3 ms·

The first six months or so that I used Linux (1998), I only had a winmodem for my parent's cheap tower (333Mhz Celeron I think; the kind you got for free if you

by emidln 9y ago

The first six months or so that I used Linux (1998), I only had a winmodem for my parent's cheap tower (333Mhz Celeron I think; the kind you got for free if you signed a 3 year dialup contract). I taught myself to program based on examples from a book and documentation that was included with man pages, program source code, and long-form documentation (often found in -doc packages). The book was good for basic syntax and a couple working examples. Source rpms (my first system was Caldera OpenLinux) provided working example code. The doc packages (and sometimes man pages) had more detailed manuals. I spent a decent amount of time downloading early TLDP (I think LDP at the time) manuals and various zine issues onto floppies at my school. I wrote a ton of really bad code. My local libraries didn't really help much as they mostly contained documentation on Windows/Office/DOS and languages that assumed those (being in middle school, I didn't know anyone at a college/university). Over time, I saved up and bought a Hayes modem and got online. As I read source code I'd try to incorporate techniques I saw into my programs. Some of these turned out to be bad. You knew they were bad when they made your life more complicated without any stated benefit (or when the benefit was paper thin). This wasn't explicitly stated anywhere (as I remember it), but it sorta revealed itself.

mstade 9y ago
I may be mixing up the years but in '98 I think a 333Mhz Celeron wasn't necessarily cheap. Not top of the line for sure, but also not your average dumpster find.
- CoolGuySteve 9y ago
  I remember the CPU itself was like $35 USD and could easily overclock to 415MHz. It and the Celeron 300a were some of the best bargains ever in computing due to a binning oddity on Intel's part. But he's probably talking about the cheap eMachines that were sold with rebates along with dial up. They went for something like $300 iirc. I had a nearly identical experience to the grandparent post, except I would build/upgrade my computers with whatever parts were cheapest. I also remember there were a few services that would mail you a CD or 2 of your favourite distro for $5 which was amazing if you lived somewhere with terrible phone lines/no ISDN.
  - emidln 9y ago
    Yes, it was an eMachines. I think the promo we were on was for Prodigy dialup and was like $29.99/month for 3 years. If you agreed to that, you could get a $400? instant rebate at Best Buy/Circuit City/etc on any random PC. The base model eMachines were conveniently priced exactly the same as the rebate.

by emidln 9y ago

mstade 9y ago

I may be mixing up the years but in '98 I think a 333Mhz Celeron wasn't necessarily cheap. Not top of the line for sure, but also not your average dumpster find.

CoolGuySteve 9y ago
I remember the CPU itself was like $35 USD and could easily overclock to 415MHz. It and the Celeron 300a were some of the best bargains ever in computing due to a binning oddity on Intel's part. But he's probably talking about the cheap eMachines that were sold with rebates along with dial up. They went for something like $300 iirc. I had a nearly identical experience to the grandparent post, except I would build/upgrade my computers with whatever parts were cheapest. I also remember there were a few services that would mail you a CD or 2 of your favourite distro for $5 which was amazing if you lived somewhere with terrible phone lines/no ISDN.
- emidln 9y ago
  Yes, it was an eMachines. I think the promo we were on was for Prodigy dialup and was like $29.99/month for 3 years. If you agreed to that, you could get a $400? instant rebate at Best Buy/Circuit City/etc on any random PC. The base model eMachines were conveniently priced exactly the same as the rebate.