Linux

48115 readers

652 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

Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
No misinformation
No NSFW content
No hate speech, bigotry, etc

Related Communities

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

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

123

Linux during the mid to late 90s (Windows 95 and 98 era) (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

106 comments fedilink hide all child comments

For those veteran linux people, what was it like back in 90s? I did see and hear of Unix systems being available for use but I did not see much apart from old versions of Debian in use.

Were they prominent in education like universities? Was it mainly a hobbyist thing at the time compared to the business needs of 98, 95 and classic mac?

I ask this because I found out that some PC games I owned were apparently also on Linux even in CD format from a firm named Loki.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (14 children)

Slackware and Red Hat were the two distros in use in the mid 90s.

My local city used proper UNIX, and my university had ~~IRIXworkstations~~ SPARCstations and SunOS servers. We used Linux at my ISP to handle modem pools and web/mail/news servers. In the early 2000s we had Linux labs, and Linux clusters to work on.

Linux on the desktop was a bit painful. There were no modules. Kernels had to fit into main memory. So you'd roll your own kernel with just the drivers you needed. XFree86 was tricky to configure with timings for your CRT monitors. If done wrong, you could break your monitor.

I used FVWM2 and Enlightenment for many years. I miss Enlightenment.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (3 children)

I miss enlightenment

Me too! Has E17 come out yet? 😆

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Enlightenment is on version 26

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago

Guess you missed the joke that it was 13 years between E16 and E17 🙂

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

E16 was better

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

that was the last time i contributed; i created a LCARS port and now there are hundreds of them everywhere.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

LCARS interface.... that is something I haven't seen in a loooooooong time

load more comments (10 replies)