What was it like to use Linux like back in 2000?

[40hz]

There is a very interesting repost of a LinuxFormat article up on TuxRadar.com.

Here's your opportunity to see what Linux looked like to an adopter back in 2000.

Long-time Linux supporters will find memories to chuckle over. Linux detractors will find just as much to jeer at. Nice article, with a bit of 'something' for everyone.

Check it out: http://www.tuxradar....es-best-distros-2000

From the archives: the best distros of 2000
Posted at 11:14am on Saturday February 7th 2009
Distros

Back in May 2000 the first issue of Linux Format magazine hit the newsstands. One of its features was a group test of Linux distributions, reflecting the state of play in Linux flavours at the time. If you fancy a trip down memory lane or just a quick look at how beautiful Linux wasn't all those years ago, we've dug out the original article complete with screenshots - read on!

Historical note

Remember that nine years is a long time in the computing world -- and even more so for Linux. In 2000 the OS was still regarded as a niche player, a fantastic showcase of technology for geeks but not yet ready for prime time. Today we see Linux on netbooks, Linux on Dell boxes, Linux everywhere; it's serious business.

Corel Linux is long dead, despite a high-profile entrance into the distro scene, while Caldera Linux occupied a healthy position (before the SCO shenanigans busted it up). SUSE, Mandrake, Red Hat and Mandriva are still alive in various flavours, while the British Definite distro bought the farm and WinLinux only made it to a 2003 release.

 

[Paul Keith]

Thanks for the link 40hz. I actually love all the look of these distroes since I was raised using the Win95/Win98 look and then Puppy felt much faster than Ubuntu when I was looking for a distro early on.

Even today, I reverted XP back to Classical view.

Btw this comment made me laugh:

I started using Linux with the Yggdrasil distribution which came with the "The Linux Bible". I even remember carrying it around and people would give me funny looks, like I belonged to some crazy religion. Some would even ask me about it. I have to admit at the time I probably dressed weird and/or my fly was down, which was known to happen on a few occasions; hence, the weird looks as well.

[40hz]

Btw this comment made me laugh:

I started using Linux with the Yggdrasil distribution which came with the "The Linux Bible". I even remember carrying it around and people would give me funny looks, like I belonged to some crazy religion. Some would even ask me about it. I have to admit at the time I probably dressed weird and/or my fly was down, which was known to happen on a few occasions; hence, the weird looks as well.

-Paul Keith (February 08, 2009, 12:21 PM)

Could be worse. It was for Lisa Branagan who made the mistake of wearing her BSD Daemon shirt in the wrong part of our great American Heartland. Apparently the BSD Mascot (whose name happens to be "Beastie" in case you're wondering) isn't welcome in some places.


Full story link here: http://www.rmitz.org/freebsd.daemon.html

The FreeBSD Daemon

Linda Branagan is an expert on daemons. She has a T-shirt that sports the daemon in tennis shoes that appears on the cover of the 4.3BSD manuals and The Design and Implementation of the 4.3BSD UNIX Operating System by S. Leffler, M. McKusick, M. Karels, J. Quarterman, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, MA 1989.

She tells the following story about wearing the 4.3BSD daemon T-shirt:

Last week I walked into a local "home style cookin' restaurant/watering hole" in Texas to pick up a take-out order. I spoke briefly to the waitress behind the counter, who told me my order would be done in a few minutes.

So, while I was busy gazing at the farm implements hanging on the walls, I was approached by two "natives." These guys might just be the original Texas rednecks.

``Pardon us, ma'am. Mind if we ask you a question?''

Well, people keep telling me that Texans are real friendly, so I nodded.

``Are you a Satanist?''

Well, at least they didn't ask me if I liked to party.

``Uh, no, I can't say that I am.''

``Gee, ma'am. Are you sure about that?'' they asked.

I put on my biggest, brightest Dallas Cowboys cheerleader smile and said, ``No, I'm positive. The closest I've ever come to Satanism is watching Geraldo.''

``Hmmm. Interesting. See, we was just wondering why it is you have the lord of darkness on your chest there.''

I was this close to slapping one of them and causing a scene -- then I stopped and noticed the shirt I happened to be wearing that day. Sure enough, it had a picture of a small, devilish-looking creature that has for some time now been associated with a certain operating system. In this particular representation, the creature was wearing sneakers.

They continued: ``See, ma'am, we don't exactly appreciate it when people show off pictures of the devil. Especially when he's lookin' so friendly.''

...

Unfortunately, that attitude must have had some traction, because the new BSD logo is so highly stylized, you'd be hard pressed to see Beastie in it unless you were familiar with the old logos.


[<EDIT>Strike that!  My editorial comment (above) is erroneous. See Gothi[c]'s post 3-down from this one for why.  Apologies&Blushes  -40hz. ]




 

[zridling]

I used three for a while over a couple of years, but when XP went to SP1, I came back. The one I used most was Knoppix. I remember not being able to grasp the whole 'free' thing at that time. Funny now. The differences since are impressive.

[40hz]

My first boot into Linux was via a Knoppix V1.6 CD. It left me stunned.

The first distro that I installed on on my hard drive was Debian "Woody in October 2002.

We've had penguins living in my house ever since.

[Gothi[c]]

Unfortunately, that attitude must have had some traction, because the new BSD logo is so highly stylized, you'd be hard pressed to see Beastie in it unless you were familiar with the old logos.

Beastie is still the BSD logo. The stylized ball is the new FreeBSD logo.
It's kind of a recent change.

FreeBSD has the ball with horns, NetBSD has the flag, OpenBSD has the blowfish, and all of them have beastie.

[Lashiec]

Hmh, ugliness >_<. In the looks department, Linux really came a long way. Except Knoppix, those ugly widgets are still everywhere.

I remember that back then, a friend of mine (older guy) was thrilled with Linux, and its level of customization. He always ranted about how cool was this one 'theme' (perhaps it was another thing) that made Linux looks like a space computer or something, very flashy (probably barely usable, anyway :P). He gave me a few tips on how to install SuSE on my back then brand-new computer (my first PC!), but never got to do it.

My older brother and his friends also loved Linux, and especially dabbling with KDE. It was a lot of work to make everything work, and they were learning every day for months (in their words), but it was worth it. Funny enough, now that Linux is much more usable and user-friendly, all of them are using Windows :D

[40hz]

FreeBSD[/u] logo.
It's kind of a recent change.

FreeBSD has the ball with horns, NetBSD has the flag, OpenBSD has the blowfish, and all of them have beastie.

-Gothi[c] (February 09, 2009, 06:40 AM)

You're right. I'm confusing BSD's mascot with the version logos aren't I. Unforgivable!( Especially since I use BSD and should know better.) 

Thanks for the clarification and correction.

[zridling]

Funny enough, now that Linux is much more usable and user-friendly, all of them are using Windows

-Lashiec (February 09, 2009, 06:58 AM)

What the hell damn guy! LMFAO    (as long as they're happy)

[40hz]

My older brother and his friends also loved Linux, and especially dabbling with KDE. It was a lot of work to make everything work, and they were learning every day for months (in their words), but it was worth it. Funny enough, now that Linux is much more usable and user-friendly, all of them are using Windows

-Lashiec (February 09, 2009, 06:58 AM)

That's easily explained (see below)