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The Linux Distributions of 1992

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Re: The Linux Distributions of 1992

#21

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

hef19898 wrote: post #9
nobleach wrote: post #5

I recall being in a B. Dalton Bookstore in the mid-90's. I picked up a book that had "Linux" on the cover. In the cover it had a floppy disk or two. Something felt very wrong to me. You can't give away an entire operation system! Perhaps this was just some "free for educational purposes" thing? I went home and fired up WebCrawler on AOL and came across Yggdrasil. I had experienced Unix on an SGI system. And I was ver…

I remember discussions back the day between Linux and Windows proponents. I was clearly in the Windows camp, seeing Linux fans as, well, bizarre sometimes arrogant pseudo programmers. That changed, now that Linux is probably the last OS I can run without a cloud account easily. Heck, I'd even pay for it! Back the day I was a gamer, the main reason why Linux never really was an option. Later for work, it was Windows a…

>Heck, I'd even pay for it!

I usually donate to FOSS projects I use since you can't pay for them in the traditional sense but I still want to support the developers. KDE is my favorite thus far.

Re: The Linux Distributions of 1992

#22

Post by dharmab »

nobleach wrote: post #5

I recall being in a B. Dalton Bookstore in the mid-90's. I picked up a book that had "Linux" on the cover. In the cover it had a floppy disk or two. Something felt very wrong to me. You can't give away an entire operation system! Perhaps this was just some "free for educational purposes" thing? I went home and fired up WebCrawler on AOL and came across Yggdrasil. I had experienced Unix on an SGI system. And I was ver…

The most single life-changing purchase of my life was probably a Linux magazine that included an Ubuntu DVD from the bookstore.

Re: The Linux Distributions of 1992

#23

Post by ulzeraj »

skydhash wrote: post #17

I discovered linux through a couple of books (mostly about security) in 2008/2009. Then I downloaded linux mint (The gnome version). The only thing I recalled is how beautiful it was, all grey instead of the light beige and green of Windows XP. It felt like soft rubber button and XP felt like the clicky ones. And so many options. I spent days customizing KDE

I was an edgy teenager and wanted to use something different my friends were using so I asked my even more edgy friend how to start with Linux and he pointed me towards Slackware or Gentoo. That was back in 2003 I believe. I also remember being enamored with KDE.

I'm not trolling. Thats exactly how I got into Linux and later other flavors of Unix like BSD and Solaris. Fast forward and that silly teenager angst paved the way to my whole career.

PS: my even more edgy friend is still very edgy though he also became a father and a successful engineer.

Re: The Linux Distributions of 1992

#24

Post by sprucely »

Does anyone remember Win4Lin? It would run Windows 98 as a process and translate system calls to their Linux equivalent. It was very convient for testing my websites in IE. And I swear it was faster and more stable than running Windows on bare hardware. And when it did blue screen, I could have it back up in a matter of seconds.

Re: The Linux Distributions of 1992

#26

Post by criddell »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #21
hef19898 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember discussions back the day between Linux and Windows proponents. I was clearly in the Windows camp, seeing Linux fans as, well, bizarre sometimes arrogant pseudo programmers. That changed, now that Linux is probably the last OS I can run without a cloud account easily. Heck, I'd even pay for it! Back the day I was a gamer, the main reason why Linux never really was an option. Later for work, it was Windows a…

>Heck, I'd even pay for it! I usually donate to FOSS projects I use since you can't pay for them in the traditional sense but I still want to support the developers. KDE is my favorite thus far.

I've always wondered why no Linux app store has risen to prominence? Can one make a living selling their Linux applications to end users?

Re: The Linux Distributions of 1992

#27

Post by heurisko »

In my eyes, it was the introduction of WiFi and home routers that made Linux-based systems accessible to home users.

Prior to that, I remember having a lot of issues with "soft modems" that required Windows drivers to work.

WiFi allowed me to move to RedHat, then Ubuntu, full time.

Re: The Linux Distributions of 1992

#28

Post by fmakunbound »

Around that time, I vaguely recall Linux switching from DWARF to ELF, some kind of libc5 (libc4 ??) to libc6 migration in the the ecosystem and a Sanyo CDROM driver that needed some source code edits to work for my model causing me endless grief as a kid exploring beyond DOS. Great times!

Re: The Linux Distributions of 1992

#29

Post by anonymousiam »

I was aware of Linux, but did not try a distro until SLS (Soft Landing System). It was distributed on a pile of 3.5" floppies, and booted from a floppy too. I moved to Yggdrasil (running from CD-ROM) to get the benefit of a full install with X and development tools in an era when the 650MB CD-ROM had three times the capacity of a high-end hard drive.

Re: The Linux Distributions of 1992

#30

Post by richard_todd »

I was at TAMU from 1995 to 1999, and ran either RedHat or Slackware. In the CS department where I worked part time it was all Solaris. Never heard of this TAMU distribution, but I would have been interested in helping to revive it if I had. Oh well!
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