• state_electrician@discuss.tchncs.de
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    101
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    19 hours ago

    I first installed Linux in 1995, before I had a second computer where I could look for help. Compared to that experience today’s situation is paradise. So you won’t hear me complain.

    • Ricky Rigatoni@piefed.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      9 hours ago

      Today’s linux situation is paradise compared to gaming on windows any time before 2015. I still remember having to keep multiple different nvidia driver installers ready for launching just to match what game I wanted to play.

      • Bluewing@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        34 minutes ago

        There was a SoundBlaster Gold card I spent a whole month reading man pages and trying to get it to compile into the kernel.

        Those were the days, I tell you. Never again. I’m trying to forget as much as possible.

    • homes@piefed.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      32
      ·
      edit-2
      18 hours ago

      Oh, I remember that. Red hat 2.0. Where you had to download the source code for all of the floppy discs, compile them, and then write all of the floppies. I remember it was 7 or 9 floppy discs, 13 if you wanted printer drivers.

      It wasn’t until Red Hat 2.5 that they had pre-compiled floppy images you could download.

    • joeljoelle@piefed.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      20
      ·
      edit-2
      18 hours ago

      I went to one of my BBS friends houses in the early 90s and he had a giant book on how to compile and install Slackware

    • kevincox@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      13 hours ago

      I’ve definitely ran into the situation where I fucked something up half-way though installing a new distro, then had to wipe it to go back to an old distro so that I could access the internet and find out what I did wrong so that I could start from scratch.

      I hate doing debugging on my phone, but man sometimes is it better than the alternative.

    • comador @lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      15 hours ago

      Similarly, I ordered floppies for Slackware from Walmut Creek. Spent weeks screaming at my system for not being able to get a 256k Tulip VLB ISA video card to init into X before I found my first Linux BBS on I think DalNET… times were… different.

      • Bluewing@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        29 minutes ago

        But the sheer joy you felt when finally you got it to work made you really feel like you were a real haxzor.

        I do not miss that.