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Circa 1998 I was a teenage Linux zealot who would attend LAN parties carrying a Linux box. It actually worked -- at the time, WINE practically existed to suppor
by kentonv 3y ago
Circa 1998 I was a teenage Linux zealot who would attend LAN parties carrying a Linux box. It actually worked -- at the time, WINE practically existed to support Starcraft, Quake 2 could run natively, and that covered like 95% of what people were playing.
One time I thought it would be funny to run a shell script that looped through every Windows share on the network and tried to open `CON/CON` on it, resulting in a prompt Blue Screen of Death for each machine.
For some reason my friends did not think it was funny.
- EspressoGPT 3y ago> Circa 1998 I was a teenage Linux zealot who would attend LAN parties carrying a Linux box. Arch, I suppose.
- g105b 3y agoif it were arch you'd know already
- gerdesj 3y agoSorry, how remiss of me! On behalf of Archoles everywhere: "I use Arch actually" (and so does my wife).
- saalweachter 3y agoArch wasn't around in 1998. I'm going to put my money on Slackware.
- Q6T46nT668w6i3m 3y agoI’d bet RedHat 5.2.
- timcambrant 3y agoThat was my first. Then Slackware 3.6. Both as cover CD:s of computer magazines because that download was too much to handle on 56k.
- kentonv 3y agoI think it was RedHat. I had tried Debian first but switched to RedHat pretty quickly afterwards. (Back then, RedHat had nothing to do with "enterprise", it was just the most polished Linux distro around. Ubuntu didn't exist yet.) (These days FWIW I use boring old Debian, and I'm not a zealot about it. It works for me. Use what works for you, I don't care. I have a separate machine for gaming and it runs Windows. I know Steam works pretty well on Linux these days but Windows is still less hassle for games.)
- godzillabrennus 3y agoBack when Redhat was the name of the enterprise releases and the open source releases.
- kentonv 3y agoI think there was no separate enterprise release at the time. But could be misremembering.
- chungy 3y agoRed Hat Linux 6.2E was the first "enterprise" release they made. Basically just standard RHL 6.2 but with long-term support. This release can be retroactively thought of as "RHEL 1"; The proper distribution that debuted as Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2 was based on Red Hat Linux 9, with the similar promise of long-term support. Future RHEL releases are carved out of Fedora releases, the spiritual successor to RHL.
- Agingcoder 3y agoNo you’re right. If memory serves me well, I used to switch between Slackware 3, redhat 2 and Debian 1.2(?) at about that time. I never liked redhat, enjoyed Slackware but ended up not enjoying the lack of a package manager, so Debian did the trick a few years later. There was a single redhat release. These days, just like you, I use Debian.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- JoelMcCracken 3y agoI used to love slackware, by far the best linux experience. It just worked well.
- saalweachter 3y agoI started with Slackware and was happy with it, but must admit that is entirely because my Linux book from B&N came with Slackware on a CD.
- HeyLaughingBoy 3y agoProbably. I just remember installing from a dozen+ 3.5" floppies onto my pizzabox '386 and breathing a sigh of relief when it booted.
- mkl 3y agoI think I needed 17 floppies ... and I could only scrounge up about 8, so I assumed it wouldn't need the earlier ones again and reused them for later parts. It worked! I didn't use Slackware much though, as I had no way to connect that machine to the internet, so it was really hard to learn how to do stuff.
- HeyLaughingBoy 3y agoI think I actually still have an "Introduction to Slackware Linux" book.
- vmlinuz 3y agoI still do. It still does...
- JoelMcCracken 3y agoI admit, I stopped using linux on desktop approx 2007. Since then, its just been macos and servers. I've been considering going back to it though, but I know that I need to do it in measured steps. Care to share any more about your slackware experience?
- xtracto 3y agoOoooh that brought me memories. At the time testing (around '98) all the nerdy rage was on testing the different distros such as Caldera, Debian, Corel, Mandrake. I remember at the same time compiling my first kernel in FreeBSD (ordered the CDs from WalnutCreek website! what a time). My parents where not amused that I broke the home PC several times installing this thing over Windows
- code_runner 3y agolove this story very much. I had no idea WINE had been around for that long and was able to play starcraft etc. I have really great memories of playing starcraft with friends back in the day.... that game had enough staying power that we could all get into and out of in middle school and then again in college!
- DoesntMatter22 3y agoIt's still being played heavily and professionally in Korea and there are many non Korean tournaments too. I watch pro matches everyday!
- RainaRelanah 3y ago> heavily Sadly not the case, as much as I love ASL the scene has zero new blood. SC2 really killed the Brood War scene, and League of Legends really killed SC2. The days of packing an aircraft hanger with 30,000+ fans for OSL finals are long gone. I was invited to the Stormgate alpha, and while I can't say anything about it (NDA), I am hopeful it will bring new life into RTS esports.
- DoesntMatter22 3y agoIt's still heavily played. There are tons of show matches and ASL which is good. There are newer players like Scan, and we had a couple new guys last season. Is it in it's heyday? No. Is it still fantastic? Yeah. KESPA killed Brood War primarily because Blizzard forced them to. Then KESPA itself died. Lots of great BW still being played no question about that
- vitaflo 3y agoIvOry just qualified for ASL. That’s definitely new blood.
- qsdf38100 3y agoAh, good times. Lim yo han!! (Aka slayers boxers ? Right ?). As a Terran player, I was in such awe. And then came Flash (lee young ho), the GOAT. I watched every one of his games. StarCraft 2 never came close to the accidental perfection that SC1 is.
- madrox 3y agoThis brings back memories. Every LAN group had that one friend like you. I'm sure you made up for it if, like my BSD friend, you were handy with network troubleshooting and always brought spare CAT-5.
- kentonv 3y agoWell eventually I just... provided all the machines... and the house... https://kentonshouse.com https://kentonshouse.com
- Mxrtxn 3y agoThis is really cool! Did you build a similar house?
- kentonv 3y agoNot similar, I built that house. (I'm Kenton.) Or do you mean the new one, alluded to on the site? It's almost done... not ready to share yet. ;)
- rexreed 3y agoGreat site - I am reading all your posts about the LAN party house now. Do you have the real estate listing of the house when it was up for sale? I'm just curious as to where it was located - you mentioned a sliver of land, and I saw the asking price ($2M in Palo Alto) so I'm curious to see what it looked like from the outside and its location, if you don't mind sharing!
- kentonv 3y agoHmmmm even though it's not mine anymore, posting the address doesn't feel right... seems like it'd be violating the privacy of the new owners of the house. Yes, even though I did post the address publicly when selling it -- that listing is gone now so arguably privacy has been regained. (Or if not, maybe you can find it, heh.) Sorry about that. There are a few more pictures of the house on the architect's (my father's) web site: https://vardaarchitecture.com/ https://vardaarchitecture.com/ Look under "Residential - Palo Alto". But note that the furniture in these pictures was staging furniture that the real estate agents put in there to sell the house, NOT stuff I ever chose or used! (I hate it.)
- Phrodo_00 3y agoWas that over IPX? I don't think I ever configured IPX on Linux. By the time I was using enough Linux to run Starcraft on Wine, it already supported IP.
- AndrewKemendo 3y agoClassic! My favorite “anyone can do it hack” was ping flooding people during a lan-party Good old memories
- KETpXDDzR 3y agoOh good old Windows nuker.
- 4m1rk 3y agoGolden era. We were different or the world around us?