4 ms·

yeah, the Usenet reference had to have been obscure even back then. and beta-testing OSes back then would been.. what? Windows Neptune and Copeland?

samplatt 4y ago
Eh; Debian has been around since '93. I'm sure there were dozens of non-mainstream OS's fighting for nerds' attention by 1999.
icedchai 4y ago
Today, Usenet is obscure. Late 90's was right around when Usenet was at its peak. ISPs back then advertised newsgroups as a feature: "we have a full newsfeed", that sort of thing. I worked at one that built a server with a whopping 9 gigabyte hard drive just for the NNTP feed! That was pretty cutting edge back in 1995.
- ocbyc 4y ago
  I subscribed to newzbin we'll into the mid 2010's.
- bdowling 4y ago
  Among the general MTV-watching audience of the 90’s, Usenet was very obscure.
nidx 4y ago
At the time, I had used/tried out the following OSes - BeOS 4.5 (including some beta versions) - BeOS 5 (including some beta versions) - Windows NT 4.0 - OS2/Warp - Windows 95 (and it's service releases) (including beta versions) - Windows 98 (and it's service releases) (including beta versions) - PC-DOS - MS-DOS with DosShell - MS-DOS with Windows 3.11 - Whatever old version of MacOS was on the school computers - Slackware (might have some dates wrong) I was also on mIRC and downloading from newsgroups regularly. I think many ISP's would give you guides about using email/newsgroups back then as those services were considered required for an ISP. TUCOWS was super popular for this newfangled WinSOCK software (TUCOWS stands for The Ultimate Collection Of WinSOCK Software). I remember testing how fast the first consumer cable internet connections were by downloading from them. You are right for most people that stuff was probably obscure.
- yesbabyyes 4y ago
  I had been exposed to some of those, plus SunOS, Solaris, VMS, AmigaOS, QNX, Red Hat and Debian. There was no such thing as a OS-monoculture.
- oriolid 4y ago
  At that time you'd have been mercilessly about mIRC. It's a client program, and you'd be on IRCnet, EFnet or QuakeNet, and the the last one would earn you endless disrespect from IRCnet veterans.

samplatt 4y ago

Eh; Debian has been around since '93. I'm sure there were dozens of non-mainstream OS's fighting for nerds' attention by 1999.

icedchai 4y ago

Today, Usenet is obscure. Late 90's was right around when Usenet was at its peak. ISPs back then advertised newsgroups as a feature: "we have a full newsfeed", that sort of thing. I worked at one that built a server with a whopping 9 gigabyte hard drive just for the NNTP feed! That was pretty cutting edge back in 1995.

ocbyc 4y ago
I subscribed to newzbin we'll into the mid 2010's.
bdowling 4y ago
Among the general MTV-watching audience of the 90’s, Usenet was very obscure.

nidx 4y ago

At the time, I had used/tried out the following OSes - BeOS 4.5 (including some beta versions) - BeOS 5 (including some beta versions) - Windows NT 4.0 - OS2/Warp - Windows 95 (and it's service releases) (including beta versions) - Windows 98 (and it's service releases) (including beta versions) - PC-DOS - MS-DOS with DosShell - MS-DOS with Windows 3.11 - Whatever old version of MacOS was on the school computers - Slackware (might have some dates wrong) I was also on mIRC and downloading from newsgroups regularly. I think many ISP's would give you guides about using email/newsgroups back then as those services were considered required for an ISP. TUCOWS was super popular for this newfangled WinSOCK software (TUCOWS stands for The Ultimate Collection Of WinSOCK Software). I remember testing how fast the first consumer cable internet connections were by downloading from them. You are right for most people that stuff was probably obscure.

yesbabyyes 4y ago
I had been exposed to some of those, plus SunOS, Solaris, VMS, AmigaOS, QNX, Red Hat and Debian. There was no such thing as a OS-monoculture.
oriolid 4y ago
At that time you'd have been mercilessly about mIRC. It's a client program, and you'd be on IRCnet, EFnet or QuakeNet, and the the last one would earn you endless disrespect from IRCnet veterans.