Slackware was my first as well. You really learned Linux using it. I probably rebuilt that drive a dozen times because I’d bork something and it was easier to reinstall than it was to figure out how I broke it in some new novel way.
Also not having a phone to look stuff up and having to rely on looking stuff up in books was hell now that I think of it.
Having the phone these days for reference is huge. When I did my current arch install a few years back, I realized how clutch it was having that option because it definitely wasn't a thing even back in the mid aughts. Sifting through even the console manual was tedious as opposed to just searching for a solution, it makes one grateful for the current state of things.
That was a reason back then to pay for a distribution box - it came with a very good printed manual. Which had beginner friendly sections like "now that you have a running system let's configure and build a kernel matching your hardware".
Same, Slackware, went over to Red Hate for a while then Debian - am using Ubuntu now. I'll never forget (in 1998) setting up Slackware as a server on an old spare 486 the company I worked for had laying around. It had a SCSI hard drive. Oh the pain. USENET was the only good reference, and you'd sometimes have to post and wait a day for a response if you just couldn't figure it out.
Got that server running and saved the company hundreds of dollars a month - they had been paying egregious fees to host brochureware. They thought I was Superman.
Yup, it was the good old time, on a 486
it was easier to reinstall than it was to figure out how I broke it in some new novel way.
I came to the same conclusion. But I couldn't get it to reinstall. It kept wanting to use the old partition. (2001, maybe Ubuntu?)
So I knew how to solve that. If the linux installation is wiped, then it'll surely allow me to reinstall fresh. So,
rm -rf /Begins deleting files...
"Wait, my Windows partition is under that, isn't it." Ctrl+C frantically, it won't stop. Pull the plug.
I did get my files back. Just, you know, without file paths or file names. Do you know how many DLLs and worthless text files there are, by the way?
Also not having a phone to look stuff up and having to rely on looking stuff up in books was hell now that I think of it.
Oh man, not having a second device to look things up and fucking up your
NICmodem drivers. Impossible situation for a noob, but somehow I kept going.
I started with SuSE 5 and it came with a book. I think it started with something like: "Don't panic! You can do this!"
It was rough at first, but once I got into it I was hooked.
I dug around in old boxes and found the book!
Can I get this kind of book but for Mint?
YaST and the fucking AVM Fritz ISDN ISA Card...
A part of me is still crying when opening YaST killed my hand written configuration...
Curious if you're still rocking suse today?
Spelling DOS as DoS is either a cunning joke or one heck of a Freudian slip.
thank you. I stopped immediately right there and my brain went into fast forward to think of why some madperson had spelled DOS as DoS.
AI? . . . It means something else?? . . . no, it's gotta be AI. Or is it on purpose? just to fuck with us? . . . Why?!! Arrgh
Redhat, back in 1999. Then Mandrake 2002. Then Suse 2003. Then Ubuntu 2006. Then Debian 2012-present.
But it's funny I kept KDE since Mandrake. Same DE for over 20 years. For Redhat I was using this Win95 lookalike DE, I forgot what it was called.
Edit: I definitely did not order a couple dozen of Ubuntu's free CD-ROMs back in the day and throw them at everyone I knew and didn't know, including random kiosk people at the mall...
Fvwm95? I used that for a bit way back in the day…
That was it.
Slackware around 96. I downloaded it from a local BBS over a 28.8 modem. It took forever. I don't recall how many floppies it took, but it was a good stack. I got it installed, then realized it was in Portuguese. I did not know Portuguese at the time. So I got a crash course in Linux and Portuguese at the same time learning how to reconfigure the language settings. It was a fun time.
Still using Slackware to this day.
So... Yeah.
What do you like about Slackware? Just curious.
Once you understand Slackware, you realize it is really simple and stable. It comes with an excellent selection of software in the base install, and does not contain any "surprises". I have had uptime in the 200-300+ days range on my home server, updates and security patches are quick and painless, etc.
