Ghosts of days gone by (Ancient Linux)

MurphCID · Post by **MurphCID** » Tue Jan 19, 2021 7:21 am

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

BenTrabetere · Post by **BenTrabetere** » Tue Jan 19, 2021 11:24 am

I used OS/2 in that time period, and I tried all of the ones on your list while I looked for a replacement for OS/2. I also tried Caldera OpenLinux and Corel Linux. The one I liked the best was Corel Linux, and I was especially excited because the package I purchased also included WordPerfect Office ... my enthusiasm quickly faded when I figured out WP-Office was the Windows versions running under Wine.

Work projects pushed me to switching to WinXP.

AndyMH · Post by **AndyMH** » Tue Jan 19, 2021 12:37 pm

Started with Xandros in the early 00's, used it as a file server for my business. I was impressed by its ease of use. When I came back to linux it was the first thing I looked for, sadly no more.

Portreve · Post by **Portreve** » Tue Jan 19, 2021 6:44 pm

The very first distribution I ever touched was RedHat 4.2 on a stack of CDs.

Using GNU+Linux back then was a very harsh experience. No package management, no good way to install software, or even to look for stuff, much less to keep your system up to date. Things have immeasurably improved since ca. 1997/8.

The first remotely decent and easy straightforward-ish to use was Fedora Core, and if I'm being objective and not overly sentimental, around version 3 or 4.

However, once things really started to gel with Debian (I'm thinking vis a vis apt, a modern desktop environment, etc.) I think the die was pretty much cast. It's no wonder Canonical chose to base Ubuntu on Debian and not something else. Honestly, unless you have a need for some specific other thing, I'm don't know why any even remotely close to normal/typical/average computer user would really want to use anything other than a Debian-based distro.

MurphCID · Post by **MurphCID** » Wed Jan 20, 2021 7:19 am

I also seem to recall (but cannot remember where), that Linux (back in the day) did not like to be ignored, it wanted to be used, and if you did not use it every day, then you got errors. I seem to remember Mandrake being that way if I went a couple of days between boots on the computer. Also attempting to get a modem to work was something that strong men (and women) feared back in those days. Especially because there was NO help at all. It was RTFM all the time, and as a result many of us lost hair attempting to get something to work.

AndyMH · Post by **AndyMH** » Wed Jan 20, 2021 8:16 am

MurphCID wrote: ⤴Wed Jan 20, 2021 7:19 am Also attempting to get a modem to work was something that strong men (and women) feared back in those days.

I remember back in the day buying an ex-BT 300 baud modem (it was the size of a tower desktop) and getting it to play with a computer running CP/M. It was fun

, there was lot of assembler code.

Portreve · Post by **Portreve** » Wed Jan 20, 2021 9:16 pm

You know, back in the day, computer user/geek and science fiction fan were two things which can near universally went hand in hand. Back in the 80s and even early 90s, it was utterly unfathomable that someone you'd talk to who was into computers (anyone here remember when that phrase actually meant something?) wasn't a Star Trek, BSG, Dr. Who, Buck Rogers, or at least a Red Dwarf fan.

MurphCID · Post by **MurphCID** » Wed Jan 20, 2021 9:40 pm

Portreve wrote: ⤴Wed Jan 20, 2021 9:16 pm You know, back in the day, computer user/geek and science fiction fan were two things which can near universally went hand in hand. Back in the 80s and even early 90s, it was utterly unfathomable that someone you'd talk to who was into computers (anyone here remember when that phrase actually meant something?) wasn't a Star Trek, BSG, Dr. Who, Buck Rogers, or at least a Red Dwarf fan.

True that. Tom Baker was the best Dr. Who.

AndyMH · Post by **AndyMH** » Thu Jan 21, 2021 5:32 am

Nah, William Hartnell, the first! It's been downhill ever since and no longer watch it.
Blake's Seven is missing from the list

Portreve · Post by **Portreve** » Thu Jan 21, 2021 8:00 am

MurphCID wrote: ⤴Wed Jan 20, 2021 9:40 pm
Portreve wrote: ⤴Wed Jan 20, 2021 9:16 pm You know, back in the day, computer user/geek and science fiction fan were two things which can near universally went hand in hand. Back in the 80s and even early 90s, it was utterly unfathomable that someone you'd talk to who was into computers (anyone here remember when that phrase actually meant something?) wasn't a Star Trek, BSG, Dr. Who, Buck Rogers, or at least a Red Dwarf fan.
True that. Tom Baker was the best Dr. Who.

