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Sysadmining Like It's 2009

lambdacreate.com

31–40 of 48 posts

Re: Sysadmining Like It's 2009

#31
post #29
post #26

Vista got a lot of hate when it came out but honestly, I liked it then and I continue to not think of it as problematic. It introduced `gksudo` to everyone and people complained about it but I was an Ubuntu user prior to using Vista so it felt natural to me. Overall, it was an operating system that worked well, as did Windows 7 afterwards with signed drivers and so on. In fact, those Windows versions got the reloadab…

Imo vistas biggest problem was they underspecced the minimum system requirements. Most peoples experience with vista was on sub 1gb of ram machines with a single core, no gpu and 32 bits. Vista was an os for modern architectures first. Windows 7 had the luxury of those features being the default at launch.

Theres a bit more to that story, leading up to Vista Intel's iGPUs lacked proper DX 9 support, just partial. Particularly 910/915 were marketed as "Vista Capable" but not "Vista Premium Ready".

And the later ones which did have full DX 9 support really weren't that much better. I recall drivers being an absolute mess for a lot of external peripherals too, many that weren't even dated took ages to get something usable for vista if at all.

Re: Sysadmining Like It's 2009

#32
post #26

Vista got a lot of hate when it came out but honestly, I liked it then and I continue to not think of it as problematic. It introduced `gksudo` to everyone and people complained about it but I was an Ubuntu user prior to using Vista so it felt natural to me. Overall, it was an operating system that worked well, as did Windows 7 afterwards with signed drivers and so on. In fact, those Windows versions got the reloadab…

Vista helped a lot of people switch to Mac, first to run windows XP on it, then slowly switch to Mac more permanently.

Re: Sysadmining Like It's 2009

#34
post #2

The last month or so, I've been watching a lot of clabretro's videos. If you find this sort of thing interesting (old enterprise software, and possibly the old servers/equipment that would run that software), you'll definitely like his channel! His retrorack is more from the early 2000s rather than the late 2000s, but there's probably still a good amount of cross over between what you're both doing. https://www.youtu…

clabretro does it all on hardmode too. Picks the most obscure, esoteric shit to try and get working: IBM i was the most recent, but his AT&T Merlin Phone series was great. I feel like the Sun Ray stuff was the most likely to be you know, actually documented in a way meant for mere mortals to read, and still likely to be hosted somewhere accessible.

The IBM i stuff, my god, the acronyms, the terse and unhelpful menus and error messages, the insane lengths to get a simple goddamn serial console, it's no wonder IBM gets paid to handle it all for you.

Re: Sysadmining Like It's 2009

#35
post #34
post #2

The last month or so, I've been watching a lot of clabretro's videos. If you find this sort of thing interesting (old enterprise software, and possibly the old servers/equipment that would run that software), you'll definitely like his channel! His retrorack is more from the early 2000s rather than the late 2000s, but there's probably still a good amount of cross over between what you're both doing. https://www.youtu…

clabretro does it all on hardmode too. Picks the most obscure, esoteric shit to try and get working: IBM i was the most recent, but his AT&T Merlin Phone series was great. I feel like the Sun Ray stuff was the most likely to be you know, actually documented in a way meant for mere mortals to read, and still likely to be hosted somewhere accessible. The IBM i stuff, my god, the acronyms, the terse and unhelpful menus…

I used to look after a System /36. It came with around 10 feet (thick) of manuals.

I kept a long plastic straw inside the case - the size of a chest freezer - to tickle one of the fans into life. If you forgot that step, the IPL (boot) would take around 45 mins and then about 20 minutes later ... thermal shutdown!

Re: Sysadmining Like It's 2009

#36
post #14
post #6

It doesn’t feel that 2009 is all that far away but… 17 years ago. I remember a lot of forums during 09” in fringe commodore groups and amiga. And they still go on. But yes 2009 was a different time, to be a sysadmin all you had to effectively know was how to reinstall an OS and drivers and you were golden.

2009 was right at the cusp of "cattle not pets" mindset, and many ways a transitional time from physical servers to virtual servers to disposable single-app VMs.

[flagged]

Re: Sysadmining Like It's 2009

#37
post #33
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

dos was the reason i switched to linux. (sorry, i could not resist, i am old ;-)

unix was the reason i switched to linux

well actually, to be honest for me too. i had actually read about unix before i could get access to a computer, and the first o'reilly book i bought was titled "DOS meets Unix" in 1988, long before i had my own computer.

Re: Sysadmining Like It's 2009

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. I think the UX changes plus the 32/64 bit issues led it to have a rocky start. IMO, Vista crawled so Win7 could run. Same with Win 2000 and WinXP.

Did you mean Windows Me? Windows 2000 was rock solid, and almost exactly the same thing as Windows XP.

I meant from a consumer usage and uptake perspective. I was lucky to use Win 2000 as a consumer as my dad was a SWE who got free licenses from work (along with Compaq workstations, ergonomic chairs, and tickets to ATT Park), but apparently Win2000 for consumer usage was much less common than I thought.
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