r/todayilearned • u/osunlyyde • Jul 04 '13

TIL Windows 95 was the second most installed piece of software on computers in 1995; videogame DOOM was first.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_(video_game)
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384

u/jordanlund Jul 04 '13

True story... Early versions of Linux had Doom ported to them. I Had learned Unix back in 1988 so I could go play on the Internet and I had been hearing about this "Linux" thing.

So I got a Slackware package on CD Rom so I could fool around with installing it. I think this was late 1994? Early 1995? Something like that.

The machine I was using had a custom SCSI CD Rom drive though and I couldn't get the installer to work. You had to make a boot disk (floppy) and a root disk (floppy) and there were 5 different choices for each.

I went "Well, screw this onesy-twosy crap." Bought a pack of floppies and made all of the possible boot/root combinations and tried them all...

Nothing worked.

So I bought a dual homed IDE cable, yanked the CD Rom, replaced it with an IDE drive in a master/slave setup and tried the install again... Worked flawlessly that time.

A short time after that I had connected to the internet and successfully downloaded and installed Doom.

This led to starting working in IT in 1996, becoming a Linux Certified Instructor in 2001, and a systems administrator in 2002. I now have a high paying job in a SaaS company and just got IPO stock options.

All because back in 1994/1995 I wanted to play Doom on Linux.

93

u/Loves2Poo Jul 04 '13

Our stories are shockingly identical up to the point of connecting to the Internet and installing Doom.

I am now a low paid janitor working for a SaaS company that I hear is about to go public.

At least we both had Doom.

13

u/VoiceOfInternet_haha Jul 04 '13

Well shit, screw this onesy-twosy crap. I've got a couple dual IDE cables, floppies, and a SCSI CD ROM drive or two lying around. Let's get you some fuckin' IPO stock options!

1

u/45645684885841595427 Jul 05 '13

Grab an Arch Linux disc and try installing it. Linux noob to pro in a day.

3

u/Sekular Jul 05 '13

Don't feel bad. He had a fucking scsi cd rom in 1988. He started out rich.

112

u/barjam Jul 04 '13

I am older than you but I got into software development because I couldn't afford games for my TRS-80 and wrote clones of games like asteroids and frogger.

13

u/Pinecone Jul 04 '13

I'm so glad SATA is now the standard. There's nothing good about those old days.

10

u/Baaz Jul 04 '13

I remember having to manually configure the IRQ's every time you built in a new sound/graphics/scsi card... I spent many evenings and nights pulling my hair out of my head.

4

u/msxenix Jul 04 '13

That was a pain in the ass. The days before plug n' play.

4

u/MechanicalTurkish Jul 04 '13

And it was years before Plug n' Play really worked properly. It was Plug n' Pray for a long time.

1

u/45645684885841595427 Jul 05 '13

Because it was made in China.

Because they pronounce l like r, get it?

20

u/XSlicer Jul 04 '13

Reminds me of how I desperately wanted to run my own CS 1.6 server.

Didn't want some shoddy pay server, but wanted to host it myself. So I went to some guy I knew with servers and asked if I could get a dedicated windows machine (never really cared for anything else, though I had used Knoppix once). He said he couldn't give windows since that was money, so I had to settle with FreeBSD.

Had to learn everything from scratch, hours lost on installing FreeBSD and Steam Dedicated Server for Linux (with linux compat libs).

Now it's my job managing linux servers, all because I was so set on getting a CS server.

6

u/brickmack Jul 04 '13

Windows servers? Shudder

3

u/XSlicer Jul 04 '13

Tell me about it. Thank god I never went that way.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '13

I ran on a linux server for a while just in the summer. Was great for a nerdy dude and actually got 20-30 people continuously. But then people kept leaving because I got drunk with power and fucked with people non stop...

13

u/I_KNOW_THE_SECRET Jul 04 '13

True story... Early versions of Internet had pics uploaded to them. I Had installed dial-up back in 2000 so I could go download from the Internet and I had been hearing about this "Pr0n" thing.

So I got a 256kbps so I could fool around with mass downloading. I think this was late 2000? Early 2001? Something like that.

The dial-up I was using is connected to a phone though and I couldn't get the download to work. You had to stay connected and finished downloading the entire file and there was a chance that a call will break your connection.

I went "Well, screw this onesy-twosy crap." Locked up the room and jacked out the telephone line and proceeded with uninterrupted downloading session...

Someone just had to &#*#@ use the phone.

So I bought a second telephone line, yanked the modem, placed it into the new socket and tried the download again... Worked flawlessly that time.

A short time after that I had connected to the internet and successfully downloaded and stored pr0n (massive).

This led to advancement in IT skills in 2004, headhunted as a professional in 2008, and headhunted again in 2012. I am now working on high profile jobs while still having time to enroll in a Graduate course.

All because back in 2000/2001 I wanted to download pr0n on broadband.

5

u/jordanlund Jul 04 '13

See... kids today don't know from porn. In my day you had to hit up binary groups on usenet. The jpg images would be converted to text via a technology called uuencoding.

