There's a great article for those who want to take a look at how Linux and distributions started over at DistroWatch Weekly Newsletter. It gives a great snapshot of major milestones and a bit of history of the main 4 distributions.

It takes a look at how the kernel evolved and started supporting X Windows System as well as the first release of both Kool Desktop Environment (KDE) and GNOME.

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Read: Distrowatch Weekly

Discuss: Your first Linux Distro used