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**eggbert** · Oct 13, 2014, 03:33 PM

Bit of a late comer but I started with RedHat 6.0 back in '99 or so I think. I remember Gnome being really rough around the edges and not very usable for me. I did not stay on RedHat very long before I moved to Mandrake with KDE 1.x, which for the time was pretty impressive and rock solid stable comparied to Win 9x. Had loads of fun with that.

**DoYouKubuntu** · Oct 13, 2014, 08:06 PM

Originally posted by Tom_ZeCat View Post

I'm wishing I had gone to Linux long ago. I suffered through Windows 3.1 and then Windows 95/98/ME, which were all awful operating systems. I bitch about Windows 7, and even more so about 8, but those are at least relatively stable. But the Windows OSes of the 9x/ME line and 3.1 were so crash prone, I used to reboot every few hours just to avoid crashes. I used to get freezeups when doing minor things like sending an e-mail.

Don't you wish you could get back all the hours...days...lost to rebooting?

If I were transported back into time, I don't think I could stand to use those awful Windows operating systems. I would have to bite the bullet and pay a bunch of money for a Macintosh. Or maybe not. How good was the popular disto of the time, Red Hat? Or other distros?

I used Red Hat at some point in the '90s. Plus a bunch of other distros, my favorite of which was Caldera OpenLinux--which I stuck with for a long time after trying it. I'd be lying if I said that you would have had a painless transition to Linux back then, because it could be difficult for non-UNIX geeks. But as far as its usability back then, it worked--and worked great.

**millusions** · Oct 14, 2014, 01:40 AM

yes to Red Hat, when it was called red hat,
I did like Caldera

Debian made red hat redundant with apt-get .. the grand daddy of ubuntu?
I wish i kept using linux, like you! , but years ago it was very time consuming..
my IT boss used to say 'Linux is free but time is not' and he was right in a way...

if youre not a big gamer install OSX Mavericks on ur pc

**GerardV** · Oct 14, 2014, 03:25 AM

I had Caldera as wel and was really impressed by it, not that i had much to compare it with apart from Win 3.1 and an Amiga 500. At some point i switched to Mandrake, can't remember why, but used it for quite some time.
It was just the seemingly endless hassles to get stuff to work that made me switch back to M$, Win 95 as i recall. That is untill Kubuntu appeared with KDE 3.5,( v7 ?) that made me more or less switch back to Linux with bouts of openSuse, PClinux thrown into it.

**millusions** · Oct 14, 2014, 04:31 AM

Mandrake! thats it. i couldnt remember that name lol..

yup. i remember dreamily looking at the xine website years ago, and i just couldnt get it running on a RPM distro.

in a way it was good to have a break. i got back into it for Steam - which was a major flop for me, but it's amazing how far linux has gone over the years.

Ms webcam working from fresh install?
wireless networking working from a fresh install?
sound blaster x-fi pci-e working from fresh install?

it definately wasnt the case 10 years ago lol

**GreyGeek** · Oct 14, 2014, 08:14 AM

It was around May 1st of 1998. I had just reinstalled Win95 for the FIFTH time in fourth months because my brand new Sony VAIO desktop had terminally crashed again. I decided to abandon Win95 and return to OS/2, which I had been using, with Win3.1FWG running in the DOS box, before I bought the Sony with Win95 preinstalled. While at B&N browsing the offerings I noticed that OS/2 Warp was, IIRC, $200. Close by was a paper back book titled "Learn Linux in 24 Hours", by Bill Brush. In the back of the book was a RH 5.0 install CD. All for a total price of $25. I took it home to give it a spin. Suddenly that unstable Sony VAIO desktop was as stable as a rock! Between May 1st and September of 1998 that Sony, or RH, never crashed once.

I saw an ad in September for SuSE 5.3, featuring the new KDE 1.0 beta desktop, which looked a lot like Windows. I switched to SuSE and continued to use it for the next five years, until Novell bought it. I tried a succession of distros and stayed with Mandrake for about a year, until it was sued and changed its name to Mandriva. I tried a LOT of distros before returning to Mandriva for a couple years. In Jan of 2009 Mandriva announced that they were not going to switch to the KDE4 desktop until later in the fall. At the same time I saw a post about Kubuntu going to KDE4 in the 9.04 release. I installed the alpha of Kubuntu 9.04 in January of 2009, moved to this forum at the same time, and have been with Kubuntu and this forum every since.

When you are running the best there is no need to change. (But experimenting with other distros as a guest OS is a lot of fun!)

**woodsmoke** · Oct 14, 2014, 10:34 PM

Hi
a very historical thread!

My second boy, who is a Linux/Astronomy GURU..,.., if you see "stars" in a thing on a yahoo or MSN or whatever on the net you are probably, 80 percent, viewing and image that he has processed mathematically.

HOWEVER.............he "tried to introduce me to Linux".........WAY TOO EARLY........I am a hardware kinda guy, as you can see at another forum that has well into a hundred thousand reads........for my .........thread........ and also other fora............

