this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2025
192 points (97.1% liked)

Linux

53368 readers
948 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I really wish that I was born early so I've could witness the early years of Linux. What was it like being there when a kernel was released that would power multiple OSes and, best of all, for free?

I want know about everything: software, hardware, games, early community, etc.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] floo@retrolemmy.com 107 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (13 children)

Honestly, it sucked. Like most computing at the time. Everything came on a ton of floppy disks, it was impossible to update online unless you had a good connection (which nobody did), and you had to do everything by hand, including compiling a lot of stuff which took forever. I mean, I’m glad I got the experience, but I would never wanna go back to that. It sucked.

[–] tfowinder@lemmy.ml 38 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (7 children)

Remember the slow internet had to wait overnight for 40 megabyte game and finally finding out it didn't work.

load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments (11 replies)