Any old-timers here?

Did you download floppy images with a modem?

Did you download or buy the first version on CD?

Do you use zipslack?

Do you remember the version jump from 4 to 7?

Were you one of the acerbic members of the Slackware newsgroup?

Do you use linuxpackages.net?

Do you remember "It's a girl!"?

Do you remember Linux 2.6 being in /testing for three releases?

Do you remember hotplug?

Do you remember when slackbuilds.org went live?

Perhaps you are an original 1.0 Slacker?

Post your stories.

Answers in order of your questions...

Turned 40 this year so I think that qualifies

Oh yes, I also remember 14 hour browser updates in windows

Didn't buy my first Slackware (version 7) but was at Fry's one day and they had 8.1 I think for sale, so I bought it.

Didn't use zipslack

yes, I started at 7, but clearly remember being confused by the version numbering.

no

Yes! Used it then moved on to checkinstall, then src2pkg, then finally to SBo, then learned to make my own packages and started submitting to SBo. Slackware taught me alot!

Don't remember It's a girl?

Yes I remember 2.6. I went through a phase the first couple of years of trying to make the smallest kernel possible once I learned how to compile my own. It was fun, but now I just use Stock, unless I absolutely need to use a custom kernel.

I was late to the party when it came to www.slackbuilds.org. I didn't use it for quite a while.

No.

Nope. Sad to say I started with 7 but I did download it on a 28.8 modem. Two weeks later I bought a US Robotics External 56K. I LOVED checkinstall but sometimes did use linuxpackages.net. Didn't do Usenet much then and instead was on IRC in channels like Linuxsphere.

> 40.


No.

Bought a MNIS CD with Slackware and Linux Kernel 1.2.8 around 1995 for a PC compatible with AMD 486 133MHz with 12Mb of memory. Later Infomagic CD with Kernel 1.2.13 and a 6 CD set with Slackware 3.1 and Kernel 2.0.x around 1996.

No.

I remember this was in reaction to R**H** using big version number to suggest they had a more recent version of Linux.
But at that time, I was not using Linux, rather FreeBSD but not as superuser.

Never.

Is that still online ?

No.

I was using Debian 3.1 at that time. I remember that in 2005 Linux 2.6 was not the default on Slackware.
I gave up Debian in 2010 to use Slackware instead. My current computer is using Ubuntu, but the older one is still with
Slackware 14.2 32bit.


No.

No.

No.

I'm turning 43 at the beginning of February, and have a grey beard and thinning hair already - does that qualify as old?!

No, I didn't get a modem until after I got my Walnut Creek Slackware CDROM
I remember it being fairly easy to get a modem working with Slackware if you had 'wvdial'.

This is how I got Slackware in the first instance. It cost me a pretty penny, at the time, with it being a US import. I still have the CDROMs to this day

Zipslack was excellent. I used it virtually every day at Uni - booting that on their systems rather than using Windows.

I certainly do. I believe it was to shut up folks who kept asking when Patrick would "upgrade to Linux 6" (referring to the RedHat release of the time) or some such.

I was a lurker on the newsgroup. I was a bit green on Linux to start with, so didn't feel I could contribute!

I did at one time. Now I mostly roll my own.

Not sure I remember that one. I presume it was an announcement of child birth?

At that time I was rolling my own kernels, so it being in testing didn't matter to me.
I remember evenings at Uni watching a kernel build on my faithful lappy, and watching them fail to boot on occasion!

Eugh, hotplug. Was a menace to get things working right.

Yup

Unfortunately not. I'm not /quite/ old enough for that. Would have been nice to be a generation 1.0 guy though!

Happy (continued) Slacking guys

Old timer, yes. I will be 72yo next Monday according to the plans.

I am relatively new to Slackware: IIRC I first used Slackware 10.2 (after Windows then Mandrake). I have at least heard about all the events you listed though. And first used a computer professionally circa 1977, long before Linux even existed. CPU Intel 8080, 64 kilobytes of RAM, two 8 inches floppy disks readers, a 10 megabytes hard disk, integrated printer with a daisy wheel.

2 members found this post helpful.

I started looking at Linux with Zipslack 8.

Then found RedHat 4.2 & Debian 2.1.

(But, I decided Debian/Debian based was for me, since 1999.)

I began Linux with a CD from Yggdrasil. I think it was in the end of 1993. The kernel was 0.99.13 (if I remember well). Two years later I was on slackware, with many floppies I did download from my university (it was faster). I remember there was a clever program that I used to cope defective floppies. You had to put all the downloads in a single file (with tar), cut this big file in n files of the size of the floppy. The program transformed this n files into n+k files (k>=1) such that the n first files could always be deduced from any of the n+k.

