What did you use before?

creaker · l33t Joined: 14 Jul 2012 Posts: 651

It was so long ago....

Home-made ZX-Spectrum with 16 kB RAM. Built-in-ROM Basic... TV-set as monitor and tape recorder instead of hard drive.

Dominique_71 · Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2012 9:49 pm Post subject:

Did you know that: aeros.

aCOSwt · Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2012 11:00 pm Post subject:

Pascal UCSD

> CBM 64

> HP-9831

> Home-made vrtx-like kernel on an MC68000 / VME based system :lol:

> VMS

> ATT Sys III

> ATT Sys V

> BSD

> LISA

> xenix

> WIN NT

> FreeBSD

>

Gentoo

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Hypnos · Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 12:13 am Post subject:

Cynede · Retired Dev Joined: 30 Nov 2012 Posts: 56

What was you using before gentoo

-- red hat, fedora

and how long have you used gentoo?

-- not that long but some longer then year I think.

MacGyver031 · Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 6:21 am Post subject:

Started with WfW 3.11, swiched to Windows NT 3.5. Then my brother showed me RedHat which lasted some weeks and my friend showed Debian. This was all around 1995 - 2001. In 2001 I have discovered Gentoo and am using it up to now.

The reason for switching from Microsoft to open source was the stability.
Switching from RedHat to Debian is the fact that a server does not need any GUI.
Switching from Debian to Gentoo is the fact that Gentoo is to have one distribution for server, workstation and embedded devices.

I have to admit that it is not always easy with Gentoo, but the fact that I have less problem than with other OS makes it the smart choice.

BR
_________________
Sincerely your
Joanand K.

MacBook Pro 5.1: 2.4GHz Core2 Duo, 4096MB, 500GB, NVidia 9400/9600 M GT
Gentoo, Kernel 3.4.9, XOrg, Fluxbox.

aCOSwt · Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 7:47 am Post subject:

Hypnos · Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 8:06 am Post subject:

VMS's killer feature does need a manual to set up

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Crooksey · Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 12:47 pm Post subject:

No one here other than me ran BeOS?

Before Gentoo I was on Redhat 9/FC1

Then Gentoo.

I have also used arch on my desktop, but not as long as Gentoo, I also no longer use Arch, ever since about 2 years ago IMO its just gone downhill.

I run BSD on half my servers, the other half run Gentoo.

Hypnos · Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 1:03 pm Post subject:

Here's my sequence:

1985 -- Commodore 64
1986 -- Apple II + MacOS
1987 -- Amiga 500 + AmigaOS
1990 -- DOS/Windows 3.1
1992 -- OS/2
1995 -- Alpha + OpenVMS

Various Unix and Linux since then ... Gentoo since 2002.
_________________
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aCOSwt · Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 1:21 pm Post subject:

krinn · Watchman Joined: 02 May 2003 Posts: 7470

I've switch from redhat 7.2 or 7.3, can't remember the exact version.

LOL for the time, look at my first bug report about to install gentoo

https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=18651
I suppose that's what i've learned from redhat, reporting bug. Not to mention complaining is national sport here.

cach0rr0 · Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 4:55 am Post subject:

i think it was probably a free Caldera cd that came with a magazine way back when. mid 90's? late 90's?
it sucked.
then i think it was RH 6.2?
i didnt know any better, so i just saw both it as "ugly Windows"

then i started tinkering with servers.

bounced around from RH8, Mandrake, RH9, FC1, FC1 was my "main" system. Gentoo came along for tinkering in 2002 or 2003, i dont remember which.

sad that this was long enough ago i dont remember.

when i figured out how lean the sucker was, and how swiftly it'd work on my sluggish old PC, it became my main desktop OS

been that way ever since. Only deviation has been other distros or Windows on company owned machines. When I've had a choice, it's been Gentoo for roughly 10 years now.
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Zazzman · n00b Joined: 09 May 2012 Posts: 32

I actually started on Linux with Watt OS RC1 - an LXDE variant of Linux Mint, which still uses Mint's and Ubuntu's own repositories. I had left Windows Vista unbootable after deleting a "maintenance" partition from the Dell Laptop I had for school, and the motherboard was in the process of breaking down entirely... WattOS was the only fully-featured LiveCD which didn't have the system auto-shutdown to prevent melting the videocard. Losing Vista wasn't much of a loss, it was the kick in the pants I needed to actually move my system over. Vistows would have melted my videocard faster, leaving me with no computer at the worst possible time for school.

