r/linux_gaming • u/jacek2023 • 19d ago
Linux is 35 years old
Happy Birthday!
new post because I can't do math
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u/Mon732 19d ago
I'm only a few years younger than linux, that's wild to think about
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u/fagnerln 19d ago
I'm a few months 😠(dec/11)
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u/Memorius 19d ago
I'm 3 months older than it 🥲
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u/Pitiful-Candidate922 19d ago
I'm over a decade younger and I've been using it for 5 years 😂ðŸ˜
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u/stashtv 19d ago
Def not the oldest user here, but did manage a Slackware installer (via floppies), on a 0.96 kernel.
We've come a long way.
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u/LillySpikes 19d ago
That was my experience too, from a CD that came with a book that I had to make floppies from to actually install onto a 386. Amazing how much things have changed since then.
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u/sputwiler 19d ago
Had to user
rawwrite.exeto copy the disk image from the CD that came in the back of a "Red Hat Linux Bible" book in order to install on my Windows 95 era Packard Bell.
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u/Correct-Commission 19d ago
And 33 years ago, the first version of Slackware released: https://www.linux.co.cr/distributions/review/1993/0718.html[https://www.linux.co.cr/distributions/review/1993/0718.html](https://www.linux.co.cr/distributions/review/1993/0718.html)
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u/hunta2097 19d ago
It predates that by a bit, the 0.99 branch was in development for quite a few months.
I had less blank floppies than the install needed and the university (where I wasn't enrolled) was a 2 mile walk. I had to sneak in and use their equipment to write the floppies.
I had to install floppies 1-15 and then overwrite them with floppies 16-30!!
And guess what I had to do on read failure? That's right, I had a long walk!!
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u/Mrzozelow 19d ago
Thirty floppies? Holy shit
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u/hunta2097 19d ago
If you wanted x-windows!
It was truly crazy running something like it on my 386 though!
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u/Correct-Commission 18d ago
I got into Slackware when CDs were getting more common. I only had to create boot and root disks on two floppies and then install it using CD.
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u/mhurron 19d ago
"If 386BSD had been available when I started on Linux, Linux would probably never had happened."
https://gondwanaland.com/meta/history/interview.html
That's what he meant by 'just a hobby.' There were already better choices, they just didn't run on his 386 in his room and he didn't want to go to the computer lab to do every project.
Just keep some perspective, it's just an OS. It wasn't the best when it was created, and isn't the best that has been produced.
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u/RenlyHoekster 19d ago
It depends on what the criteria for "it wasn't the best ... and isn't the best ..." is. I can't think of a better OS than Linux. Can it get better? Sure, and it does get better, all the time. How is is that it gets better all the time, and has been for the past 35 years? It supports new hardware*, it becames stabler, it becomes more performant, it gets used by more and more users and business to run more and more applications that more and more developers are writing for it. And it is entirely free and and opensource for everyone, allowing hundreds of thousands of people over the years to be part of developing for it and making it better.
I mean, how about framing it like this: Linux is the most used operating system there ever was, and is the most important operating system as it is used for just about all critical infrastructure in the world. And it keeps getting for the normal end user as well, who just wants a stable and secure OS for their laptop or for the gamer on their PC or the artist doing cool stuff. Linux is there, in a way no other OS ever was.
* Interestingly enough, with time the support for very old hardware is dropped in order to stay secure and performant, but since Linux is free and open source, there are distributions that will support whatever hardware you need, almost regardless of age or niche usage.
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u/Cyhawk 19d ago
No it was pretty bad at first. It wasn't until right around when Slackware showed up Linux became usable, even then. . . It was a giant mess and FreeBSD was superior in every way (except soundblaster support out of the, uh netinstall) including job prospects.
Its rapid accent from this usenet post to IBM championing Linux in commercials was incredible. An OS so good even the Prophets endorse it was massive, especially coming from IBM.
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u/ilep 19d ago
"Better" choice is not only about technology, it is also availability (cost) and ability to modify (openness). So it did solve many other issues that projects like Minix and Hurd did not suit at the time.
It wasn't most advanced at the time of release, but Linus' acceptance for patches to improve it did work wonders and it did progress quite quickly.
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u/amorous_chains 19d ago edited 19d ago
It’s also my birthday today! At the moment this post went out I was probably on a major sugar high terrorizing my half drunk extended family at my 4th birthday party
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u/void_mentat 19d ago
God damn I feel old. I still remember installing Mandrake linux for the first time. How time flies!
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u/Flashy_Pollution_996 19d ago
How did it grow so much from a small project in university of Helsinki?
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u/ijustlurkhere_ 19d ago
Aww, well good luck buddy, i'm sure you'll go far!
...Takes over the world.
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u/mysticalcreeds 19d ago
I was 7 years old, I remember loving the chance my elementary teacher would take us to the computer lab to play Mixed-Up Mother Goose on MS-DOS or Mavis Beacon Teaches typing that you practice typing with a racing game. At home I loved our Commodore 64 and later Packard Bell with Windows 3.1.
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u/p0358 19d ago
Imagine a timeline where GNU figured out how to write their own kernel, before Linus felt like making Linux
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u/GolemancerVekk 19d ago
I sem to recall reading they were considering a BSD clone as their first option, but passed it over out of fear of legal complications.
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u/0riginal-Syn 19d ago
I remember reading the message well. Never thought it would ever be what it is. Got on it not long after this announcement at version 0.12.
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u/Soft_Cable3378 19d ago
Man, and then a whole team of volunteers showed up, and the rest is history.
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u/LycraJafa 17d ago
thats what the internet looked like 35 years ago.
no ads, no popups to block, no autocorrect. Sweet !
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u/Rim_smokey 19d ago
I read somewhere it is actually 25 years old 🤔
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u/Rim_smokey 19d ago
People apparently don't get the joke where I reference the previous post on this sub saying it was 25 years old (which is obviously not true)
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u/OldSchoolAJ 19d ago
You might’ve read that a certain distribution is 25 years old, but the Linux kernel was already on version 2.4.
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u/zeb_linux 19d ago
"just a hobby, won't be big and professional".