I'm 34, first pc was an old 486 back in 1995, I did have computers before that, spectrum, Amstrad cpc464,Amiga 500 1200, and a few others. First start with Linux was red hat downloaded from erm walnut creek I think the name was. Probably used slackware in 1998 ish, Not really looked back since.

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I turned 60 late last year and my first exposure to UNIX was an instrument control computer running HP-UX. I wanted to tweak the output and discovered scripts and a godawful tool called vi. The difference between [ESC]:q! and [ESC]:wq is seared into my brain.
I had been running an Apple IIe clone as my first home computer, where I discovered PEEKs and POKEs then assembly language. I then got an IBM AT clone to which I later added a 300 baud modem. A friend gave me a copy of Minix and a copy of Andrew S. Tanenbaum's "Operating Systems: Design and Implementation". HP-UX became more approachable.
After, I had charge of a fleet of instrument control PCs running various Windows operating systems that were being impacted by forced updates from our central IT administration. Then there were two virus incidents within a month. I needed a gateway server. I chose Slackware 8.1, just before the release of 9.0. I have been Slacking ever since.

PS - Is running Slackware injurious to health? Ain't nobody after 80 yet!

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I think we had one or two in their 80s the last time this poll was run. God only knows where they are now!

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Too bad I can't cast votes for other people as well. My parents are both in their upper 70's and they both use Slackware; Dad for Solitaire, Mom for web/email.

The first program I ever typed in was a little BASIC thing in the new algebra textbooks my school district got for the 1981-82 school year. The manager of the local Radio Shack was nice enough to let me sit down at a TRS-80 Model III, right there in the store, and start typing. When I changed the plus sign to a minus sign, and the "new" program did what I expected, I was hooked.

My first exposure to Unix was on an Alpha system in 1993, after I had dropped back into college. My first Linux was a Slackware CD included with "The Linux Bible," a collection of installation/configuration manuals and HOWTO's. The kernel version was 1.2.13, which was dated already in 1996. Just for comparison, launching the installed image today in QEMU goes from LILO to login prompt in 17 seconds!

In the meantime, I've gone through two Commodore 64's, a C-16 and a C-Plus/4, a Macintosh 512e, and every PC-compatible architecture from XT onward; in 2004 I acquired an old Sparc pizza box, and of course I have a few Androids and three Raspberry Pi's, plus a Basic Stamp somewhere in my collection.

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Most of the BBSs I dealt with were either PCBoard or Spitfire. For the software, I preferred PCBoard.

I actually managed to inveigle my employer into letting me run a PCBoard BBS on OS/2 Warp (it replaced an earlier one that ran on DRDOS--it was used mainly for file transfers between various field locations and HQ). I didn't have a clue what I was doing, but somehow I got it work. I even set up FidoNET on it!

If I recall correctly, OS/2 Warp had 16 3-1/2" installation disks.

To get back on topic, I was 55 when I started using Linux. I'm older now. I am a fully qualified curmudgeon.

I must say, though, that it's nice to see so many young whippersnappers using Slackware!

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At least there is an option for 80+. Many surveys/polls assume that after 65 you just drop off the horizon somewhere.

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I have very fond memories of BBS', still prefer the style personally. Agreed about the whippersnappers, new blood keeps projects going and helps to keep us going as well, otherwise we are going to start a thread for chess or dominoes.

At 56 I am enjoying the intellectual challenge of Slackware. I've been at it since Oct 2016 and now I can never go back to a boring MSW life again./

Apparently we have two peaks in our lives; mid-twenties and mid-fifties. That fits nicely with my own experiences. In '88 and '89 (born '63) I could do things with MSDOS, Debug and Int 21H that 30 years on I am still proud of having done. Mid-twenties and the sky was a far too restrictive limit! At UPS in '89 I decoded a Realia COBOL ISAM File and wrote a data front-end on a 286 PC with Nantucket Clipper.

Those types of things are what we oldies really mean when we talk about "Back In The Day".

Found Slackware 8.1 in 2001 and experimented with it for about 3 months. Back then we had to look up Horizontal and Vertical Herzes in our monitor's manual for setting up X properly and do everything ourselves for the Xorg setup. I never gave up though and my 8.1 worked like a charm networked to my NT4 Server running MS Exchange on a 486.

All this grounding was brilliant for October 2016 when I paid for my Slackware DVD Set to be shipped and prepared for battle.

It has been a wonderful journey that is unlikely to ever end. Even when we are retired we can still roll up the sleeves at home and get ourselves absolutely filthy up to the elbows.

I wasn't that keen on Plasma 5 at first but it has really grown on me and I am looking forward to another rock-solid release from PV when 15 is ready.

Long live Slackware and long may it continue to Rule My Roost.

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I'm going to turn 28 on May 27th. Little backstory; born and somewhat raised in the former Soviet Union country (Lithuania), moved to US of A at 14 (2004). Before coming to US had a K6 system at home (rich mom's bf) and a 486 HP Vectra at Grandma's work. Then I came to US, I got a free 128MB PII 400Mhz Dell Dimension, that's when I really started breaking things. Eventually discovered Linux, RedHat, Mandrake, free Ubuntu CDs, Slackware 10 or 11, Saw Hacker movie, so I thought I was Crash Override. Then I got a 3.4Ghz Celeron system from Wal-Mart, which I quickly upgraded to a Pentium D 820. Gamer stage started, Windows XP Pro, skipped Vista, 7 beta, eventually 7 Pro. Built 2600K i7 GTX560ti Rig for Skyrim in 2011. Skipped Windoze 8, deep depression, Windoze 10 came out, still depression, "Updating Windows" screen constantly causing issues. Started Linux distro hoping, went through the usual candidates. No offense to anyone, but it feels like modern Win2K.