When I got some free time, I got the thing worked on (extended warranty ftw!) and switched to a direct Ubuntu variant with better community support (and still LXDE) for Versions 10.04 and 10.10. Upgrading between their releases is worthless, you're better off to simply restart with a fresh install. And considering how that happens every six months, that's a pretty turbulent way to stay almost up to date. 11.04 came out, and too much of Ubuntu's "flashy" (resource hog) crap had trickled down into the once lightweight variant. There were too many bugs on a fresh install, mostly from upstream at Ubuntu. I voted with my feet.

From there, I hopped around everywhere I thought could be worthwhile. I tried Debian, Mint, Gentoo, Mandriva (which never made it out of a VM for me), OpenSuse, got interested with Sabayon for a couple weeks, and eventually settled on Arch for a year or two. I bumped my head on stupid mistakes, but recovered. Their AUR got me used to compiling things, but their compiler flags were downright stupid at times. They way they compiled Wine was unsatisfactory, so the Arch Build System got me into compiling further, while I cobbled together a desktop from used high end parts in a dirt-cheap case. I stayed there for a while.

And then, I had to compile my own kernel when the support for my new wireless card - on the Ath9k driver - was shoddy on the precompiled kernel. This posed a problem, as I needed that same wireless card to obtain the kernel source. Only one kernel could be on the system at a time, and I had already cleared the package cache, preventing me from downgrading.

More hopping... I got old reliable Lubuntu on my laptop, just to have something that works while I rebuilt my desktop's OS. I gutted out the resource hogs before the first update, but buck against handrails and training wheels too much to *live* on that system.

I looked around, varying between stuff I liked before and trying to get comfortable with what I hear would be good on a resume. Red Hat's repositories left a lot to be desired for me, even though I know others rave about them. Suse was downright bloated and sluggish after coming from Arch. Sabayon and Mint don't come in LXDE anymore, so screw 'em. Slackware doesn't have LXDE in the repositories, so I didn't bother (even if it was tempting until I found that). I ran Debian Testing for about two weeks, before updating left my system unbootable. The first time, I added Mint's Debian repositories, the second time, I kept stock repos. I filed the report, but who knows when it'll be fixed. Binary repositories make that so much harder to take on the bug-hunting myself.

Screw it, I liked what Arch had - the good repositories and "open hood" system, but found myself recompiling to get the most from it all. Most of all, Arch left me comfortable with manuals - online, -h, and manpages - and asking questions on the forums. I wanted more control over my kernel than Arch gave me in the end, since that was a serious issue. Is there anything about my needs and tastes that isn't demanding Gentoo?

It doesn't hurt when the current most powerful consensus that the Gentoo devs project is that udev's "idiosyncracies" - current and planned - need to be circumvented.

Even though there is the occasional dependency loop or missing dependency (like in EVERY distro's repositories) I've found that Gentoo's portage tree is reasonably manitained, well-rounded, pretty deep... and easy to deal with when a problem arises. It's not nearly as opaque as binary repositories.

There are a few things I might add for my personal convenience (GnuNet, Humble Indie Bundle ebuilds, maybe red5 and flowplayer), and a few things I want updated faster than I've seen (googleearth, as the package won't install since google updated it at least a couple weeks ago).

But you know, what? This is Linux, and I'm not an Ubun00b anymore. Where's the manual on helping to maintain / extend the portage tree?

Oh yeah, the oracle at Google pointed me here for working with ebuilds: http://devmanual.gentoo.org/quickstart/index.html and that referenced deeper material in the first paragraph. I love having good manuals!

Dominique_71 · Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 4:58 pm Post subject:

Dominique_71 · Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 5:11 pm Post subject:

Hypnos · Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 11:44 pm Post subject:

keet · Guru Joined: 09 Sep 2008 Posts: 571

Around 1996, I had a Red Hat C.D. that was autographed by Linus Torvalds. It had disk images for booting and installing it on a computer. You needed to figure out which image was the right one for your computer (there were quite a few), run an odd utility to write it to a floppy disk, and hope that it booted correctly. I think that I never did manage to install that one successfully, though I certainly tried. I did, however, use that distribution on a computer that belong to someone I was interning for. It was a more powerful computer than I had imagined at the time, a Pentium 150 with 32MB of R.A.M.

