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Slackware was one of my first Linux distros, installed on a 286 laptop with 2mb of ram. We had to trick the installer that we had 4mb or else it wouldn't instal

Slackware was one of my first Linux distros, installed on a 286 laptop with 2mb of ram. We had to trick the installer that we had 4mb or else it wouldn't install. Good times. That's where I learned Perl. Edit: It was probably a 386, memories of that time are sketchy.

akoster 3y ago
Thanks for sharing! Could you elaborate more? I was unaware there was any Linux distribution that was compatible with anything but 386-class processors?
- omgmajk 3y ago
  Well, technically my neighbor who was a CS prof. helped me out and I was 12 years old so I can't really elaborate a lot. He really wanted me to use Linux and gave me that laptop and I started programming in Perl and C - just tiny programs and learned the basics of Linux. I remember him helping me out with the install and it took quite some time but that's all I really can say about it. Honestly, now that I think about it, it might have been a 386 but I was entirely sure it wasn't. Memories are weird.
  - akoster 3y ago
    Thanks for sharing! I take it that was a hand-me-down laptop? My first PC I could call my own was a hand-me-down 6-year-old Toshiba Tecra Pentium II laptop with a 5GB IDE HDD and 192 MB of RAM running Windows 98 SE I received when I was maybe 10. I wish I would have installed Linux or had a compiler handy to learn how to write "real" software (as opposed to Logo in a MicroWorlds Pro environment), though eventually I discovered Linux from a friend's dad recommendation to try Fedora Core 6. IIRC it was painful downloading the ISO(s) over a 512kbps DSL connection, which had a copy of GCC!
    - omgmajk 3y ago
      This was my second computer, I had a Compaq Presario Pentium 75 mhz that ran Win 95 and later 98 SE. The laptop in question was a hand-me-down from the neighbor and it had a white-black screen so instead of it being a black screen with white text it was reverse. A very strange "little" computer that my mother sadly threw out when I moved out many years ago. This was in the 14.4kbit modem days and I think it was an actual copy of Slackware 3.1 on diskettes. But as I said, my memory is very sketchy. I just remember the good times I had fiddling around with that thing. Thank you as well for the good talk!

akoster 3y ago

Thanks for sharing! Could you elaborate more? I was unaware there was any Linux distribution that was compatible with anything but 386-class processors?

omgmajk 3y ago
Well, technically my neighbor who was a CS prof. helped me out and I was 12 years old so I can't really elaborate a lot. He really wanted me to use Linux and gave me that laptop and I started programming in Perl and C - just tiny programs and learned the basics of Linux. I remember him helping me out with the install and it took quite some time but that's all I really can say about it. Honestly, now that I think about it, it might have been a 386 but I was entirely sure it wasn't. Memories are weird.
- akoster 3y ago
  Thanks for sharing! I take it that was a hand-me-down laptop? My first PC I could call my own was a hand-me-down 6-year-old Toshiba Tecra Pentium II laptop with a 5GB IDE HDD and 192 MB of RAM running Windows 98 SE I received when I was maybe 10. I wish I would have installed Linux or had a compiler handy to learn how to write "real" software (as opposed to Logo in a MicroWorlds Pro environment), though eventually I discovered Linux from a friend's dad recommendation to try Fedora Core 6. IIRC it was painful downloading the ISO(s) over a 512kbps DSL connection, which had a copy of GCC!
  - omgmajk 3y ago
    This was my second computer, I had a Compaq Presario Pentium 75 mhz that ran Win 95 and later 98 SE. The laptop in question was a hand-me-down from the neighbor and it had a white-black screen so instead of it being a black screen with white text it was reverse. A very strange "little" computer that my mother sadly threw out when I moved out many years ago. This was in the 14.4kbit modem days and I think it was an actual copy of Slackware 3.1 on diskettes. But as I said, my memory is very sketchy. I just remember the good times I had fiddling around with that thing. Thank you as well for the good talk!