Ghosts of days gone by (Ancient Linux)

[Burning Desires 69]

My first Linux install was Slackware circa 1995. Was working with Sun OS and really wished I could run it at home. A friend introduced me to Linux and gave me a box set to install. First install took many hours (seriously, I think I went to bed and checked on it in the morning). It was a pain, but I was hooked.

First install took many hours (seriously, I think I went to bed and checked on it in the morning).

This is how I felt about my Games on Windows 3.1 & 95 / 98 back then.
The Games took long enough to go to bed, & wake up to have it finished, & the Defragmenting of Data,
took like 3 Days to finish if your System was Full.

Sooo? At Home i've always had Windows from MS, but at School it had always been an Apple II / Mac or IMac...

So now comes the idea of Linux OS? I always wanted a 2nd OS, & as much as Linux was always
under my Radar & has always been talked about, but i've never seen anyone who's used it, or had it.
So i'm like I need this.

Finally recently I was able to grab a copy, but in the Past or (Ancient Linux) Days.

Linux had existed, just as Windows has. As much as I know, & still know,
most Content seems to go to Windows 1st, Apple or Linux 2nd.

Sooo this kinda made it harder for people to find Content on Linux, there were some Linux Exclusives,
or Linux 1st, & other Platforms 2nd. But I don't think many were.

The 56 K Modem for Dial Up was the fastest Modem in those Days that I know of,
& was not the only one Available. DSL came later by AT&T, & it was faster & more liable,
but it wasn't 100% perfect, it was maybe 90% perfect. Was it faster then Dial Up? Yes deffinately.
Why AOL didn't want to move away from Dial Up has to do with "Stable Connection" I think, but
the Dial Up just couldn't compete with DSL. Fast forward to today, & Comcast & XFinity beat AT&T over DSL & Hi-Speed,
not because it couldn't work, but because of how they handled DSL. The Bandwith was just handled better by Comcast & XFinity.

I noticed that Linux in the Past from the 2000's looked more like Windows PC,
but 1 thing I noticed was KDE had a "Control Center" does KDE still have a "Control Center" Today?
This isn't to say it ran like a Windows PC, though. It i'm sure ran more like a Linux.

The File System was & still is different. So the only Question now is? Do people prefer "Ancient Linux" or "Today's Linux" more?

[old_noob]

My first Linux experience was a box of Red Hat CD's I picked up on a whim at Costco in 1998. I was using Unix at work at the time and thought, "how hard can it be to set this up at home"? Turned out, pretty hard, and I spent the next 15 years on Windows, trying to ignore a ton of Windows issues that also plagued early Linux distros. Not fair, but I was lazy and had graduated into a Windows work environment. When XP sun-setted I put Ubuntu on an old tower and was immediately hooked. Like they say, the first one is free... wait a minute, they're all free

Big SF fan in my mid-teens, especially Asimov and Clarke but read pretty widely. Harlan Ellison in my college days. Loved Star Trek since age 10 but did not pick up on Dr. Who until 1981. Nowadays reading more of what is called speculative fiction, often dealing with the dangerous or dystopian aspects of technology (so maybe not really fiction). Daniel Suarez, William Hertling and similar.

[RollyShed]

Big SF fan in my mid-teens, especially Asimov and Clarke but read pretty widely.

You don't mention Douglas Adams there. A brilliant writer.
The quote I find that relates to too many things, "Every time you try to operate one of these weird black controls that are labelled in black on a black background, a little black light lights up black to let you know you've done it."

This especially applies to USB plugs and why I always but "White-out" (correction fluid) on mine on the symbol side and often a dot above the socket on laptops. We have a lot of desktops with totally black front panels. This includes the ON switch, black on black... and the ON light isn't much more than black.

As for Linux, dapples in Redhat and Puppy while working a couple of decades ago with one of our group mainly running Linux. A decade ago and a DVD that looked interesting. The only Windows since has been fixing other people's problems.

[old_noob]

Big SF fan in my mid-teens, especially Asimov and Clarke but read pretty widely.

You don't mention Douglas Adams there. A brilliant writer.
The quote I find that relates to too many things, "Every time you try to operate one of these weird black controls that are labelled in black on a black background, a little black light lights up black to let you know you've done it."

This especially applies to USB plugs and why I always but "White-out" (correction fluid) on mine on the symbol side and often a dot above the socket on laptops. We have a lot of desktops with totally black front panels. This includes the ON switch, black on black... and the ON light isn't much more than black.

As for Linux, dapples in Redhat and Puppy while working a couple of decades ago with one of our group mainly running Linux. A decade ago and a DVD that looked interesting. The only Windows since has been fixing other people's problems.

Yes, I picked up on him about 1979. To me, just the Monty Python connection makes him worthy of worship. He had his talented thumbs in a lot of pies.

