My first exposure was my dad's 486 running Red Hat Linux.
I was interested for a while but could never figure it out. In late 2010 I managed to install Ubuntu through wubi on an ageing XP laptop. I expected to just play around with it while mostly using XP but the wifi worked better on Ubuntu and that as that.
I technically had a laptop with Win7. It was a Christmas present from my parents the next year that I promptly installed Ubuntu on.
(Manjaro nowadays)