by danielktdoranie | 2025-05-11 13:58:25+00:00
I was misfortunate enough to be born in 1979 and was also just old enough to be cognizant and tangentially involved during major computing/communications epochs. I was around for when personal computing proliferated down to family homes, and no longer just in the homes of computing enthusiasts building their own 8-bit computers. I was pre-teen/teen when the World Wide Web got huge, I was around for the jumps from 8-bit computing, to 16-bit, to 32-bit and, of course, 64-bit. As a kid we had an Apple ][, and a Mac XL (as well as a Commodore 64 and a Nintendo Entertainment System). Everything but the NES made it into my bedroom (my stepfather loved that NES!). I read all the manuals and books I could, I saw War Games, bought a modulator/demodulator with my own money, and discovered BBSes.

Man, what a preamble! What does this have to do with Linux? I first got into Linux when I was using OS/2 as my main OS. A good friend of mine (who got me into OS/2) also got me into Linux, specifically Slackware, in the early 1990s. He was 10 or so years older than me and worked at a computer store and taught me everything about computing that I had not learned myself.

Linux back then was HARD. The prerequisite being you had to be a massive computer nerd to even read the documentation! Linux was really not user friendly at all. The process of "installing" Linux wasn't done in an hour, an afternoon, or even a day. It was a continual process over weeks really. Editing this config file here, compiling this program there (we had no package management and fat binaries were rare). Once all that was done, you had all your hardware working, and the programs you wanted running and life was good. Until the install got borked by the result of a power outage in your apartment building. Fun times. It was a massive undertaking and you learned while you installed it. Your only support was, in many cases, confusing and poorly written documentation. You could go to the Newsgroup or mailing list and get some suggestions though. Many of the people offering "support" were very rude and unsocial neck beards who loved to gate keep and were very good at discouraging people from joining the Linux community. Luckily I had my ThinkPad running OS/2 Warp 3 (later 4) to email, use FTP, surf the web and read my Usenet newsgroups while I was learning how to use Slackware.

Linux wasn't about it being easy, it was about it NOT being a Microsoft Product. Microsoft's predatory, unethical and flat out illegal business practices (in some cases) was consuming the entire computing world and stifling innovation: Linux was the answer, it was simply NOT MICROSOFT.

Now here we are in 2025. Last night I installed Debian 12 on a recently acquired ThinkPad Yoga S1. It is a 2-in-1 Laptop/Tablet hybrid with touch and pen screen. Everything worked out-of-the-box. No issues. The tablet features, everything works. The entire process took about 15 minutes.

There are more Linux distributions out there than we have teeth in our heads. If you need support there are variety of options out there for you, but you probably won't need it if all you want to do is word processing or watching YouTube.

If you don't like one distro, try another until you find one you like, or change up from the default software in the chosen distro and pick different software to install. Linux is incredibly user friendly now. You're not dropped at bash prompt and told "good luck" anymore.

A good video here on how it used to be: https://youtu.be/8tHBZkYzM4k?si=RKEFQ6lLb9Xyqlgt

Now it is time for my nap. I hear we are getting tapioca pudding for desert!