[Morgan Krieg]

I started with Mandrake 7.0 which I purchased as a boxed set at a store (it might have been CompUSA). It was horrible to install, dependency h*ll, and just unfriendly. But it had some great features, I could boot into Gnome, KDE, Windowmaker, etc. It came with almost every DE/Window manager ever made. Then there were the Slackware dudes (uber cool), The Debian Geeks (APT RULEZ!), The Red Hat Fellows (Corporate Uber Alles!), SuSE (a funky German distro). I recall them all.

Enjoy:
I had Mandrake 7.0/7.1 but this is similar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BH79-W19xM


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DBPuZHWEXc Slackware 1.1.2 "New" Slackware: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVtkG-04Arw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pz6EV5bNOY RedHat 5.2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQQCcvFUzrg Debian 2.1

Made me nostalgic for Windows 98. Like the crispiness and responsiveness of it. Was on Linux Mint since 2009, finally could afford Windows in 2018 and it turned out to be some kind of a dystopian, user-hostile nightmare so I booted it three times and never used it again despite that some of my favourite games are somewhat glitchy on Wine.

[MurphCID]

I have been looking at Slackware (I know, I know, I am really a noob), but I remember Slackware from the days gone past as THE elite distro for people who could really get hammering on the bare metal. The problem with Slackware is its total lack of dependency resolution and its still dependence on the command line.

[MurphCID]

I am looking at Gnome 40, and all I see is a poor attempt to emulate Mac O/S with a less capable desktop. Not only do you have to download Gnome-Tweaks to get a minimize and maximize button you have to put in lots of add ons to get it to work the way a normal DE should work. Have they lost their way, or are they so gone in Mac and IOS envy that they are making something to perhaps get some Mac addicts to join? Sorry, I don't see the point, or even the usefulness since even Mac OS has minimize and maximize buttons, and the dock works out of the box, and is not something you have to add on....

[MartyMint]

I was standing over Linus' shoulder when he was putting the finishing touches on the first beta release. He asked for some tips, but I told him it was his baby and that I didn't want to step all over it.

[Dutchmaster]

I started with Lindows/Linspire in 2002. It's Click n' Run Warehouse was one of best software managers I've ever seen.

[MurphCID]

Another guy who does not like Gnome 4.0 (Gnome 40): https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/gnome-40.html

I have to admit, I played with Linux, but got run off by the elitist attitudes early on, Thank the stars that Mint came out, and I found it.

[Tolayon]

Since I have actively been diving into Linux only since late 2018 for my personal use, I can't say much about older versions - except this one:

Back at university in 2002/ 2003 when I was studying something computer science related (unsuccessfully, but that would be another story), we still used UNIX clients (HP UX, Solaris in another department) with CDE on it. Truly the ugliest desktop I ever encountered, like a beefed-up industrial mutation of the Windows 3.1 GUI. Then, one or two semesters later, all or at least most got replaced by Linux clients. Now at that time I wasn't that much into Linux at all, so I didnt' look or ask which distro or DE it was, but what I can say is: It looked sooo much better and way more modern than CDE on those UNIX dinosaurs!

But still, I was a total Windows guy for my personal use at home at that time.

[MurphCID]

Any SuSE or Mandriva users? How about Slackware users or did Arch supplant that as the hardest distro?

[Portreve]

Elitism:

Honestly, the best thing the free software community can do is to make Linux aspirational. That serves as its own filter. Apple and a number of other premium brand companies learned this long ago. As many companies and even some retailers know, not all customers are desirable customers. Why should the Linux community feel differently? It's not like you can "save" everyone. That said, I'm not calling on people to deliberately behave badly or treat others with disrespect; far from it. It's just that we shouldn't go around on eggshells, worrying about if we might offend someone.

Ultimately, I think Groucho Marx said it best: I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.


Gnome 3.x:

I don't remember if it was here on LMF, or somewhere else, but I recall someone saying Gnome 40 visually looks good (particularly icons) using a high-def display now that there's 4K support. And I will absolutely admit their icons do look nice. However, that's about all I can say in favor of Gnome 3. Otherwise, the UI paradigm sucks.


SuSE (not openSUSE):

Back in the days of old, when men were men and Linux distros sold boxed copies of their installers, the best of the best in terms of manuals was the one which came with SuSE. I've talked about this before here on LMF: it was written as elegantly as any novel I've read.


Lindows/Linspire:

I remember this. They tried to hop on the coattails of the the "year of Linux" but unfortunately, despite their best efforts, Linux was far from being "ready for prime time" and so the whole thing just failed, and failed pretty hard. These days, distros such as Linux Mint and Ubuntu really could be poised to make a huge splash and attract a lot of interest. It's just a matter of increasing visibility and, to paraphrase a talk that Linus Torvalds gave once, it's important to get manufacturers to bundle it instead of Windows.

