Linux

I remember those old UI elements. I tried it a couple years later (edgy eft) but I just toyed with it in VirtualBox. And my computer at the time wasn't able to give a virtual machine a whole lot of oomph, so the experience was lackluster.

But it was a marvel to me to see what a UI really could be other than specifically Windows. I knew conceptually what an OS. I knew that DOS was one (even if it looked totally different), and that Windows was basically just a graphical version of a terminal at the end of the day. I knew Windows was just one example of an OS, but it was still the only reference point I had to what one looked like and how it worked. I never even saw a Mac computer in person til my first year in college when I started seeing MacBooks on campus.

So I knew of Linux, but if you remember 2004, it was such a primitive time for computer power and operating system design, and setup was much clunkier than the easy installers we have now.

Ubuntu was the first one I heard of that had an installer similar to Windows that didn't need a tech manual or crash course in using the CLI to get running.

I am not a canonical fan or anything, but I didn't know anything about so that back then, and was just giving it a whirl.

I didn't give it a whole lot of time tho, as most of my computer use was for gaming and I didn't have games for Linux, and proton wasn't a thing yet. I had just heard of Steam. It wasn't even a year old yet at the time. Not that any of that mattered since I was running in in a virtual machine anyway, so even if I had gotten the games to work, they would've been super underpowered. My AthlonXP system with my Radeon9800pro and 512MB RAM wasn't gonna have the overhead to run the game that way in a virtual machine less than half the power of that machine. Halo just wouldn't have been fun.

Which now that I think about it, that was the first simultaneous online game I ever played. I had messed with pool on Yahoo before, but that's just turn based. Brand New horizon for me. We only had dial up until the time I got that computer.

I recently found one of the liveCD I received with Ubuntu 8.04 on it. Canonical was sending them for free for people interested in Linux.

I was in high school and tried it on my first computer, it was my first connect with Linux and honestly I think that without Ubuntu I would not have discovered Linux until much later in life.

Nice one. I was aware of Edgy EFT, but I started my Linux journey with Feisty Fawn.

I would love to know your config so I can do the same.

Brown buntu was best buntu

My first go at Ubuntu. Good memories.

I miss lovely, earthy, warm, friendly chocolatey Brownbuntu.

I always felt purplebuntu was a bit vile.

Ubuntu: an ancient African word, meaning "I can't install Debian".

Even that looks and probably IS better than Windows is, was, or ever will be.

Life before snap.

Nice screenshots and all.

But... are you trying to trigger us with these constant Windows + VirtualBox hints? XD

I miss that Ubuntu. You know, the one when they took the "Linux for human beings" motto seriously.

I know we all like to shit on what Canonical has become, but you have to respect just how much work they've put into the Linux ecosystem to make it more user friendly and mainstream over the years.