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Your most relevant linux/Debian memories

Off-Topic discussions about science, technology, and non Debian specific topics.
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arzgi
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Your most relevant linux/Debian memories

#1 Post by arzgi »

I got my first touch to unix when I was at uni at the beginning of the 90's. Some friends gave me linux disks some -93-94. Tried, but it was a bit raw. Then after using win95 for a few years, mainly DOS though, I bought a book of RedHat 7 with install cd-rom. Most I remember from that time was rpm-hell. Then bought RedHat 8, and there was a wov effet when anaconda found all my peripherals, printer, scanner, etc. all in one run.

Bough RedHat 9, but never installed, because first day I got broadband, I downloaded Debian Woody. Grind was wide when apt solved all dependencies, my wife could not understand how anyone can stare smilingly boring text screen near a hour.

So have been happy Debian user ever since.

Near year 2000 when smart phones were not general, there were a few years linux handhelds. I bought Sharp Zaurus SLC3100, linux in your pocket! First installed japanese linux seemed Debian based, then tried a few other distros: Opie, pdax13, Ångstrom. Open embedded software forum,https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?act=home, was for discussing about these devices. Usually there were about 10-40 new messages, which I read every morning. Then one morning there were more than 700 new posts, wondered what has happened. Arm support had come to sid, and overnight Debian had been ported to Zaurus. First time used XFCE then, which now is my only DE. My Zaurus had 400Mhz arm prosessor, firefox took near 3 minutes to open. I do not remember, if I had a lighter browser. Zaurus was my only portable till 2012. Then most web pages were too heavy, dumped Zaurus and bought a laptop.

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Head_on_a_Stick
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Re: Your most relevant linux/Debian memories

#2 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

I first used UNIX® in the late 1980's, my dad was doing his PhD in nuclear physics and they had SUN SPARCStations to produce the papers with LaTeX. I was about 14 at the time and whenever I had an English essay due I would go into the University and type in the text at the workstation and my dad would then typeset it and print it out on the (enormously expensive) laser printers — my teacher was always Well Impressed :)

The workstations even had the original optical mice, the reflective matt was comprised of vertically-aligned strips and the mouse would only track properly if held orthogonal to the grid :lol:

As an aside, the laboratory also had some original Apple Mactinosh machines and this is where my loathing of that brand originated: they were like stunted, Mickey Mouse versions of the SUN powerhouses gleaming next to them...

Anyway, once I was in University I only ever used a computer for the occasional Quake II game (this is where my name originated) and I lost interest in computers in general, mainly because of Windows.

I first heard about GNU/Linux in a HiFi magazine, of all places, and it sparked fond memories of my experience of *nix operating systems and so I downloaded and installed the brand new (at the time) Xubuntu 13.10 release. From there I migrated to Arch once I had figured out how to install it (a month or so later) and Debian once I figured out why my hardware wouldn't work with it, just before I joined the forums here.
deadbang

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debiman
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Re: Your most relevant linux/Debian memories

#3 Post by debiman »

i studied computers in the 90s, and we also had UNIX classes.
one of the most important statements that i remembered many times later on:
the internet basically uses UNIX syntax.
everything that needed to be propped onto MS systems to make them internet capable, was baked right into the system in UNIX (and Linux ofcourse).

still took me more than a decade to actually start using it :)

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GarryRicketson
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Re: Your most relevant linux/Debian memories

#4 Post by GarryRicketson »

When Jim Hall was working on FreeDos, I noticed he was using Linux to write :
So I got interested in Linux as well,...I saw some of his announcements on usenet.

http://www.freedos.org/history/

https://itsfoss.com/interview-freedos-jim-hall/

So it actually was FreeDos, that brought me to Linux.

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pylkko
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Re: Your most relevant linux/Debian memories

#5 Post by pylkko »

I think my most relevant memory was when I realized what it was about. I had understood to some limited extent what open source is about, from projects like Mozilla and Open Office at the time. I also knew that there are free community-based operating systems and that sounded interesting. But I tried a Ubuntu live disk on a laptop I had, but the track pad didn't work. I was also intimidated by the idea of moving 100% away from windows and all the programs that I had become used to.

So then I bought a few ARM boards to tinker on (they are really cheap) while I keep my main machine on the old Windows Vista that it was on. Then I slowly realized that in Linux everything is documented and that I can control every single aspect of every thing in the computer, the cpu frequencies, governors, how many cores the kernel uses, suspend it automatically, have it wake automatically, have it send me mail when I want, have it perform an action when I plug in a usb stick, connect to it remotely, set up servers for myself and so on. I was also blown away when I realized how bloated windows + an antivirus program are. Many "old" laptops that people considered "too old to used any more" worked just fine on Linux. After this I moved all my computers to Linux.

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debiman
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Re: Your most relevant linux/Debian memories

#6 Post by debiman »

I was without computer for about a decade, then i started getting hand-me-down laptops from my family.
of course they were underpowered and bogged down, so a windows reinstall was required.
usually i went one version down, i.e. if it had ME installed, i'd go win2000 etc.

this doesn't have anything to do with Linux directly, but it certainly paved the road for me.
whenever people complain about how difficult it is to install, i always tell them: have you ever tried to install windows from scratch? it's definitely not easier.

and imagine the revelation when a Linux install goes through in 30 minutes, instead of 3 hours for windows...

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Starborn
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Re: Your most relevant linux/Debian memories

#7 Post by Starborn »

Not Debian, here. I remember Mandrakelinux being my first Linux distro that worked well (alongside Windows Millennium). I found it awesome that there was an OS world outside Microsoft Windows. I bought Mandrakelinix as "boxed" software with CD-roms and a manual.

In fact, my first tries in the world of Linux was with SuSE Linux, end of the 1990s sometime(?), which I also bought as "boxed" software, in a large bookstore.

I even have a "box" of Red Hat (version 5?) lying around here somewhere. I never opened/used it, as I got and tried SuSE Linux at the same time (and not very successfully). I can still remember the man at the one-man computer store here in my town saying that he had to use the Windows 2000 installer to get rid of Linux (after I had messed up SuSE so badly that I could do nothing with the PC anymore and a reinstall of Windows (what else?) was necessary).

A world without Internet (and/or with slow and expensive ISDN). Oh, the memories!
We're all star children!

Bulkley
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Re: Your most relevant linux/Debian memories

#8 Post by Bulkley »

My first Linux was Caldera which I got from a floppy in the back of a magazine. In those days, a whole distribution fit on one 3 1/2" floppy.

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debiman
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Re: Your most relevant linux/Debian memories

#9 Post by debiman »

^ and the term "distribution" refered to something being distributed (in a magazine) in a very physical sense.

n_hologram
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Re: Your most relevant linux/Debian memories

#10 Post by n_hologram »

I only use Linux versions distributed via magazine floppy disks.
bester69 wrote:There is nothing to install in linux, from time to time i go to google searching for something fresh to install in linux, but, there is nothing
the crunkbong project: scripts, operating system, the list goes on...

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