Erik_
We had a PII 233Mhz Win95 computer at the time
Tue Aug 15, 2023 1:19am

We upgraded from the 486 in late 97 to it. By 8th grade, the 486 was handed
down to me and my main computer in my room. Never tried installing Linux on
it. It's always had DOS 5.0 and Win 3.x.

The PII computer though was my first Linux box once that got replaced by
the Celeron Dell with XP as the family computer. Originally it ran
Slackware. That was 'fun' haha until I eventually switched to Debian.
There's an old update from 2006 where I'm still using that PII computer
with Debian and I think PWM(?) window manager.
http://nukementerprises.puckdroppersplace.us/archive/8_22_06/NE/screenshots/index.html

I completely forgot about typing 'startx' to open X Windows. It's probably
been since that PII or the NE 'server' that I've used that command and
didn't go right into a window manager on boot. I remember I used PWM on my
PII because it was so light weight that it actually ran very well given
that it only had 32MB of RAM.

Text Game! That was an interesting pile of you know what. Haha. It's not
actually as bad as I remember it. I think I last played it when I wrote
that Qbasic interpreter in COBOL. Any random person playing it would have
no idea what's going on but then again, I don't think that was too unheard
of for Qbasic games at the time. There was 'QB the RPG' that inspired my
Scrolling demo thingy many years later (
http://vplanet.petesqbsite.com/review36.shtml) which story was also based
around some QB message board at the time.

  • 8th grade? Wow. I still remember the computer set up - Puckdropper, Mon Aug 14 2023 6:10am
    I had. I had a 386 or early Pentium (I never did seem to have many 486's), installed Linux, then typed "startx" to start xwindows. I waited and waited and then went to dinner. I think by the time I got done, it had only a gray background and the X mouse cursor. It was kinda a weird trip to be back... more
    • We had a PII 233Mhz Win95 computer at the time- Erik_, Tue Aug 15 2023 1:19am
      • It always amazed me at how - Puckdropper, Fri Aug 25 2023 5:51am
        bad XWindows was. Here was Windows 3.1 running quite happily on a 386 and Xwindows couldn't even start. The Linux idiots were all yapping about how resource friendly Linux was, too. At least Raspbian Desktop does run ok, but Windows 3.1 would run better at the screen resolutions some devices use!... more
        • I think it varied greatly on the Window Manager - Erik_, Wed Aug 30 2023 10:29am
          KDE and Gnome (to a lesser extent) were always very heavy. That's why back in the day I used PWM which was super bare bones and ran very nice on my 233MHz PII. But you're right, why do I have to be running the most basic Window Manager to get usable performance out of a PII when Windows 95 ran completely... more
          • I think I had to install xwindows from scratch - Puckdropper, Wed Aug 30 2023 4:58pm
            I seem to remember playing with a few different distros back then, one called pygmy Linux, one was Slackware, then I gave up and stayed with Windows for a while. Debian or a Debian derivative seem to be my current favorite, but I honestly have no idea what derivative those Orange Pis are running. All... more
"Forces act when not restrained" - Puckdropper