That brings back memories! As does running the desktop from one’s .xinitrc:
panel &
background-properties --init &
keyboard-properties --init &
mouse-properties --init &
fvwm2 -f .fvwm2rc.gnome
People still don't believe me when I say this was a real thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_VxrcNgUlM (Red Hat Linux Once Featured A REDNECK Translation)
Good times. My first Linux distribution was a copy of RH 6.1 that my parents bought me from OfficeMax. They weren’t too thrilled when I nuked the MBR on our family’s Windows 98 box, but they’ve subsequently benefitted from nearly 30 years of free tech support haha. Took me another year or so before I finally got X working on our Dell laptop, because I had to install a patched X server to work with its Rage Mobility graphics card. I remember thinking that my keyboard was broken because `su` didn’t echo my password back out to the console. We all have to start somewhere, and the manuals that came with that install were priceless to me.
First Linux I bought was Walnut Creek Linux CD-ROM. Second was Redhat. I would still be on Redhat if it were not for IBM and their bad faith source-available interpretation of the GPL. Then I bought Mandrake and used it as long as it was Mandrake and not the thing that became Conectiva. Then I heard about Ubuntu which would mail free CDs anywhere in the world. I was in education back then and my students would ask Ubuntu for CDs for a class I was teaching, and Canonical sent them a cardboard display, flyers, stickers, and about 50 CDs. They watched in class Revolution OS and contacted many of the people on it, which were kind enough to answer them. Those were the times; I'm old, yet still looking for a job because I love the industry.
I love those old project codenames. They were all connected to each other, but different. Manthattan -> Apollo (both were “Projects”). Apollo to Hedwig (both were characters), etc.
First time I installed linux was around 98, something went wrong and I could not boot and once able to boot could not get on the net. Went through all the information I had printed out and the books I had to no avail, called everyone I could think of. For the next week I had daily bus rides to the library where I would get on IRC to ask any question I could think of, download anything which might help, take lots of notes, make a new boot disk or two and then back home to spend the night trying to sort things out.
First thing I did when I got everything working was sign on to a couple local BBS's so I could play LORD, had to catch up on all that lost time. Felt pretty great to play LORD from console.
For more Linux history, see the "Free Software Business" mailing list, https://web.archive.org/web/20001219073400/http://www.crynwr...
In 1999, RedHat acquired Cygnus for $674M, https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/press-cygnusa...
If you had to integrate it into an existing office network, you might do things like this:
Ahhh, what a lovely trip down memory lane. For me it was Mandrake. I ordered a copy of it from Linux Distros circa 2004 or so; once it arrived, immediately arranged for a sleep over with my buddy so we could hack together a machine to run it. Literally took _all night_ to get it running, and then when we did, realized the machine required a PS/2 keyboard and mouse, which ended up delaying our initial use by another day.
Motif is peak UI
If you go through the trouble of trying one of these ancient distributions, use a mode line calculator (e.g., https://arachnoid.com/modelines/index.html ) for your XFree86.config. With that, it's straightforward to get it working on a 16:9, 16:10, or any other resolution.
My Linux life started even earlier, with a borrowed Red Hat 4 CD around 1995/6.
But it took quite a few years before it ran well enough for me to consider using it full time.
I remember the first versions of GNOME being buggy as hell.
Then I spent a couple of years compiling Gentoo, can't remember actually using it much.
There was a game from that Red Hat era that I loved so much, I **think** it was in Red Hat in that same period. It was a really simple adventure game in 2d, you could play in a window after typing/entering startx. But can't remember the name, I was 12 and it seems today like I dreamt about the game lol.
Would appreciate if anyone remembers it!
There was a game from that Red Hat era that I loved so much, I *think* it was in Red Hat in that same period. It was a really simple adventure game in 2d, you could play in a window after typing/entering startx. But can't remember the name, I was 12 and it seems today like I dreamt about the game lol.
Would appreciate if anyone remembers it!
Red Hat Linux on the family PC in the 90's changed the course of my life.
RH 8.0 was my introduction to Linux and fighting with winmodems. After a few months I found an external US Robotics 56k modem which made exploring the web much easier. My whole career in tech can be traced back to that time.
I seem to recall my first RH install/live demo, was a cover disc from one of the comp mags at the time. I guess these days the disc would just have an unlock code for a vast download, followed by another vast download to update.
>From switching on, I can get to the 1998 GNOME desktop in two to three seconds, whereas with a recent kernel and KDE it takes thirty
This is what I miss. I remember installing my first SSD and thinking thank goodness I am back down to 6s boot times, but it didnt last long. Although Asahi on my M1 is feels just about fast enough that I do a complete shutdown after each use.
Great times. Slackware then redhat in the late 90s was how/when I got started with linux and built solid cmdline skills.
Can’t recall if it was this exact one but I got one of these for my Dell. And I am gonna be honest and say it was not a good experience for me.
I'm glad how we have come in terms of UI/UX since then!
This belongs in a museum!
Bought my copy at a flea market. Installed it on my Compaq, 233mhz or so, 128mb. Got it going by booting the system using the floppy. The article doesn't mention it much, but the distribution came with a booklet helping you install the distro. and an intro to unix. This was my start. For a while all I had was the text interface as X and GUI was a problem to get going. Then the modem, you ever try to dial up, never having used computers before, using new to me everything. Still love it to this day. I also went and got my RHCE, which was pretty hard. Anyway, enough remembered...
Gnome was indeed garbage then
From that era I love the wmicons package (it's under OpenBSD's ports and maybe Debian too).
Why does this Gnome beta preview have TWM windowing? Was the Gnome kind not available yet?
I remember this era. It was Slackware, Caldera, TurboLinux, Mandrake and lots of hours with `./configure; make && make install` executions, reading Linux magazines and big fat books on getting it up and running (losing "precious" data in the process as well). Seeing scary fsck messages when booting up a PC that wasn't properly shutdown. I also remember that there was WinLinux 2000 for those who where scared having a real linux installed. I can't recall the real reason nor how I heard about Linux at the time, but I'm immensely grateful that I did and with time switched permanently to the open source side.