I vaguely remembering something like .92 as the first release I tried. Took me 5 days of running
wget as a background application launched hidden at start-up in an internet cafe I used to visit regularly to complete that download!
The thing that drew me to PCLinuxOS was a line I read somewhere that it had 2 GB worth of software compressed into a CD size image (or was it 500 MB?). I really wanted to check that one out

Ah. That also reminds me of another one that really drew my attention - SymphonyOS with Mezzo desktop.