-of-service from the MacOS-side.
A long, winding road it was, until I started discovering Linux. First trying out Linux Mint with Cinnamon DE. Next up, Ubuntu, then Debian itself, then AntiX(!), Manjaro, MX… nothing really kept me satisfied.
Then Arch came to me… it offered itself as “You will be on your own” when it comes to installing and trouble-shooting.
I took that challenge, and I must say, through that I’ve learned Linux in a way, I don’t need to seek help or support from others (kudos to the ArchWiki, instead!).
Then one day I tried EnOS, learned to master Fedora (for my needs), and all the rest is well.
I keep loving the EndeavourOS-community!
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OMG - it wasn’t only Linux related!?
So then I need to go back to 1984 to my first Apple ][ compatible with an UCSD Pascal OS. After a short break I bought my first PC 386SX running on DR-DOS 3.3
Then Windows (WTF is it, Editor and Calc only??)
Windows 3.1
Windows 95
Windows NT - OS/2 2.1
Windows 2000 + OS/2 3
Windows XP + OS/2 Warp
Windows XP + Linux Debian…
must have been ~2004??? when I switched to all that Linux stiff - see posting above
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OMG yes it was @PeterRies see quoted text above. Straight out of the OP’s first post.
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What you missed vista, that was such a great release 
While these new features and security improvements garnered praise, Windows Vista was also the target of significant criticism, such as of its high system requirements, more restrictive licensing terms, lack of compatibility, longer boot time, and excessive authorization prompts from User Account Control.
Seems like the definition of windows
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Besides getting rid of that OS (Windoze Vista) as fast as I could on all productive machines back then (what a hastle), I bought a used 2004 laptop (Siemens-Fujitsu Amilo w. 4G of RAM) for 100 bucks many years ago on AZ that had M$ Vista on it, and that was the reason it was sold cheap, as their user just got tired of their constant waitings and bought a more powerful machine.
It came in nearly perfect condition, so I immediately put an SSD in, and Linux (Arch) on it, and it keeps running to this day with Arch and variying Linuxes on the side…
So, some gold came out of Windoze-Vista for me.
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My Linux journey (including dual boot with Windows) :
Red Hat 6.0
Slackware 7.0
Mandrake 7.0 (former Mandriva)
Suse 7.1
Debian Woody (3.0) to Squeeze (6.0)
Manjaro 0.8.3 to 21.3.0
EndeavourOS
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when I read all of you am still a bloody beginner although I am already fiftyfive 
However, I have always done something manual with electrical engineering. installations, safety engineering and sps-controlled special machine construction.
i only got into computer technology in 2006. before that, i had been using a cracked windows2000 for years in private use. 2006 i got to buntu, at that time with gnome2 i think. at some point i wanted to know more about computers and their structure, so i went to manjaro. and since about 2 years i use EOS with plasma for my daily work.
On my very, very old laptop I installed xfce arch last week.
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My journey started with TRSDOS → MS-DOS/Windows 3.1 → Windows 95 → Red Hat 2.1. Kept up with Red Hat until 5.2, switched to Debian 2.2, but also messed around with Slackware when 8.0 came out. Also used Corel Linux on a laptop I had between 1999 and 2001.
Switched back to Windows for my job in 2005, but stuck with Windows 2000 as long as I could. Stayed on it as primary, progressing through XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, and 10 Switched my work PC back to Linux in 2018 with Pop!_OS, but that didn’t stay for too long and I hopped between that, Debian, Fedora, Arch, and Rocky Linux when that came out. Landed on EndeavourOS at some point and it stuck.
At home I went up to Windows 11 on my main machine and got sick of it after a couple weeks. Switched to EndeavourOS and never looked back. Got my laptop on eBay, replaced the SSD it came with, and put EndeavourOS on there from the start.
I built desktops for my kids, but I left Pop!_OS on their machines. They know who to talk to when they get the urge to try something else. My wife’s laptop is the only thing running Windows in my house, though she’s getting increasingly frustrated and has definitely noticed how well every other machine in the house works … just waiting for her to say the words and Tux will bless her computer as well.
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Windoze 2000 and three years ago I dipped my toe into Linux Mint. Never looked back.
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CC/PM → MsDos → Win3.1 then all the way to Win 11
Also
SCO Unix & ICL System 10 and System 25.
Started with Linux in 1996, from a book, can’t remember what it was, dual booted on Win 95.
Then:
Mandrake → Mandriva → Mint Debian → Manjaro → Endeavour
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I started with Clearlinux, bad choice I know. It’s definitely an advance Distro.
At least I learned a lot, especially having to practically compile everything, even ffmpeg
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I started with DOS 3 I remember installing Window’s 3.1 when I finally got interested in looking at it. At time I had created quite the menu system for navigating my system. My first taste of Linux came with Caldera OpenLinux. I had decided to try out the KDE instead of Gnome first but then I tried Gnome. Don’t use either now 
After Caldera is was Mandrake 7 which I fell in love with. I did upgrade to Mandrake 8 but I don’t think it was long after that Mandrake went away. I then switched to ubuntu stayed with it for about a week then went to OpenSuse. I stayed with OpenSuse throughout my so long to Windows days. I left OpenSuse to go to Fedora then Gnome 3 came out and I switched DE’s Stayed with Fedora until I happened upon Antergos. Which I stayed with until it died I then did a Manjaro install and usage for a little bit then Arco Then EndeavourOS which is where I stayed. I did try to do Gentoo at one time a long time ago however the compiling process took way to long and taxed my then system to hard so I gave up that route lol.
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