Before Linux had polished distributions, early adopters had to build everything from scratch. That changed in 1992 with two of the first Linux distributions:
Boot/Root (January 1992) – H J Lu released a minimal diskset, giving users a way to boot Linux and install a basic system without compiling everything themselves.
MCC Interim Linux (April 1992) – Developed at Manchester Computing Centre, this was the first Linux distro designed for easier installation and distribution, laying the groundwork for what would follow.
These projects helped transform Linux from source code into a functional OS that could be installed and used more easily. Without them, modern Linux distros might have taken much longer to evolve.