[Spearmint2]

Lot of talk about Linux becoming mainstream again, due to Windows version 11. Youtube videos show many windows users are really pissed off about version 11, and the TPM requirements, and claims even certain fairly recent processors not accepted by it. Version 11 reminds me of the "Signature Edition" computer battle when W10 came out, and it seems MSFT is up to the same possible approach with W11 now.

[MurphCID]

Elitism:

Honestly, the best thing the free software community can do is to make Linux aspirational. That serves as its own filter. Apple and a number of other premium brand companies learned this long ago. As many companies and even some retailers know, not all customers are desirable customers. Why should the Linux community feel differently? It's not like you can "save" everyone. That said, I'm not calling on people to deliberately behave badly or treat others with disrespect; far from it. It's just that we shouldn't go around on eggshells, worrying about if we might offend someone. But at the same time we DO NOT need to go back to the bad old RTFM days either.

Ultimately, I think Groucho Marx said it best: I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.


Gnome 3.x:

I don't remember if it was here on LMF, or somewhere else, but I recall someone saying Gnome 40 visually looks good (particularly icons) using a high-def display now that there's 4K support. And I will absolutely admit their icons do look nice. However, that's about all I can say in favor of Gnome 3. Otherwise, the UI paradigm sucks. I completely agree, it is a 3rd rate Mac OS knock-off at best.


SuSE (not openSUSE):

Back in the days of old, when men were men and Linux distros sold boxed copies of their installers, the best of the best in terms of manuals was the one which came with SuSE. I've talked about this before here on LMF: it was written as elegantly as any novel I've read. I purchased my copy of Mandrake Linux in a box with books inside! I remember those days.


Lindows/Linspire:

I remember this. They tried to hop on the coattails of the the "year of Linux" but unfortunately, despite their best efforts, Linux was far from being "ready for prime time" and so the whole thing just failed, and failed pretty hard. These days, distros such as Linux Mint and Ubuntu really could be poised to make a huge splash and attract a lot of interest. It's just a matter of increasing visibility and, to paraphrase a talk that Linus Torvalds gave once, it's important to get manufacturers to bundle it instead of Windows.

Good points. We need to work on driver support and gaming to get more users on Linux. Just my two pence worth.

[Portreve]

Gaming is actually an interesting subject. Valve is working hard to put gaming on Linux on par with other platforms. Personally, I think game developers could go with some kind of container packaging system (AppImage, flatpak, Snap) and in this way, have a stable target to develop for. I doubt Linux gamers would pitch too much of a fit with this approach.

[MurphCID]

Gaming is actually an interesting subject. Valve is working hard to put gaming on Linux on par with other platforms. Personally, I think game developers could go with some kind of container packaging system (AppImage, flatpak, Snap) and in this way, have a stable target to develop for. I doubt Linux gamers would pitch too much of a fit with this approach.

I completely agree here.

[ivar]

I started with Mandrake 7.0 which I purchased as a boxed set at a store (it might have been CompUSA). It was horrible to install, dependency h*ll, and just unfriendly. But it had some great features, I could boot into Gnome, KDE, Windowmaker, etc. It came with almost every DE/Window manager ever made.

I had my first linux encounter with Mandrake as well. Downloaded it during a weekend at work after we upgraded from 64kb ISDN dialup to 64kb leased line
Installed it on a phased-out shitbox acer minitower, install was straightforward and I chose KDE IIRC. I played some Mah-Jong on it - and got RDP to a windows NT server to work on it, before losing interest.
Next was several year later, one of the first Ubuntu versions (Breezy Badger?) , on a Toshiba laptop. Easy install. Dabbled a little but with it but also got put aside.
Then, Knoppix, which I actually used to retrieve user files from a broken laptop.

10 years fast forward and in january 21 my trusty home laptop lost its fan and I put Mint 20.1 on a leftover Lenovo yoga from work. Close to 6 months now on linux, not too bad after using windows for 30 years , lol

[Pierre]

it was CP/M circa 1987 or there-abouts,
followed by an ZCPR3 system . . all on the Z80 chipset, on MicroBee that was Made in Sydney, Australia.


then it was DOS-5 & win-3 in the 90s

finally, I'd starting modifying my own PCs, rather than paying some-one else to do that.

then it was Mandriva Linux from the cover of an English computer magazine,
and one of those had the first of the Ubuntu CDs that Ubuntu were giving away.
- - so I'd applied to have some sent direct to my house, on the Ubuntu web site.
they did that for a few years, but gradually wound down the number, that they would send.

Finally it was an LinuxMint iso that came along,
and the rest, as they would say, is history.

[MurphCID]

One of the greatest things about Mandrake Linux was you could choose which Window manager or desktop environment to use, it came with ALL of them! KDE, check. Gnome, check. Lots of others like AfterStep, IceWM, etc. This was wonderful because you could try lots of different ones to find the one you liked the best.