Posts: 1
tosmolskis
Joined: 10 May 2017
#1
the first time I got a Linux box to boot was with SLS (Soft Landing Systems) Linux off a bazillion floppies. My first production system was a Slackware install with kernel version 0.99pl12 on a 386-SX with 4 megs of RAM and a 20 mb hard drive - that sucker ran mail and DNS for a domain for about 3 years. I'm using Antix to turn a 10 year old laptop into something useful. I particularly appreciate Antix's resistance to The Invasion of the systemd Monster.
Posts: 850
fatmac
Joined: 26 Jul 2012
#2
Welcome aboard. __{{emoticon}}__
Posts: 4,164
rokytnji
Joined: 20 Feb 2009
#3
Howdy and Welcome.
masinick
Joined: 26 Apr 2008
#4
@tosmolskis: The first Linux distribution I ever tried was also a Slackware distribution. In the early days, I didn't download CDs or DVDs or network installations; I'd purchase a book containing a CD and read up on it and then install. Later I'd grab magazines and load images from them.

That early Slackware distribution required me to create a boot and a root floppy disk, boot from the boot floppy and then load the remaining system from the boot floppy - 1 each, so it was a light, nimble system.

I didn't have Wifi until a few years later, so I used a modem in the early days. Needless to say, I'd do some editing with that Linux system, but it was often a glorified terminal server to my UNIX workstation, particularly when I'd work from home. It was convenient, over that low speed access, to edit files and do as much work as possible locally and then transfer those files between the workstation and the Linux system. Oh yes, it used fvwm in various varieties, so it was very responsive. Usability in those days was definitely aimed at the software engineer, not that it was particularly difficult to pick up, particularly with the book nearby, but it wasn't for a"point and click" beginner in those days.

By the time antiX arrived on the scene - I believe that I tried my first test version of antiX in May 2006, about three years after first trying out MEPIS. Ah,"those were the days". The systems required a bit more initial knowledge to use and configure, but straightforward text readable configuration files were used, and these were very familiar to me from my UNIX background, and in fact, I'd often use the same GNU-based utilities on that UNIX system. Being part of a UNIX development team, we had a lot of freely available test software, such as the latest incarnation of various Web browsers, text editors, terminal emulators and X server images. That helped to make my first Linux experience fairly straightforward - though this was frequently not the case for the uninitiated"beginner" in those days!