I have friends gamers older than that (yes more than one, yes older than 65!)

First time i tried to run linux i tried download red hat over ftp on windows 2000, little did i know (of course it failed!)

Next thing i was installing Mandrake 11 from the 14 CD a week later (bought locally)

Once my hacks grew beyond Mandake/Mandriva (telix proxy of Astra sat) i found Slackware is hacker friendly and second to none by it.

On Mandrake i learned to compile mplayer and many winmodem drivers (Lucet, Agere, Intel whatnot)

on Slackware i learned to compile about anything

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New slacker at 73 and liking it more and more.
Added
Since autobiography seems to be the norm on this thread, here's mine:
My first computer was an ICL mainframe running George 2, which I was told had all of 96 kB of memory! It was upgraded to George 3, then the Library got its own minicomputer, which was a Prime running Primos. When that became too slow, we got ourselves a VAX running VMS. I was very much involved in managing that one.

I used my first PC at work (it was a Compaq running DOS). Before I left, I had a go at Windows 3. Neither DOS nor Windows impressed me at the time.

My first home computer was a small second-hand one (can't remember the make) that ran Windows 95. I liked that, and I liked Windows 98 even better, until I started going online with it and realised how insecure it was. XP I hated and never used.

My first Linux was Red Hat 6 (initially command line only) but I've hopped about a bit since then as people here should know. I don't know why it took me so long to move to Slackware because it's a really good fit temperamentally.

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According to my mathematics, that makes you a precocious brat.

Yeah, it's called "second childhood".

IIRC, "we" have had this conversation before, but as I have a tendency to repeat myself in my old age.....


In 1986 I bought an AST Premium 286 and a dot matrix printer. I've forgotten what version of DOS came with it, but it wasn't long before I was running Lotus 123 and WordPerfect 4.whatever in Desqview. After all these years, for business purposes, I would still be quite happy to be doing the same thing.

For a while I was also running a PCBoard BBS, also in Desqview, along with Lotus, WP, a client database and Qmodem.

Then I plugged a "Intel Inboard 386" into the AST 286 and when it became available, a Cyrix 486 CPU into the Inboard.
I've been building my own garage clones ever since.

It was either Spring of '95 or '96 when I bought a Slackware CD in a local shop (I really miss those small local computer stores and the swap meets). The CD was produced by Walnut Creek CDROM.
The CDs are dated March of 1995 and the case was labeled,

An image of the label is on this board somewhere attached to another message.

Edit in: The AST 286 came with a "standard" 640K of RAM. I paid a little extra for a full one Megabyte of RAM. Within a few months I bought an "add-on" card that allowed you to add another Meg. One meg of RAM was 36 little 18 pin chips that you plugged, one by one, into the add-on card. The price, just for the chips was, with tax, $325.00US, out the door. It also came with a 40 Megabyte Seagate HD. The street price for those was around $300. After about a year I upgraded to an 80 meg HD. The thing looked like a miniature tank without the threads.

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First post.

My youngest son tells me I am officially old (almost 69). I have worked in IT since before it was called IT, my first job starting in early 1970 working in a data center that had a shiny new Burroughs B-3500. I have spent time as a programmer / advisor at General Motors, Honeywell (HIS), and a couple of Ross Perot founded companies. At Honeywell the OS was called GCOS 6 and that was written by the folks that were part of the team that created MULTICS (forerunner, more or less, of UNIX). GCOS 6 was essentially a cousin to UNIX and helped warp my thinking toward the "UNIX way". In the 90's I spent time in Switzerland working with the Security Engineering department of a major bank doing interesting things with Solaris 2.5.1 and there obtained an early verion of Redhat that was, um, pretty disgusting compared to Solaris. A Swiss co-worker then introduced me to Mandrake. Redhat that worked. Stayed with Mandrake until, oh, about 2002-2003 when I had a really bad experience with dependency hell. A co-worker suggested I take a look at Slackware (8.1 at the time, I think). I fell in love. Stayed with Slackware through 9.x and 10.x and was even able to do a few "dark" projects at work using Slackware. Another job change and I found myself in RHEL-land for the tail end of RHEL3 through what they are still calling RHEL. Sadly I moved my home systems to CentOS for a level of synergy with my day job. As Redhat has changed, my disappointment has grown. I reject everything about systemd and have been known to suggest that the upgrade from RHEL6 should be to either (gasp) Windows or one of the BSD's. Eventually that frustration led me back, via a long and winding road, to Slackware.

The feeling was like "coming home". My stuff at the house is now a mixture of ESXi, Slackware, and one old CentOS box that just serves up files. There is also an old Dell laptop that runs Salix which has been useful on occassion. The one Ryzen 1600 deskside box is now my main machine and is running Slackware 14.2 Stable. There is joy here. Really.

Last fall I became aware of Mr. Volkerding's monetary problems and I figured I should lend a hand. I have online banking and it was dead simple to set him up as a payee (using his P.O. Box address) and to create a recurring payment that causes my bank to automatically send him a check (marked as a gift) each month. It is a small amount but I intend to continue doing this as long as I'm able. The best part of doing it this way is that the whole amount goes to him to do with as he pleases and it arrives on a regular schedule without my having to remember to do anything. At my age, not having to remember is a positive thing. :-)

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