The "Linux questions (and other stuff)" thread

[Dngrsone]

Well this is all interesting. I'm surprised you guys have had such horrors with upgrades.

I used to do fresh installs when upgrading up until 12.04. From 12.04 and on I've been doing upgrades instead and have always gone smoothly. No issues here. In fact, I'm so confident in how well upgrades work that I don't backup anymore when upgrading.

Imagine if you couldn't do upgrades, how does the linux community expect for linux to be a viable OS in the desktop market place. Imagine telling a windows user, hey switch to linux, but be aware that your system might not boot after an OS upgrade.

Upgrades on linux work just as good as any other OS (ie. Mac, Windows). You just have to keep up with your package updates. If you don't keep up with updates, then some packages can end up held back over time and and that's where the problems start when time comes for an OS upgrade.

Hah! I've had way more failures, data loss and destruction via Windows Update than antyhing I've done to myself in Linux.

 

[GameTheory]

Thought you guys might find this interesting.

10 moments that shaped linux history:
https://opensource.com/article/19/4/top-moments-linux-history

Numbers 4 and 5 on the list are pretty cool. Some of the comments also point to some key moments.

I like this one also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_adopters

 

[MoodyBlues]

Thought you guys might find this interesting.

10 moments that shaped linux history:
https://opensource.com/article/19/4/top-moments-linux-history

Numbers 4 and 5 on the list are pretty cool. Some of the comments also point to some key moments.

I like this one also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_adopters

Excellent post!

My personal favorite moment in Linux history was the day I wiped window$ off my mom's computer, installed Kubuntu, made the [single] desktop look/act as she was used to, and said 'there you go!'

 

[Dngrsone]

I remember installing Slackware for the first time. That must have been... 2007?

 

[MoodyBlues]

I remember installing Slackware for the first time. That must have been... 2007?

Somewhere in my garage there's a v0.1 of Linux, from 1991, on a 3½" floppy diskette.

I was using Coherent (a UNIX clone, not free) at home when I first heard about Linus and Linux. It took awhile before fully switching to just Linux.

 

[lunatic59]

I bought a set of CD's for Red Hat 7 in 2001 because it came with a hat.

I still wear the hat.

 

[MoodyBlues]

I bought a set of CD's for Red Hat 7 in 2001 because it came with a hat.

View attachment 141682

I still wear the hat.

That's funny.

I bought the Red Hat Linux: Unleashed book because it came with CDs. (I still have the book and discs.)

 

[lunatic59]

Of course it was always free to download source and compile yourself, but with blazingly slow 56k modems, who wanted to wait?

 

[Dngrsone]

I think I got my first Linux, a KDE variant, back in the mid-90's... with a magazine. Was less than impressed at the time.

 

[lunatic59]

I think I got my first Linux, a KDE variant, back in the mid-90's... with a magazine. Was less than impressed at the time.

Considering that the other desktop OS's out at the time were Windows 95 and Apple System 7, there wasn't a whole lot to be impressed with.

 

[Dngrsone]

I liked Win 95... thoroughly customizable (for a Windows app), and I've never been a fan of Kommander, particularly in comparison to some of the other file managers available at the time.

 

[MoodyBlues]

All this talk about old *nix has made me feel nostalgic.

Here are my Coherent manual and Red Hat Linux: Unleashed book:

If you have old stuff lying around, perhaps you'll post some pics, too!

 

[Dngrsone]

I have a picture somewhere of the Cyrix 686 processor based motherboard that's in the garage at the old house, if you want some hardware nostalgia... that one has an external L2 cache board on it, too.

Oh, BTW, I got KDE connect to see my phone via BT!

 

[MoodyBlues]

I have a picture somewhere of the Cyrix 686 processor based motherboard that's in the garage at the old house, if you want some hardware nostalgia... that one has an external L2 cache board on it, too.

You bet! I'd love to see some old hardware.

Oh, BTW, I got KDE connect to see my phone via BT!

How?! Mine was working great, stopped, and that was that. Multiple uninstalls/reinstalls, on both computer and phone, have failed to resuscitate it.

Edit: it just dawned on me you did it using Bluetooth; I haven't tried that...

 

[GameTheory]

3½" floppy diskette.

I still wear the hat.

I'd still wear it too if I had it. Very cool hat. Red Hat is kicking some serious rump these days.

If you have old stuff lying around, perhaps you'll post some pics, too!

That's a tough act to follow. You've set the bar very high with that impressive nix collection. It's worth a mint in my books.

 

[MoodyBlues]

That's a tough act to follow. You've set the bar very high with that impressive nix collection. It's worth a mint in my books.

Oh, shoot, thanks. (That's actually just a few of them.)

You know, somewhere out in my garage, there are SCO Xenix manuals from c. 1987. Each manual consisted of a looseleaf binder filled with [literal!] man pages, with pretty, glossy covers, and a matching box to put them away in.

The looseleaf design was brilliant. Any time a new command came out, or an existing command added new arguments/functionality, you'd get the new versions [on 5¼" floppies] along with new man pages. Out went the old page, in went the new!

I remember having to special request crypt, which was needed, among other things, in order to password-protect files using vi -x; some law about it only being legal to sell to US-located customers.

My helper's been straightening up the garage; I may ask her to find some of this old stuff...

 

[Dngrsone]

Hm... I also have a machine language booklet for a Harris H100 "Mini" 24-bit mainframe somewhere.

 

[Dngrsone]

Cyrix 686 Processor, external L2 cache module

 

[Dngrsone]

Whole board

...ish; I think that's an Athlon 939 board on top.

 

[Deleted User]

Hm... I also have a machine language booklet for a Harris H100 "Mini" 24-bit mainframe somewhere.

Man you seriously need to de-clutter.
I was going to present my Amdahl 5890 reference manual, but I think you trump that.

 

[lunatic59]

I think I still have an old IBM ThinkPad ca.1998 in the garage or basement somewhere. It's got a 40MB hard drive and a blazing 286 processor.

 

[Davdi]

Nothing that ancient here! I've got a couple of 10 year old AMD boxes (both AM3 with Phenom CPUs one is dual core (I tried unlocking the other 2 cores - They unlocked but would only run reliably at around 600MHz so I re-locked them). The other is a genuine quad core one. both still going strong running Linux (Mint 18.3 and the latest Sparky). There's lots of life in them yet.
Oh, and I still have a Windows phone (Another endangered Species I believe).

 

[GameTheory]

Nothing that ancient here! I've got a couple of 10 year old AMD boxes (both AM3 with Phenom CPUs one is dual core (I tried unlocking the other 2 cores - They unlocked but would only run reliably at around 600MHz so I re-locked them). The other is a genuine quad core one. both still going strong running Linux (Mint 18.3 and the latest Sparky). There's lots of life in them yet.
Oh, and I still have a Windows phone (Another endangered Species I believe).

You had me up until "Windows phone".

 

[Dngrsone]

Man you seriously need to de-clutter.
I was going to present my Amdahl 5890 reference manual, but I think you trump that.

Trying to. Those boards are mounted in the garage of the house I am trying to sell.

 

[MoodyBlues]

I have a 70 pound monitor out there that will soon be gone. My helper has been working on the garage, and we're getting ready to schedule a "bulk pickup"--which will include Monster Monitor!