But..........back then it was.........not there in terms of what I needed was ...........relatively mature "applications".......particularly........."present ations" and "word processing"........

After I met the JohnnieMan.......may he rest in peace..........

A thousand years ago.....the Johnnieman introduced me to "building computers".,....

I mean.........I would be sitting next to the secure window that looked onto the beltways..........and the stuff that was there would blow people's mind today.........

But, he would get a signal and the bots would shunt stuff onto his little oasis in time and some of the stuff was just astounding in terms of hardware........

but anyway.................. a bott flung a drive off the belt and he actually caught it........... a mind jerking thing.........

and it was a very advanced version of MOEPIS!!

Too me it was waay........"to heavy".............but..............he joked that the disques were worthless and was going to shove it back on the beltway and I said.........hey........I'll buy synthrum if he would hold it ..........

A few centimes later a disque appeared and the bott threw it through the window and it was.........I was using a much advanced version of Bablefishy. I did not know that then but since back now I have determined that it was/is a 2048 version of "Japaneese"...forgive my useage.

so....

Working forward...........It has taken many decades..........centuries? but........... 赤帽子 which translates roughly into the time frame of this forum as "bamboo rain shelter with a red colouring".

After that I had to make.....................a great decision.

.rpm

or

.deb.

Welll I kinda grokked the whole rmp thing..........but..........deb was just...........logical.......maybe I'm right brained............just my thing........

but...........since then ..........the "packaging" is what is important to the old woodsmoker.

woodoldsmoke

**jlittle** · Oct 15, 2014, 05:08 AM

Originally posted by Tom_ZeCat View Post

I would have to bite the bullet and pay a bunch of money for a Macintosh

In those days (later 90s) the Mac OS could be worse than windows for crashes. Mac users just got used to it, they got a nice graphic when it crashed so it was ok to them. I'd used a Mac+ with one floppy and really liked it, given its limitations, but later I had to use macs one year and I grew to hate them, so slow to start, no pre-emptive multitasking, no virtual memory, and crashed a lot.

**millusions** · Oct 15, 2014, 03:26 PM

thanks so much for sharing,

it works if you work it, ha ha

btw. the .rpm / .deb thing.. i dont think it matters these days, except that you type: zypper in mc instead of apt-get install mc.....

**GerardV** · Oct 15, 2014, 07:17 PM

Originally posted by millusions View Post

btw. the .rpm / .deb thing.. i dont think it matters these days, except that you type: zypper in mc instead of apt-get install mc.....

Its amazing how far they have come now. "Dependency Hell" and "Circular Dependency" are pretty much a thing of the past now, one of the reasons i ditched Linux for while. Of the two, rpm and .deb, i prefer .deb but it would be nice if we had just one system or all distros

**Simon** · Oct 16, 2014, 01:28 AM

I don't regret using Windows XP at all, but if it wasn't for MS making a mess with Vista (aka "New Coke" of OS) I might not have left the MS family. I started experimenting with alternatives back in 2009. After MS announced they would no longer support XP, I chose to go 100% Kubuntu. At that point, that meant future software compatibility issues and no updates for hardware.

Now that doesn't mean I have no Windows programs on my machine. I learned about WINE and how it functions as an overlay and not an emulator. I had my old Windows XP installed to the Oracle VM for a while (break glass in case of emergency) but eventually dumped it for the lack of use. I only use WINE and DOS Box to play my old games. I believe Linux will become more popular with the users as Chromebooks and Android Tablets gain in sales.

I never tested Red Hat, I went through Debian, Ubuntu, and then Kubuntu, I seriously doubt I am "missing" anything by not going down that road. But unlike others, I believe the best thing about the Linux community is the variety and freedom to choose the OS and desktop environment that suits your needs and not the needs of an individual. So when Frank and I started the clinic we knew we wanted to have Linux be the OS we used. I would have chosen Kubuntu myself, but Frank chose Debian, and I have no issue with his choice. At the end of the day, it is productivity that counts. Since the implementation of the computers with Linux most of our staff has now install Linux OS at home as well.

**SteveRiley** · Oct 17, 2014, 08:51 PM

Originally posted by GerardV View Post

it would be nice if we had just one system or all distros

Maybe someday soon: http://0pointer.net/blog/revisiting-...x-systems.html

**Snowhog** · Oct 17, 2014, 09:04 PM

BorgX -- The Final Linux OS

"We are BorgX. Lower your firewalls and surrender your OSs. We will add your technological distinctiveness to our own. Your PCs will adapt to run only us. Resistance is futile."

**SteveRiley** · Oct 17, 2014, 09:14 PM

Originally posted by Snowhog View Post

BorgX -- The Final Linux OS

Some people accuse Lennart of exactly this! Personally, I think what he's doing is great.

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Did anyone use Red Hat or some other distro in the 90s?

Did anyone use Red Hat or some other distro in the 90s?

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