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.

  • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
    36·
    11 hours ago

    It wasn’t too early, maybe 1997.

    I was like 12 or so and I had just installed Linux.

    I figured out, from the book I was working with, how to get my windows partition to automaticallyount at boot. Awesome!

    I had not been able to figure out how to start “x” though.

    So I rebooted into Windows, for on EFnet #linux, and asked around.

    Got a command, wrote it down on a slip of paper, and rebooted into Linux.

    I should mention, I also hadn’t figured out about privileges, or at least why you wouldn’t want to run around as root.

    Anyway, I started typing in the command that I wrote down: rm -rf /.

    I don’t have to tell you all, that is not the correct command. The correct command was startx.

    After I figured it was taking way too long, I decided to look up what the command does, and then immediately shut down the system.

    It was far too late.

    • Joe@discuss.tchncs.de
      15·
      10 hours ago

      My pranks were less destructive … /ctcp nick +++ath0+++ … it was amazing how often that worked. 🤣

      • sramder@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        9 hours ago

        PRESS ALT+F4 for ops! 😂

        OMG… the showmanship…

        Someone-being-bratty-on-IRC: […]
Me: We’re going to take away your internet access if you don’t behave. 
Bratty: Fuck you! You can’t do tha
5 minutes later…
Bratty: How did you do that???
      • StrawberryPigtails@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        6·
        9 hours ago

        Thats a new one on me. What did that do if I may ask? Best I have been able to figure out is that it’s probably IRC related but that’s it.

        • dan@upvote.au
          11·
          9 hours ago

          +++ath0 is a command that tells a dial up modem to disconnect. I’ve never seen it used in IRC this way, but my guess is that the modem would see this coming from the computer and disconnect.

          This was back in the days when everything was unencrypted.

          • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
            4·
            7 hours ago

            Yes, and encryption had nothing to do with it (though I suppose it would have prevented it in this case).

            A properly configured modem would ignore this coming from the Internet side, or escape the characters so that they didn’t form that string.

            • dan@upvote.au
              1·
              6 hours ago

              Encryption would prevent it - that’s what I meant :)

              I think the trick is to convince someone to send that string, so the modem sees it coming from the computer. Similar to tricking someone into pressing Alt+F4 or Ctrl+Alt+Del twice on Windows 9x.

    • sramder@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      9 hours ago

      That’s terrible! They helped me fix my system when I decided I was fancy enough to try building a new version of gcc and go off-script a bit.

      IIRC I deleted library.so rather that overwriting it. If I hadn’t been running IRC on another terminal already I would have been done for.