3 ms·

For years, I had seen X11 desktops in magazines before Linux and the Intel 80486DX-33 permitted me to first boot X11 on my own machine in 1992 (after installing

by jll29 2y ago

For years, I had seen X11 desktops in magazines before Linux and the Intel 80486DX-33 permitted me to first boot X11 on my own machine in 1992 (after installing it from fifty 3.5" floppy disks, which required two trips to the nearest university, as the first time one of the disks was faulty). Still remember that feeling of first typing xeyes & and xlock & and inspecting the result on that 14" color CRT screen (I was beaming more than it, perhaps). Then by winter term 1996 I owned a refurbished HP9000-715/75 running HP-UX 9.03 (also X11-based), pre-owned and via uni discount and still the price of a car at the time... the only undergrad on my corridor who had a workstation in the dorm room (its 21" CRT filling most of the 9 m² space that was not occupied by the bed). My next goal then was to get all the manual books (X11 and HP-UX) - still got 'em. HAPPY 40th BIRTHDAY, X11! And thanks to the X11 authors for making it available for free - imagine, X11 supported mice with 16 buttons already back then!

jeffbee 2y ago
I don't guess you went to Texas A&M. I remember about '96 we scanned the residence hall local network for XDMCP services and discovered the one weirdo with a HPUX box.
- mshroyer 2y ago
  Ha, this brings back memories. Around 2003 I used either XDMCP or plain X11 forwarding over SSH to access my dorm room computer while at home visiting my parents, and later got a letter from school IT warning me about abusive network traffic.
technothrasher 2y ago
> the only undergrad on my corridor who had a workstation in the dorm room In 1993, I worked my way up to becoming the lab manager for the residential computer lab in my dorm (basically a bunch of Macs for people to use, as we were the dorm farthest away from the library's undergrad computing center). I did that so I could put my SGI Indigo XS24 directly onto the 10Base2 Ethernet, rather than connecting it via the university's phone system in my room using PPP at 57kbps. I went back for a reunion about five years ago and the lab was still running (although in a different dorm now). I talked to the kid running it, who was nice enough, but he said nobody used the lab really, and he didn't know the first thing about networking. He was a gamer who "wanted to learn more about Linux". I tried to keep an open mind, times have changed, and he was eager, but boy was it depressing that the old culture is long dead.
- mhh__ 2y ago
  When I was a student I did find myself longing for a kind of cozy computer lab experience but it was basically impossible. I consider myself as part of the one of tbe last generation where people had to use a computer (e.g. I remember windows XP and even older somewhat vividly but never owned a non-smart phone) and even then I was sat next to people who could barely type so could never really do anything without being taken out of the zone. The culture does exist but the average is so mediocre/disinterested that they don't bother (there's no reason to) "going" to the computer anymore. I think that's slightly sad in, nerds are much more social than most people realise. Thinking about it I did get a little bit of that experience at school in that I learnt a lot of the basics of programming by playing with compiler explorer in the back of my computing and D&T lessons.
- adestefan 2y ago
  I was the student manager of all Unix systems on campus in the late 90s. Included labs of Sun and HP workstations. Managed some system connected to various lab instruments around campus, too. We stood up the first Linux lab around 1998, but most students preferred the Solaris workstations. People were just starting to put their own Linux systems on the dorm networks. It was still pretty rare for most students to even have computers in their dorm at the time. Even supported the last remaining VAX because no one else dared dig into the wall of manuals to figure out how it worked. Was a fun time.
  - technothrasher 2y ago
    Very similar to my experience! By the time I was a senior in '94, I was the student employee for the University Computing Center's Unix group and had to run around fixing all the workstations on campus and spent a lot of time administrating the various departments multi-user servers. Didn't touch the VMS machines though, there was a different group for that. I don't believe they had a student employee.
- ielillo 2y ago
  When I was an undergrad, the Linux and Mac computer labs were always empty since no one knew how to use them. It was great during end of semester, since all the Windows labs were crammed with desperate students trying to finish their papers, you knew that there was always computers available in those labs.
fullstop 2y ago
I downloaded so many Slackware disk sets just to find out that it didn't support my SCSI card. Good old root and boot disks.
Tempest1981 2y ago
I found these pictures of that era: http://oldvcr.blogspot.com/2021/04/refurb-weekend-hewlett-packard-9000350.html http://oldvcr.blogspot.com/2021/04/refurb-weekend-hewlett-pa... I think the 1024x768 CRT is a 2-person lift -- Sony Trinitron inside? (Vertically flat)
- jedberg 2y ago
  I had one of those monitors. At 19 I was dumb enough to lift it alone. The trick was putting the glass on your belly button and then curving your back waaaaaayyyyy back. Definitely an OSHA violation.
  - abotsis 2y ago
    This is the way.
TacticalCoder 2y ago
> ... before Linux and the Intel 80486DX-33 permitted me to first boot X11 on my own machine in 1992 A tiny bit later for me, with the Slackware distro, around 1994 I'd say. I remember manually editing the modelines to create "uncommon" screen sizes (in pixels), like 720x492 instead of 640x480, etc.
- bandrami 2y ago
  1994 would have been the year I woke up my entire dorm floor screaming in triumph that I had manage to compile a kernel correctly and it booted. I don't remember if that was Slackware or Yggdrasil, but I settled on Slackware soon after. I had a Toshiba Satellite with I think 2M of memory and an 80M hard drive (upgradeable to 200M but, come on, nobody could ever fill up that much storage).
SoftTalker 2y ago
I bought a NeXTStation after I graduated. It cost as much as a car. Dumbest purchase I ever made.
noufalibrahim 2y ago
My first experience with UNIX (Solaris) was in the late 1998 or so. Initially, it was with tty's but there were a few machines in the lab with displays that supported X. I never used Windows before seriously so in some sense, X was my first windowing system. xeyes was probably the best vanity toy I saw. I remember trying to understand how things like twm, fvwm, motif etc. worked. The first few programs using Xlib and Xaw. Great times. Happy birthday X11!

