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I recommend people to grab Caldera OpenLinux 2.3 from Archive[0] and try it in 86box[1] on an emulated Pentium 166MHz with 32MB of RAM and 2GB (or so) HDD. Do a

I recommend people to grab Caldera OpenLinux 2.3 from Archive[0] and try it in 86box[1] on an emulated Pentium 166MHz with 32MB of RAM and 2GB (or so) HDD. Do an installation that includes everything. Note that you only need the first CD (the one named "OpenLinux 2.3 CD.iso"), the rest are source code packages and some commercial stuff (that most people probably never saw, but the first CD was distributed via magazines). This single 650MB CD IMO it is one of the most complete distributions in terms of what it includes and you can do with it. It includes a complete desktop environment (KDE 1), development tools (with an IDE), graphics editors, productivity tools, typesetting tools (TeX, LaTeX, Groff), databases, clients for mail, irc, web, etc, media players, a bunch of games and - most importantly - documentation for pretty much everything accessible right away from the panel at the bottom (...although ironically while there is also a "getting started with linux" document that describes the basics, for some reason it is not linked and not even compiled... you need to already know the console and docbook tools to compile it and read it :-P). And on that machine is still very fast and usable. I tried it at some point a while ago and after playing with it for a while i started reading some of the included stuff and after a while i forgot i was in an emulated environment since everything was responsive. And this is, btw, exactly how i remembered it - this distribution was the first Linux distribution i ever used on my PC in 1999 (which was a 200MHz Pentium MMX with 32MB of RAM). (as a sidenote, yes this is the same Caldera that renamed themselves to SCO and made the infamous lawsuites, but this distro was made before that time) [0] https://archive.org/details/OpenLinux2.3CD https://archive.org/details/OpenLinux2.3CD [1] https://github.com/86Box/86Box https://github.com/86Box/86Box

sigfubar 8y ago
Thanks for drowning the remainder of my Wednesday in nostalgia. Caldera OpenLinux was my first distro. I got its first CD bundled with some random book about Linux in 1999. The book came from a store that sold used books, so I was surprised to find the CD still nestled in there. The book turned out to be garbage, but the CD changed my life. I still keep it at my desk 20 years later.
keithpeter 8y ago
A default install of Slackware from a 2.4Gb .iso will give you a similar environment that is reasonably functional on an X200 similar to the OAs. I actually use an X220 which is slightly more powerful but same ballpark. x4 inflation over 20 years?
- badsectoracula 8y ago
  Slackware is the closest i know of, but only because there isn't anything better. Beyond that it isn't really comparable since Slackware is just a collection of software thrown in together and it has a ton of redundant software, a large part of which is "bloated". The reason i mentioned to try out COL was that it provided an integrated system (it is probably the only time i used a Linux system where things felt like they were meant to work with each other - and kinda sad that this was on the first distro i ever used) with little redundant functionality (beyond practical matters - it has both KDE's web browser - not called Konqueror yet at the time - and Netscape since in 1999 the latter was pretty much needed for browsing the web on Linux) yet with a lot of functionality provided in a small footprint. The full install is a little above 900MB - in comparison Slackware's full (and only supported) install is a bit above 9GB (so it is more of a 10x inflation :-P) with a couple different desktop environments, a ton of window managers and a bunch of duplicated things. But as i wrote, Slackware is the closest which is why i have an ISO of the latest DVD available on my external HDD to throw in a VM whenever i want to try something on Linux. Also (and this is only tangentially related) i like that it still provides "full" distribution media (in comparison Debian has become so overloaded with packages that to download installation media for archival/offline use you need to build them manually yourself and even then it is several blu-ray disks). FWIW i do not think it is impossible to make something similar, but it would require a lot of work, especially on the desktop environment front.
- jonhohle 8y ago
  Hey, that's only 7% per year!
cr0sh 8y ago
My first distro was Monkey Linux running on Caldera OpenDOS - circa 1994-5-ish. On a 386 laptop with 6 MB. My first real distro was TurboLinux 2.0 - IIRC, that was on a Zenith 486 laptop with 8 MB. Then I moved to RedHat 5.2 (don't recall the machine, some old desktop tower I think - maybe a P90 w/ 16 MB but I am not certain of that - might've been my AMD 586/133 box at the time).

sigfubar 8y ago

Thanks for drowning the remainder of my Wednesday in nostalgia. Caldera OpenLinux was my first distro. I got its first CD bundled with some random book about Linux in 1999. The book came from a store that sold used books, so I was surprised to find the CD still nestled in there. The book turned out to be garbage, but the CD changed my life. I still keep it at my desk 20 years later.

keithpeter 8y ago

A default install of Slackware from a 2.4Gb .iso will give you a similar environment that is reasonably functional on an X200 similar to the OAs. I actually use an X220 which is slightly more powerful but same ballpark. x4 inflation over 20 years?

badsectoracula 8y ago
Slackware is the closest i know of, but only because there isn't anything better. Beyond that it isn't really comparable since Slackware is just a collection of software thrown in together and it has a ton of redundant software, a large part of which is "bloated". The reason i mentioned to try out COL was that it provided an integrated system (it is probably the only time i used a Linux system where things felt like they were meant to work with each other - and kinda sad that this was on the first distro i ever used) with little redundant functionality (beyond practical matters - it has both KDE's web browser - not called Konqueror yet at the time - and Netscape since in 1999 the latter was pretty much needed for browsing the web on Linux) yet with a lot of functionality provided in a small footprint. The full install is a little above 900MB - in comparison Slackware's full (and only supported) install is a bit above 9GB (so it is more of a 10x inflation :-P) with a couple different desktop environments, a ton of window managers and a bunch of duplicated things. But as i wrote, Slackware is the closest which is why i have an ISO of the latest DVD available on my external HDD to throw in a VM whenever i want to try something on Linux. Also (and this is only tangentially related) i like that it still provides "full" distribution media (in comparison Debian has become so overloaded with packages that to download installation media for archival/offline use you need to build them manually yourself and even then it is several blu-ray disks). FWIW i do not think it is impossible to make something similar, but it would require a lot of work, especially on the desktop environment front.
jonhohle 8y ago
Hey, that's only 7% per year!

cr0sh 8y ago

My first distro was Monkey Linux running on Caldera OpenDOS - circa 1994-5-ish. On a 386 laptop with 6 MB. My first real distro was TurboLinux 2.0 - IIRC, that was on a Zenith 486 laptop with 8 MB. Then I moved to RedHat 5.2 (don't recall the machine, some old desktop tower I think - maybe a P90 w/ 16 MB but I am not certain of that - might've been my AMD 586/133 box at the time).