In my first semester of Computer Science (early 2000s) I had the issue that my family computer was always busy. So I took our 286 from the closet and set it up

In my first semester of Computer Science (early 2000s) I had the issue that my family computer was always busy. So I took our 286 from the closet and set it up in my room - I just needed a C compiler after all, and 34Mb hard drive space ought to be enough for everybody. I wanted to use Linux but you need a 386 or higher for that, and DOS was already installed anyway. After about a month my mom convinced my father to get me a new PC, probably annoyed by the sound of the dot matrix printer at night. But honestly, I agree with you: it wasn't that bad.