I tired Linux a few times in the past, but didn’t really start using seriously until 2019. I love poking around old OSs and distros, and I want to spin a few up in some VMs my next free evening.
Any suggestions? Open to any distro (or let’s be honest, DE). Any versions that holds a special place in your heart or that’s exceptionally novel? Really interested to see what’s out there!
My first distribution was Slackware 7.1 when I was in high school. It took a week to download the .iso on dialup, and I had to use a download manager (GetRight) so that I could resume the partial download any time the connection dropped (usually because someone had to use the phone).
I’m old o_o
I still vividly remember not being able to figure out how to install new packages, or knowing how to compile from source.
Slackware 2.x, on two floppies. A boot and a root disk, downloaded from a BBS using a dial-up connection (I think it was a 57.6 modem). No X, but I still loved it, so much better than DOS.
Oh I remember those disks :D I think I had to either pull them off the ISO, or download them separately so that I could boot the system to the point where A: the install could occur at all and B: it had enough drivers to use the CD-ROM drive XD
Oh I remember those disks :D I think I had to either pull them off the ISO, or download them separately so that I could boot the system to the point where A: the install could occur at all and B: it had enough drivers to use the CD-ROM drive XD
Get a CD with RedHatLinux, SUSE or Debian 1 or something and try to install that
RedHat 5.3 with fvwm (or fvwm95) is very nostalgic for me because it was one of the few walnut creek CDs I managed to get working. Mandrake and early SuSe were cute as well.
Ubuntu in the early 2010s, with GNOME 2 and Compiz. The Compiz era of desktops was real fun and I’d love for that to come back with a vengeance. MATE is working on Wayland support with Wayfire (essentially like Compiz but for Wayland) as the compositor AFAIK, so it might very well come back and be improved (apparently the Compiz codebase is… not great?)
- ZenWalk was unique and great about 15 years ago as an easy Slackware with minimalist install.
- Chakra Linux was an Arch+KDEmod distro that kind of went away.
- Bodhi Linux has its own desktop called Moksha.
- There is a GNUstep Live CD that comes out every few years, based on Debian. It is a unique setup from a time when the future of computing was promising. I think it is distributed on LinuxQuestions or some other forum.
- There was a distro called gOS about 15 years ago that used a lot of desktop widgets and Google apps. Their business model was basically, “We are going to re-skin Ubuntu and call it gOS and hope Google buys us.” It did not work out.
- Darwin was upstream for macOS and for many years, there was a community of users who would port the traditional *NIX stack to it. Xorg, traditional window managers, a ports system, etc.
- Frugalware Linux was well polished and kind of a spiritual successor to Zenwalk.
- openSUSE 10.3 had the most beautiful Gnome setup. It was unique in that it had a single panel, a modified Clearlooks theme, and a Vista-style start menu.
- OpenSolaris likewise had a very unique and beautiful look, with its macOS-inspired Nimbus theme. I think this was the best looking theme of that era.
- SimplyMEPIS was my first Linux on a T61. I don’t know what was better about it than Debian, nor do I know what SimplyMEPIS meant versus regular MEPIS. It’s kind of like Claws Mail and Sylpheed Claws. Some times we just throw words together and give it an icon and there it is.
I used all of these at some point.
Wao, Mandriva and DamnSmallLinux 🤣🤣🤣
I booted a VM with BeOS for nostalgia a couple months ago. Remember booting that as a kid and drooling over how fast it was.
Kubuntu 8.04.
It was the last release with KDE 3 and very polished for its time. Many applications from back then have vanished by now. Kopete was Magic, supporting all IM protocols (Including Yahoo video calls!), Amarok was so reliable and sleek.
Of course most things have improved since then, but I remember it fondly.
Nostalgic doesn’t necessarily correlate to “special place”, so It Depends™.
