Linux before the Internet revolution.

[TeoBigusGeekus]

I was just wondering comrades.
How were things in the linux world before the internet times?
I mean, nowadays, we have full internet support (i.e. updates), fora to find answers in, Google (yeah!!!), etc. and still find it difficult sometimes to keep our systems stable and running.
What was it like to be a linux user say 10 or 15 years ago?
(Linux historians needed)

[Grant A.]

Linux was started in 1992.

The Internet spans before that.

[TeoBigusGeekus]

Linux was started in 1992.

The Internet spans before that.

Yeah, but its use wasn't widespread.

[Sand & Mercury]

I've always wondered about that. I'd say it was very different but with the same basic principles and methods as we have today, people hanging around and communicating through email and BBSes and that kind of thing. I speculate that could be why you still see Linux/OSS developers still keeping tabs on projects and each other through the age-old mailing list system, when so many other methods of communication over the internet have popped up since.

[CharmyBee]

There was an internet before the 'world wide web'. BBSes were dialed, emails were sent, etc. It was the peak of maturity, too, and anonymous opportunities were rare (unlike today). Linux started existing well after the "BBS revolution".

[TeoBigusGeekus]

It must have been hard...
Trying to use Linux today is not a big deal, but imagine having to set up your system say in 1995. No broadband internet, sometimes no internet at all, very few magazines even mentioning Linux - if any, primitive linux kernels, etc.

[Mike'sHardLinux]

I agree with Grant. The Internet has been around a long time. Before I got on the Internet, between 1989 and 1992, I was on Compuserve and later, AOL. I also spent a lot of time on BBSes during those years, and even ran one myself for a while.

I discovered Linux at the same time I was first getting on the Internet. It seems like it was around 1993, maybe 1994. I think it was Slackware. At that time, the file system layout did not make mush sense to me, so I didn't do much with it. The version I had was run from 2 floppies, IIRC. I don't remember too much else about Linux at that time.

[Marlonsm]

I don't think you got his question...

I think he was asking about how was Linux before forums like this one and without everybody having access to online guides.

[TeoBigusGeekus]

I don't think you got his question...

I think he was asking about how was Linux before forums like this one and without everybody having access to online guides.

Yes!

[Sand & Mercury]

I don't think you got his question...

I think he was asking about how was Linux before forums like this one and without everybody having access to online guides.

Yeah, the internet was around in the early 90s and even the late 80s but it wasn't until later on that it was really embraced by the mainstream. I believe that's what our OP was on about.