5 ms·

I used it back in 1995 when my PC couldn’t run Win95, and I had Win95-envy. It was really mind-blowing at the time to be able to change the UI of Windows like t

by weikju 4y ago

I used it back in 1995 when my PC couldn’t run Win95, and I had Win95-envy. It was really mind-blowing at the time to be able to change the UI of Windows like that. A little bit later I downloaded 20 or so Slackware floppies and the rest is history…

rpastuszak 4y ago
> I had Win95-envy Ha, I know the pain, I remember being 10 and (literally) dreaming about 16mb or RAM so I could install it!
- toast0 4y ago
  I think minimum was 4mb, and it ran ok with 8mb, although expect swapping if you multitask. It certainly ran nicer with 16mb, but you didn't need it.
  - function_seven 4y ago
    I installed it on a 486 (DX2!!) with 4MB of RAM. It... worked, kinda. I reverted back to 3.1 a couple days later. The machine was just too slow. It would be another two years before I could afford something that could run 95. I think I went straight to 98 IIRC.
    - Lammy 4y ago
      "But when I load it up / It says my memory is not enough" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc4JbzPqups https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc4JbzPqups
    - bombcar 4y ago
      My computers went from DOS 5 to Windows 98 - never had one with 3.x or 95 (though a friend did). The jumps were big back then!
borissk 4y ago
Did you run Slackware from DOS or did you install it properly with a bootloader?
- weikju 4y ago
  Properly ran it with LILO as the boot loader. Shortly later the "boot from DOS" things started cropping up but I still preferred running them properly.
- fmakunbound 4y ago
  I hand totally forgotten about that. Wasn’t it called dosfs? It put metadata in files that would show up in DOS when you rebooted.
  - LocalH 4y ago
    loadlin was the tool that would boot the kernel (including initrd) from a running DOS system. You might be thinking of umsdos? IIRC, that's the tool that would allow you to actually run Linux from a FAT partition (likely FAT16).
- Narishma 4y ago
  I remember having to boot my first distro from DOS because my sound card (a weird thing that was a combination of modem and sound card) didn't have Linux drivers. I would first load the DOS drivers, then boot Linux from DOS and it would then recognize it as a Sound Blaster.
lathiat 4y ago
Me too :) I remember that apparently for desktop applications icons to work it had to launch a process just to be each icon so was quite memory intensive. I seem to recall it also requiring “win32s” My machine would throw a text mode confirmation prompt over the win95 graphical installer when it tried to write the boot sector as boot sector virus protection and this would freeze the system so windows 95 installation never worked.
- weikju 4y ago
  ohhh win32s... that's another memory from ages past lol
- _dmg_ 4y ago
  Me too! Calmira, the Q-Basic manual, a trackball, Commander Keen, and tons of a few really worn out floppy disks of shareware.
Gordonjcp 4y ago
Same but I got Slackware off a Computer Shopper cover CD ;-)

by weikju 4y ago

rpastuszak 4y ago

> I had Win95-envy Ha, I know the pain, I remember being 10 and (literally) dreaming about 16mb or RAM so I could install it!

toast0 4y ago
I think minimum was 4mb, and it ran ok with 8mb, although expect swapping if you multitask. It certainly ran nicer with 16mb, but you didn't need it.
- function_seven 4y ago
  I installed it on a 486 (DX2!!) with 4MB of RAM. It... worked, kinda. I reverted back to 3.1 a couple days later. The machine was just too slow. It would be another two years before I could afford something that could run 95. I think I went straight to 98 IIRC.
  - Lammy 4y ago
    "But when I load it up / It says my memory is not enough" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc4JbzPqups https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc4JbzPqups
  - bombcar 4y ago
    My computers went from DOS 5 to Windows 98 - never had one with 3.x or 95 (though a friend did). The jumps were big back then!

borissk 4y ago

Did you run Slackware from DOS or did you install it properly with a bootloader?

weikju 4y ago
Properly ran it with LILO as the boot loader. Shortly later the "boot from DOS" things started cropping up but I still preferred running them properly.
fmakunbound 4y ago
I hand totally forgotten about that. Wasn’t it called dosfs? It put metadata in files that would show up in DOS when you rebooted.
- LocalH 4y ago
  loadlin was the tool that would boot the kernel (including initrd) from a running DOS system. You might be thinking of umsdos? IIRC, that's the tool that would allow you to actually run Linux from a FAT partition (likely FAT16).
Narishma 4y ago
I remember having to boot my first distro from DOS because my sound card (a weird thing that was a combination of modem and sound card) didn't have Linux drivers. I would first load the DOS drivers, then boot Linux from DOS and it would then recognize it as a Sound Blaster.

lathiat 4y ago

Me too :) I remember that apparently for desktop applications icons to work it had to launch a process just to be each icon so was quite memory intensive. I seem to recall it also requiring “win32s” My machine would throw a text mode confirmation prompt over the win95 graphical installer when it tried to write the boot sector as boot sector virus protection and this would freeze the system so windows 95 installation never worked.

weikju 4y ago
ohhh win32s... that's another memory from ages past lol
_dmg_ 4y ago
Me too! Calmira, the Q-Basic manual, a trackball, Commander Keen, and tons of a few really worn out floppy disks of shareware.

Gordonjcp 4y ago

Same but I got Slackware off a Computer Shopper cover CD ;-)