• spicy pancake
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    314 days ago

    me after installing Ubuntu because it was the only other OS I’d ever heard of, because I accidentally nuked my Windows Vista install by trying to overclock the CPU in a Gateway laptop:

    • @[email protected]
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      213 days ago

      Similarly, my XP install just died and I didn’t have a copy of Windows to reinstall. Gnome 2 taught me computers don’t have to look or feel boring and the terminal taught me they weren’t scary.

      Learned a lot that first year.

    • @[email protected]
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      113 days ago

      hehe, mine was Ubuntu too. I thought I’d fucked up the emachines tower my parents just bought me.

      • spicy pancake
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        113 days ago

        us emachines and gateway kids grew up to be lightweight distro enthusiasts

        like now my laptop has 16 gigs RAM, quad core fuck even knows GHz processor, and a GPU but if a process starts using >2% of my resources i will

        -killall -9
        

        it from orbit

  • @[email protected]
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    313 days ago

    Definitely describes my switch back in 2008 when canonical still sent out Ubuntu CDs for free in the mail. We had dial up so it was faster for them to mail me a CD than to try and download the image myself.

    • VindictiveJudge
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      113 days ago

      If the ping rate is irrelevant, then the good old sneakernet is a great way to transfer large amounts of data.

  • @[email protected]
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    114 days ago

    My first was SuSE 6 or something like that, back in the 90s. And my mom freaked out, because the PC didn’t boot Windows95 anymore. And I had a huge book, telling me what to do. It came with the CDs.

    • massive_bereavement
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      113 days ago

      Iirc Suse used to give away previous versions to highschools, so probably yours was running Yast with a lot of software included.

  • @[email protected]
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    113 days ago

    Exactly what happened when I tried ubuntu on my brothers pc back then. Couldn’t even get the internet working. Right now I’m impressed its an easier time to install than windows.

  • @[email protected]
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    914 days ago

    I remember finding an early ubuntu CD just lying in the street. Took it home, and I’ll be damned if it didn’t turn my ailing laptop right around. Got 5 more years out of that thing.

  • @[email protected]
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    414 days ago

    I remember getting a copy of linux from my friends at a local LAN party (though it was tokenring party for us) around ‘96. 2 floppy disks. I’m 99% sure it was slackware.

      • @[email protected]
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        114 days ago

        Token Ring is a network protocol where a token—a small data packet—circulates around a ring topology, allowing only the device holding the token to transmit data, thus avoiding collisions. We played Doom and Quake.

        • @[email protected]
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          14 days ago

          I know what it is, and I played both those on lan, but my older bro set it up so I guess I just don’t remember. Fucking crazy that shit could work fast enough.

          I don’t remember, what was the lag like for token ring? Lan just feels like it should be 100 ping or less

          • @[email protected]
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            212 days ago

            Not really. It was a local network, and sure the latency increased linearly with the number of nodes, but for a small LAN party it would be quite serviceable.

  • @[email protected]
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    313 days ago

    It forced me to learn. It took me weeks to get X configured and working correctly. I had an internet subscription and a modem but it also took weeks to get it to work on Linux. My distribution came on a CD from a magazine but some dependencies were not included, so I had to reboot under Windows to download a missing package, reboot on Linux and try again, then need to get the next dependency. We came a long long way from having to specify the vertical refresh rate of the monitor in xf86config.

    Starting with a French version of Slackware was brutal but I had nothing else.

    • @[email protected]
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      13 days ago

      Be 12 in 1998

      Literally just ecstatic that I could wiggle around a little X on a blank screen after giving up trying to load a window manager.

      Pop in a BeOS live CD to feel like I did something cool

    • sqw
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      113 days ago

      ah i had forgotten about xf86config. /silenthillvoice

    • @[email protected]
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      113 days ago

      Started on Slackware too. I remember building my own kernel and having to make sure it fit on a 1.44MB floppy.

      make menuconfig

  • Die Martin Die
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    313 days ago

    My first Linux distro was Puppy Linux, on a computer with no internet. I downloaded it on an internet cafe to replace Windows XP Fenix Edition.

    My PC was too weak to run any flavor of the major distros, and I wanted to give it a go.

    Best computer-related decision of my life to ditch Windows and use Linux as my daily driver.

  • @[email protected]
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    1113 days ago

    Dude I remember when live booting knoppix was impressive. Hell my intro to Linux was mandrake. We have so many great distros and documentation available now it’s crazy.

    • @[email protected]
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      213 days ago

      I ended up learning by memory the US keyboard layout because i got tired of having to change it whenever i booted knoppix up.

      Now i have all my keyboards set to US international. Best layout for programing.

  • MrPasty
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    114 days ago

    Okay, I finished installing Debian. Why am I only seeing an X formed cursor flying around in nothing? What the hell is a Xorg?!

  • @[email protected]
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    213 days ago

    I remember first learning about linux OS and how to create a Linux USB installer using rufus to bypass the password my parents had put on the windows side. In those days there was no eifi boot loader lock you could access the files just by trying out the new OS you had in your USB. LOL.

  • The Menemen!
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    13 days ago

    Hm. I started using Linux (Ubuntu) somewhat around 2007. And I was quite fascinated how flashy it was with all those desktop effects compared to the rather boring XP. Only problem I had back in the day was wifi, but I didn’t play a lot of games at that time.

    But yeah, once I solved that wifi problem I had internet, so there was a difference.