In other words, it is a Linux optimized for usability and Unix compatibility, not necessarily user friendliness. It assumes you know what you are doing and gets out of your way.
I downloaded slackware from a BBS. It took forever. It booted from two floppies, a boot and a root disk. It did not even have X. I still loved it, because I recently got into programming, and all I had ever programmed on was DOS. In Linux, you could actually malloc() with any amount, even a full megabyte! It was marvellous! Later, I installed it on my HD on a separate partition. The installation process was really fascinating, so much choice, so many new programs! At least the first time.
make menu; make menu config
I did it so much: Slackware from Source that it seemed almost trivial once I got my first Plextor 3x and ordered the CD by mail lol.
Edit: I shivered when I thought about it. I had a 486 SX with 1GB RAM, a 64k VLB Tulip Video card and a Connor 340MB HDD. It was slow as snot even then, but Linux was cool for being free.
/me raises hand.
I also lost partitions (ESP and C:) during my move to a Linux-only setup, except it was because of Windows Update. On ya, Microsoft!
I recall telling this story here on Lemmy not long ago - (and got downvoted some weeks ago for saying that it can happen on any distro... kids don't know the real struggle I guess) - back in the day I swiped my HDD trying to install ubuntu 5.10 and lost all my data from uni and stuff. Still I can't remember how I managed to install it after some attempts like a year after that or so.
I'd be upset about losing my data but truth is that somehow I was used to it - third world problems made it frequently due to not having a cd burner to burn my data and crappy IDE HDDs that got corrupted after a while just because. I still have some of them stored somewhere in hopes I could try to recover something from them someday, like some sort of cryogenic stuff.
I definitely dont miss the days of no uuid's + ribbon cables and master/slave jumpers
Ubuntu 2006 (I think), they mailed me a literal cd with it, how to resist to that.
Yggdrasil for me, i think. I honestly don’t remember how it went though.
I had Linux on a second SSD at home recently, but an update to the laptop’s BIOS seems to have stopped it from letting me boot from it. I only keep windows around for games, which is ironic, as I hardly play them anymore.
Work is a windows shop, but I’d rather use Linux.
I only keep windows around for games
Most games (well, those without invasive anti-cheats) run on Linux as well
I also started with Yggdrasil. A CD-ROM in the back of a massive book (printouts of all the man pages, I think).
I will never forget when I accidentaly wiped my external hard drive messing around snd distro hopping, I lost 6000 songs that day....
The year is about right. I didn't lose my DOS partition, but I was already familiar with partitioning. Someone gave me a Slackware CD set. Had a lot of difficulty getting a higher res than 640x480 with my VLB video card.
Started a BBS at the time, switched to OS/2 Warp, which worked awesome until Windows apps moved to the new Win95 requirements. Started using RHEL for a while, but eventually Debian, then Ubuntu, and now PopOS.It's been a long journey, but now Windows 11 is the weird OS that needs hours of troubleshooting and tweaking and adjustments. It's just not worth the effort, so I keep an Windows 10 VM around with Office for the odd occasion when I need it.
Redhat. Back in the early 90’s.
Fuck RHEL, though. And let’s be honest, why pick just one flavor? (Currently using arch.)
First was Puppy on an old Dell back in middle school. Just wanted something other than the shit ass windows box my mom insisted on and the macs my school insisted on.
I was born in 94 so not really. For me it was Ubuntu and nvidia drivers in 2010 or smth around that.
I switched to Slackware for some time after I got fed up with RedHat 4's broken rpm system.
It was a relief that the tar.gz packages didn't have the habit of blowing up the OS.
Redhat 1997. Slackware, Storm Linux, then Debian 2001 to present. A brief year on the OSS Solaris release.
I do, first install using floppies, kernel v0.99, and more floppies for X
Sunk cost fallacy right there. Plus some Stockholm syndrome thrown in for good measure.