by jll29 2y ago

jeffbee 2y ago

I don't guess you went to Texas A&M. I remember about '96 we scanned the residence hall local network for XDMCP services and discovered the one weirdo with a HPUX box.

mshroyer 2y ago
Ha, this brings back memories. Around 2003 I used either XDMCP or plain X11 forwarding over SSH to access my dorm room computer while at home visiting my parents, and later got a letter from school IT warning me about abusive network traffic.

technothrasher 2y ago

> the only undergrad on my corridor who had a workstation in the dorm room In 1993, I worked my way up to becoming the lab manager for the residential computer lab in my dorm (basically a bunch of Macs for people to use, as we were the dorm farthest away from the library's undergrad computing center). I did that so I could put my SGI Indigo XS24 directly onto the 10Base2 Ethernet, rather than connecting it via the university's phone system in my room using PPP at 57kbps. I went back for a reunion about five years ago and the lab was still running (although in a different dorm now). I talked to the kid running it, who was nice enough, but he said nobody used the lab really, and he didn't know the first thing about networking. He was a gamer who "wanted to learn more about Linux". I tried to keep an open mind, times have changed, and he was eager, but boy was it depressing that the old culture is long dead.

mhh__ 2y ago
When I was a student I did find myself longing for a kind of cozy computer lab experience but it was basically impossible. I consider myself as part of the one of tbe last generation where people had to use a computer (e.g. I remember windows XP and even older somewhat vividly but never owned a non-smart phone) and even then I was sat next to people who could barely type so could never really do anything without being taken out of the zone. The culture does exist but the average is so mediocre/disinterested that they don't bother (there's no reason to) "going" to the computer anymore. I think that's slightly sad in, nerds are much more social than most people realise. Thinking about it I did get a little bit of that experience at school in that I learnt a lot of the basics of programming by playing with compiler explorer in the back of my computing and D&T lessons.
adestefan 2y ago
I was the student manager of all Unix systems on campus in the late 90s. Included labs of Sun and HP workstations. Managed some system connected to various lab instruments around campus, too. We stood up the first Linux lab around 1998, but most students preferred the Solaris workstations. People were just starting to put their own Linux systems on the dorm networks. It was still pretty rare for most students to even have computers in their dorm at the time. Even supported the last remaining VAX because no one else dared dig into the wall of manuals to figure out how it worked. Was a fun time.
- technothrasher 2y ago
  Very similar to my experience! By the time I was a senior in '94, I was the student employee for the University Computing Center's Unix group and had to run around fixing all the workstations on campus and spent a lot of time administrating the various departments multi-user servers. Didn't touch the VMS machines though, there was a different group for that. I don't believe they had a student employee.
ielillo 2y ago
When I was an undergrad, the Linux and Mac computer labs were always empty since no one knew how to use them. It was great during end of semester, since all the Windows labs were crammed with desperate students trying to finish their papers, you knew that there was always computers available in those labs.

fullstop 2y ago

I downloaded so many Slackware disk sets just to find out that it didn't support my SCSI card. Good old root and boot disks.

Tempest1981 2y ago

I found these pictures of that era: http://oldvcr.blogspot.com/2021/04/refurb-weekend-hewlett-packard-9000350.html http://oldvcr.blogspot.com/2021/04/refurb-weekend-hewlett-pa... I think the 1024x768 CRT is a 2-person lift -- Sony Trinitron inside? (Vertically flat)

jedberg 2y ago
I had one of those monitors. At 19 I was dumb enough to lift it alone. The trick was putting the glass on your belly button and then curving your back waaaaaayyyyy back. Definitely an OSHA violation.
- abotsis 2y ago
  This is the way.

TacticalCoder 2y ago

> ... before Linux and the Intel 80486DX-33 permitted me to first boot X11 on my own machine in 1992 A tiny bit later for me, with the Slackware distro, around 1994 I'd say. I remember manually editing the modelines to create "uncommon" screen sizes (in pixels), like 720x492 instead of 640x480, etc.

bandrami 2y ago
1994 would have been the year I woke up my entire dorm floor screaming in triumph that I had manage to compile a kernel correctly and it booted. I don't remember if that was Slackware or Yggdrasil, but I settled on Slackware soon after. I had a Toshiba Satellite with I think 2M of memory and an 80M hard drive (upgradeable to 200M but, come on, nobody could ever fill up that much storage).

SoftTalker 2y ago

I bought a NeXTStation after I graduated. It cost as much as a car. Dumbest purchase I ever made.

noufalibrahim 2y ago

My first experience with UNIX (Solaris) was in the late 1998 or so. Initially, it was with tty's but there were a few machines in the lab with displays that supported X. I never used Windows before seriously so in some sense, X was my first windowing system. xeyes was probably the best vanity toy I saw. I remember trying to understand how things like twm, fvwm, motif etc. worked. The first few programs using Xlib and Xaw. Great times. Happy birthday X11!