Reading how-tos(may be the source code too) are all you needed. No need to listen random stuff from some random YouTubers. Ppl can read that time. Books and magazines did exist.
this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2025
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All I know is I wish I would've stuck with it when I first installed but...alas...I was lazy and too dependent on GUI
Just raw dogged linux and loved it. Lot more stable than windows 95/98
Well, I was an Amiga user. That was already unix-like, preemptive multitasking, etc. It was fading fast in the early nineties, and while i was already working in I.T., I was not interrsted in using Windows 3.11 and 95, so I began playing with Slackware Linux. I figured it was a good way to get comfortable with "real" I.T..
I learned Bash and had to compile most of the software i wanted to try. Since, like all programmers, I'm lazy, I wrote some simple scripts to build the code and make them into packages (tgz) for Slackware. This took tedium out of the work, and i could use the packkage manager to install and remove them.
Those were rough days for desktop users, though. I really had to use windows when i needed to pass output to "normies". I tried several window manager and desktops, and eventually landed on Ubuntu.
Well, I was an Amiga user.
Based. But on a serious note, what machine did you have/use? Could you install Linux on the classic Amiga machines? I've always thought about buying an Amiga 1200.
A stock Amiga 1200 wouldn't allow you to run Linux, because the CPU doesn't have an MMU (memory management unit). With a turbo card installed with at least a 68030 and enough RAM you could run Linux on a 1200 though.
https://www.debian.org/ports/m68k/ has a nice little intro and the key requirements.
MMU and HD space were the biggest issues. One of those has pretty much gone away with time.
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First time I format the whole disk, all msdos data (games) lost. I managed to install it then I opened vim to edit a file and I couldn't get out of vim I know it's a cliche, but there is real. To get out I have to call a friend, using the landline, the one who lends me the floppy disks (or maybe it was magazine cd) and ask he how to get out, he says, just press Shift and Z twice.
No audio, no WiFi, no well-established communities, sparse software selection, but total freedom on an alternate OS. I tried it out in the late 90s with Red Hat, left, came back about 5 years later in the early 2000s and stayed forever. SuSE 9.2 was amazing.
Back in my day we had to get our Internet at the village Internet well. I remember the dialup modem noises it made as you pulled the bucket up.
I was born in the 80s and never even though about Linux until very recently.