Old (well, very late middle-aged ) 75.666..., but not old-time Slacker.
No floppies.
First Slackware (10.0) given away on 2 CDs with Linux Format magazine, Sept. 2004.
I used Zipslack briefly when I was first delving into Linux.
Don't remember "It's a girl", but I'm not the father. Honest.
No to the rest...I think.
EDIT:
I remember 2.6 being in /testing in 11.0, and installing it as an alternative to 2.4. Can't remember any of the differences, though.

I'm only 66 - and still can be quite childish.

Yep - at between 3-5kb per second. AND using Callwave in case we got a call. My wife could get so mad at me.....

Bought it online and I can't remember. They sold cds for every version of linux.

No

Yep - 7 was my first

No

Once upon a time I did!

Yep

Yep - compiled it myself, but had trouble with the nvidia driver and my winmodem for a while. Took awhile to sort.

Oh yea. That was a bit confusing to me at first. I thought I could get electrocuted... lol

Yes - but I still stayed mostly with linuxpackages.net. Too lazy I suppose...

NO - I was really late to the party.

The place I bought linux cds was edmunds-enterprises. That was a good option for those of us on dial-up. I tried a bunch back in the day.

Started using Slackware full time in 1998.
To old to remember all the answers and questions
Remember the news group but never asked any questions, back then help was brutal.
Downloaded floppies for several versions.
Still have the CDs/DVDs in there original shrink wrap starting with Version 7.0 forward.
Wiped windows around 1999 and never looked back.
John

PS 72 years young
Still have a TRS-80 model 1/2 and model 100 portable

Mid 50's. Moved completely to Linux in 2004.
Only used Windows to provide support to clients.

I did download with a modem. Started with 33.6
The upgrade to a 56K modem was refreshing.

Downloaded the first set

No

Yes I remember that version jump.

Never joined only lurked. I did learn a lot
from them.

Yes

Yes

That was a ride. I compiled my own at that time.

yes

Not exactly. I was still using linux packages.

Not me. Started at 3.4

20 years ago I did this course to transfer from science to computing (user interface design); never made it; dot.com crashes of 2000 suggested it would still be better to do biochemistry. But it brought me to Slackware, after quite short stints with Suse and Mandrake, which were too much like the mess I wanted to leave behind...

For that course we had to use a PC with windows (98 at the time) for running the software we're supposed to learn, but the computer crashed all the time, especially when trying JAVA-programming. Being accustomed to restarts (our imac (with OS8-9) needed three reboots each morning before it was stable), the most annoying/offensive thing was this swaying torch above the message 'Windows was not shut down properly', plus some lines that windows as your 'friend' was 'helping' to restore the mess you, as a user, had obviously caused. (Not to mention that paperclip joke popping up from the corner). The provided 'Help' when solving OS problems confirmed that the user was deemed too brainless to handle the tool and only served to increase the (wrong) expectation that everything should just work.

Compared to this user-abuse, linux was such a relief; the message 'sorry' after wrongly trying a command at the command line, just motivated to find out how the tool would work, which led to the discovery of man pages and (already on Slackware 8), first, alt.os.linux and, being more friendly, this forum.

The discovery of open-source alternatives one needed to use on linux (GIMP, PHP, and later inkscape, open/libreoffice) created a big mentality change. Even when not able to fork out on license fees, one could participate in new developments and get work done in a good frame of mind. As students we had risked to rely on unlocked versions of dear programs, knowing that viruses were going around. In this respect, linux felt even better because of the barrier of, for example, grouped file permissions not used on any of the other OSes at the time.

Having built a box from parts that survived for 8 hours before a crappy case-fan shorted the whole lot, which blew the awe for computers with it, gave some confidence to experiment and made me wonder whether the 'steep learning curve' Slackware was apparently known for, was as accurate as the dogma that Windows or Macs were 'user-friendly'. The linux journal that came with a CD to install Slackware from, (also) dropped terms like 'basic' and 'most unix-like'. This was more inviting and since then I never stopped trying it ;-)

About to turn 54 next February

Not from a modem. I used the university network. But I still have the floppies, although I can't use them anymore because the floppy drive doesn't work with newer motherboards (maybe I'm wrong).



If it's the one above I've ordered it and kept it for the posterity! I'm pretty sure that this was the first Slackware CD set I got. I ordered the all other CDs or DVDs up to Slackware version 13.37 (I think). Customs fees made purchasing DVDs prohibitive.

No

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Can't remember

No

I'm a 63 year old Slacker. I do remember the 2.6 kernel in /testing. I started Slacking in 2004, version 10.0.