Oh yeah!

AndyMH wrote: ⤴Thu Jan 21, 2021 5:32 am Blake's Seven is missing from the list

Omg, you're right! How could I have ever forgotten that?

And, since today is Throwback Thursday, anyone here remember BBSs and FidoNet? Was anyone here on that? I was, via Net 1/371.

kc1di · Post by **kc1di** » Thu Jan 21, 2021 8:11 am

Remember my ear liest use of Linux was on a tandy machine that I tried to get Slackware running on from a dozen or so floppy discs.
spent days trying to get everything workkng. That led me to build my first Linux only Box from parts purchased from all over.
After that went to a boxed set of Redhat. That I bought I think from Staples. Stayed with Redhat until they went the Fedora route.
Tried many other distros over the years, Remember Caldera, Yellow Dog, Mandrake, Vector linux and Settled on Debian for a long time. Then went with Ubuntu when it first was released. Now on Mint But still have a found spot for PCLinuxOS. Lots of memories some fun some not. But am lazy now and like things that just seem to work

P.S. was a big Dr. Who fan.

Hoser Rob · Post by **Hoser Rob** » Thu Jan 21, 2021 11:06 am

Portreve wrote: ⤴Wed Jan 20, 2021 9:16 pm You know, back in the day, computer user/geek and science fiction fan were two things which can near universally went hand in hand. Back in the 80s and even early 90s, it was utterly unfathomable that someone you'd talk to who was into computers (anyone here remember when that phrase actually meant something?) wasn't a Star Trek, BSG, Dr. Who, Buck Rogers, or at least a Red Dwarf fan.

Yup, that's true. But back then to use the Internet you actually had to know how to use FTP commands in the terninal. So you kind of had to be more of the sort of person who fits into the SF fan demographic.

Ironically, though, WIlliam Gibson, who is considered the great tech prophet of SF, is about as far from a techie as you can get.

MurphCID · Post by **MurphCID** » Fri Jan 22, 2021 11:03 am

I remember all of those old window managers, and Desktop Environments (KDE/GNOME), then things like Enlightenment, WindowMaker, FVWM that came pre-installed with the early 1990's distros. It was fun loading Mandrake and having loads of different DE's and Windowmanagers to play with. I miss that.

MurphCID · Post by **MurphCID** » Mon Jan 25, 2021 10:19 pm

I also miss the old BBS system and the shareware sites that sadly are long gone due to the malware and other offensive garbage that destroyed the trust on the net.

Spearmint2 · Post by **Spearmint2** » Tue Jan 26, 2021 4:39 am

I started looking at Linux around Knoppix, version 4 as I recall. "initiating startup sequence" LOL. It was fun playing around in it, but I continued with Windows 2000 Pro and XP till 2013 moving first to Kubuntu 12.04, later then to Mint 14. I had also looked early on at "Lindows-Linspire", and "Freespire". Surprisingly, 15 years later it seems they are back. It's not getting a lot of love though. Maybe if they'd done something different like offering a systemd-free distro version, they wouldn't be at 197 on distrowatch.

antikythera · Post by **antikythera** » Tue Jan 26, 2021 4:47 am

I tried Knoppix out too and was reasonably impressed with it but already had SUSE Professional heavily discounted via a Magazine offer at the time and stuck with it for some years alongside Windows because even back then it was robust as hell. I still have the huge manual and wallet full of CD install media for SUSE Pro.

MurphCID · Post by **MurphCID** » Tue Jan 26, 2021 7:21 am

Back in the day SUSE seemed to be a pretty solid distribution of Linux. There was one BBS that I used to visit, but I cannot recall its name now all these years later that I got some really good and helpful shareware from. I even remember sending the guy running it a donation of $10 (which was a lot back then).

MurphCID · Post by **MurphCID** » Thu Mar 11, 2021 7:22 am

I also recall that if you did not use your Linux machine for a few days it got...cranky. Of course this was on Mandrake 7.something.

Hoser Rob · Post by **Hoser Rob** » Thu Mar 11, 2021 10:32 am

I actually saw one of the 1st Xwindows implementations c.1994. You could tell it was a lot better than Windows even then but by jeez it ran slow.

pilotbob42 · Post by **pilotbob42** » Sat Mar 13, 2021 10:04 pm

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.

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