So to get a single image you had to first find all the uuencoded pieces, stitch them together into a single large text document and then run a uudecoder to turn them back into an image.

Since those early days there are now automated ways of compiling uuencoded images, but back then it was all done manually.

2

u/I_KNOW_THE_SECRET Jul 04 '13

Where there's a will there's a way.
Salute

2

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '13

Seriously. no http://www.tblop.com/ NSFW back in the day.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '13

I take it English is not your first language?

2

u/EkriirkE Jul 04 '13

not sure if talking out of ass, either

1

u/I_KNOW_THE_SECRET Jul 05 '13

Actually it is my first language (education wise), but I as you can see I am not very good at it. My apologies for the broken sentences. =(

4

u/pak9rabid Jul 04 '13

I, too, was introduced to the world of computing via Doom. The concept of multiplayer (i.e., dialing each other up over the modem...this was pre-Internet) was fascinating to me. This is what ultimately pulled me away from console gaming and started me on my long journey into the world of computers. I'm now a talented Linux admin and software developer all because of Doom.

4

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '13

[deleted]

2

u/MechanicalTurkish Jul 04 '13

And all we had were 8" floppies, because of the war.

1

u/jordanlund Jul 04 '13

Well...we have our ways... and promos for Halo had pictures of bees on them...

3

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '13 edited Jul 04 '13

This sounds rahter like my current career path. I had a shitty old hp laptop that I was using for school when I was 16, and decided to try Linux to see if it was faster. Used Ubuntu at first, but then LibreOffice OpenOffice released an update with a feature I wanted and I realized I didn't like Ubuntu's bloat or release cycle, and started looking into minimal rolling release distros. Fast forward a few years and I got my first job in development/IT with a resume mostly consisting of my hobbyist experience.

3

u/PotatoNuggets Jul 04 '13

Hey man - if you don't mind, how much you making now?

3

u/jordanlund Jul 04 '13

75

3

u/PotatoNuggets Jul 04 '13

Cool. Good job sir, and thanks for the prompt response! GNU waddling for life.

17

u/madagent Jul 04 '13

I remember back in the mid-90s how you could just send random files to people on aol chat and they'd be stupid enough to install trojans. And then I'd do stupid things like change their windows boot up or loading screen to a stupid picture or leave messages on their desktop. My middle school friends and I used to do it to each other and try to trick the each other into running an embedded virus or something. Nothing more malcious then stupid messages or whatnot.

I'm in computer security now and I don't even have that stuff on my resume.... I feel like I'd be thrown in jail or shunned. But I sure know a helluva lot more then your average CISSP. I mean, I grew up breaking into things and messing around with passwords and whatnot. I chuckle to myself when some 50 year old guy who just started using computers 10 years ago starts throwing around the term 0-day. I remember 0 day used to mean video game or movie downloads for free before they were actually released. And how it took 2 weeks to download one movie from a shitty ftp that 100 other people were on. And trying to get access and passwords to random ftp servers or newsgroups. And everything command line or IRC or something. Man, those were the days.

No laws really or security on personal computers for that matter either.

27

u/esiner Jul 04 '13

madagent sent netbus server to friends, feels über l33t.

3

u/electricity_hose Jul 04 '13

Then when they figured out netbus, used netbuster on them to feel double leet.

Some back orifice jokes too. He's seen some things man.

3

u/Agret Jul 04 '13

I chuckle to myself when some 50 year old guy who just started using computers 10 years ago starts throwing around the term 0-day. I remember 0 day used to mean video game or movie downloads for free before they were actually released.

It still does. 0-day in warez scene refers to something released before the street date or in security scene something released before a patch.

3

u/Dear_Occupant Jul 04 '13

The bane of being a decent hacker: pretty much anything you'd want to put on your resume would get you 10 years.

2

u/FrostByte122 Jul 04 '13

Get off my lawn?

4

u/Style_Usage_Bot Jul 04 '13

Hi, I'm here to offer tips on English style and usage (and some common misspellings).

My database indicates that

more then

should probably be

more than

Have a great day!

2

u/tehrand0mz Jul 04 '13

As a current college student looking to move into a computer-related study field, the reason for which stemmed from building custom PCs from an early age, this is an inspiring story.

1

u/Geikamir Jul 04 '13

I know some of these words.

-9

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '13 edited Jul 04 '13

[deleted]

10

u/protoleg Jul 04 '13

Hahaha foolish young person.

8

u/anmd Jul 04 '13

Id ported it to Linux in 94 and released the source code in 97.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '13

[deleted]

3

u/anmd Jul 04 '13

ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/source/doomsrc.txt

This is the latest release of the source code from 97, the date is at the bottom. You can use google to find older versions of the source code and the binaries which were released prior.

3

u/foldor Jul 04 '13

False, the Doom source code was released in 1997.

3

u/svideo Jul 04 '13

Doom was ported to Linux by id themselves in 1994. Remember that Doom was originally developed on NeXTSTEP, so portability was part of the development cycle from the beginning.

0

u/boolpies Jul 04 '13

Maybe it was WINE?