The Linux Distributions of 1992 • Hacker News Board

Re: The Linux Distributions of 1992

#31

Post by anonymousiam » Fri, Sep 17, 2021, 3:25 PM UTC

wiz21c wrote: post #8

I think I remember that I started with something called TSX11 / SunSite... Is there any HN'ers who see what that was ?

Tsx11 was Ted Tso's MIT Linux site. Sunsite was unc (University of North Carolina). There was also funet in Finland (close to Linus). Those were the hot Linux sites back then.

Re: The Linux Distributions of 1992

#32

Post by davidw » Fri, Sep 17, 2021, 3:27 PM UTC

My parents gave me a "laptop" in 1995, with a 386 processor, and 4 megs of ram. Even for the time it wasn't very powerful (my dad had a 486 desktop), but it was all mine, and I spent something like a whole weekend downloading the Slackware floppies.

I thought it was just the coolest thing ever that every single piece of software on that system had source code that I could read and learn from.

I used the 'jed' editor because Emacs was a bit heavy duty for the memory the system had.

My next computer was a more powerful desktop that was able to run Emacs, the X windowing system and all that. I put Debian on it, and still use Ubuntu, a derivative of Debian.

Re: The Linux Distributions of 1992

#33

Post by fisian » Fri, Sep 17, 2021, 3:27 PM UTC

There is also this wikimedia illustration of the history of distributions.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Linux_Di...

Re: The Linux Distributions of 1992

#34

Post by abotsis » Fri, Sep 17, 2021, 3:30 PM UTC

I installed SLS. It took me all night to get the modelines right for 1024x768@8 bits. On one side, my how far things have come. On the other, why’s it so hard to get hotplug thunderbolt working. :)

Re: The Linux Distributions of 1992

#35

Post by dharmab » Fri, Sep 17, 2021, 3:31 PM UTC

criddell wrote: post #26

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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?

> Can one make a living selling their Linux applications to end users?

There are companies that do this- DaVinci Resolve, IntelliJ IDEA, Ardour come to mind.

Re: The Linux Distributions of 1992

#36

Post by EvanAnderson » Fri, Sep 17, 2021, 3:40 PM UTC

fmakunbound wrote: post #28

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!

I was running either a Slackware or SLS distro when I did the a.out to ELF transition. I remember the libc migration occurring but I don't recall the details. It amazes me that I pulled it off given how little I understood about how the system actually worked. My experience, up to that point, was with MS-DOS and being a user on a Xenix system (but not a sysadmin). I was really, really excited to have a Unix-like OS at home, but definitely didn't understand how shared libraries worked, etc.

Re: The Linux Distributions of 1992

#37

Post by quakeguy » Fri, Sep 17, 2021, 3:40 PM UTC

Yggdrasil was indeed the best name ever for a distro…

Re: The Linux Distributions of 1992

#38

Post by pvitz » Fri, Sep 17, 2021, 3:41 PM UTC

My first distribution was DLD ("Deutsche Linux Distribution", started already in 1992). The distribution came with a softcover manual that described everything from compiling your own kernel to setting up your own webserver etc. Delix, the company behind it, was later sold to Redhat.

Re: The Linux Distributions of 1992

#39

Post by EvanAnderson » Fri, Sep 17, 2021, 3:43 PM UTC

wiz21c wrote: post #8

I think I remember that I started with something called TSX11 / SunSite... Is there any HN'ers who see what that was ?

Back in the early 90s I purchased CD-ROMs that were nothing more than archives of tsx11 and sunsite. It was much nicer for large files than downloading with a 28.8kbps modem.

Re: The Linux Distributions of 1992

#40

Post by orangepurple » Fri, Sep 17, 2021, 3:58 PM UTC

hef19898 wrote: post #16

tomrod wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MS really needs to release a Linux Excel.

Not sure if that's ever gonna happen. I could imagine, now that Steam tool care of a huge junk of gaming, Office is the main thing keeping a sizable number of people on Windows. Imagine if MS was reduced to MS Excel...

Microsoft is mostly reduced to the Office and Cloud teams. It's likely why the Windows UI is an inconsistent disaster.