The first successful Linux installation that I installed myself was Mandrake Linux some time in the early 2000s. I also used Red Hat around that time. Then, in 2006 or so, I installed Ubuntu, and I started using Gentoo in 2008. It's been my main operating system since then, though I still try other distributions occasionally, just to learn what other people are using.

^marcs · Apprentice Joined: 09 Mar 2005 Posts: 169

Well, a short story. When i was like 13-14 I saw cool screenshots of linux in CHIP magazine (it was windowmaker or afterstep), CD with some ancient mandrake was included - so I grabbed it and and get on with installation. It was a nightmare, booting from floppy among other thing, at least it had ncurses installer. After 5-6 attempts (made over the week or so) i finally got it right - it was booting, I was eagerly anticipating this beautiful desktop to pop out, and sudenly i saw

krinn · Watchman Joined: 02 May 2003 Posts: 7470

GFCCAE6xF · Apprentice Joined: 06 Aug 2012 Posts: 295

~1998 --> Windows 95
~1999 --> Windows 98
2002 --> Windows XP
2004 --> Debian
2008 --> Linux Mint
2009 --> Gentoo
2009 --> Arch
2012 --> Gentoo

Not really sure about the Windows 95/98 dates since I used them on the only computer in the Primary School I was in - far too long ago for me to remember. I remember 2002 since it was the first time we had a home computer that my father bought, I remember how slow the dial up was whilst trying to look at (what I at the time thought was sexy) female wrestlers which I had seen on VHS tapes. I envy some of you that have been computing 30-odd years having used soo many machines but at the same the technology progression makes me feel far too old already

Navar · Guru Joined: 20 Aug 2012 Posts: 355 Location: usa

Vic20, C64, various 'mini-computers' e.g. Wang and others, C128, Apple IIe, Amigas, Macs, CP/M, MSDOS, S/370 (assembly was such a 'joy' here), Solaris, HP-UX, S/36, AS400, Win3.1, OS/2, NeXT, early Slackware Linux, Psion (palmtop), Win 95, Win NT3.5, Win98, NT4, FreeBSD, RedHat Linux (which promptly killed off my interest in mainstream Linux for a long time fighting with less basic configuration under 'their' setup), Win 2000, Win XP, Ubuntu, Gentoo, Android, Win 7. Roughly in order with some overlap. I still use the remaining 5.

Throughout the years, industry off and on took 3 steps forward, followed by 2 steps back. We have unparalleled graphic, processing and memory capabilities while our desktop environment remains a hack.
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Jean-Paul · Guru Joined: 13 Apr 2009 Posts: 307

Before Gentoo I was using CRUX for nearly five years and LFS for about two years.

LoTeK · Apprentice Joined: 26 Jul 2012 Posts: 270

1. windows 95
2. windows 98
3. windows XP

4. first enlightenment: Linux Mint 3 (2007)
5. Fedora 13
6. OpenSUSE
7. short time: Debian, Arch, Sabayon, Netrunner, Mint debian
8. Mint 13

9. real enlightenment: GENTOO LINUX of course

@Jean-Paul, why did you first use LFS and then Gentoo? Shouldn't it be converse? Why did you come to gentoo, portage I guess? I want to build my own distribution in a far future with LFS... (maybe just rewrite or use portage, so it's gentoo again

)

@rorgoroth, why did you go to Arch? compile time? then you've come back, because the gentoo penguin doesn't let people walk away

btw, do someone know/use lunar linux? I had to decide between gentoo and lunar... gentoo won, but I kind of like lunar, but it has far less documentation then gentoo and a far less active community...

MustrumR · n00b Joined: 15 Nov 2011 Posts: 71 Location: Right here

1. Windows XP
2. Dual boot Ubuntu and Windows XP (2009)
3. Dual boot Ubuntu and Windows 7
4. Dual boot Gentoo and Windows 7 (booting in Windows 7 once every ~2 months)
5. Pure Gentoo (3 weeks ago)