Linux

47237 readers

3343 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
No misinformation
No NSFW content
No hate speech, bigotry, etc

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

178

Slackware wasn't the first Linux distro, but it's the oldest still alive and kicking (www.theregister.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

38 comments fedilink hide all child comments

This week the Slackware Linux project is celebrating its 30th anniversary. It is the oldest Linux distribution that is still in active maintenance and development.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Had to reply because this is kind of the opposite of my story.

I grew up in the 90’s using Windows at home and pre-UNIX Macs at school. The Macs were trash and I was totally pro-Windows back then.

Then Mac OS X came out at school and damn, that UNIX goodness brought a ton to the table.

But being a kid, I couldn’t afford a Mac so around the Windows XP era I started getting into Linux. Unfortunately none of the distros worked great on my Dell (which my parents totally shocked me by buying one Christmas) so I was stuck installing on some ancient IBM ThinkPad built for Windows 3.1 but capable of running Windows 2000.

I spent my most of my mid- to late teens on Red Hat Linux and later Ubuntu (like the first release though).

Once I was 18 I saved up and bought my first MacBook Pro.

So these days I use macOS as an everyday desktop OS but run Alpine Linux on a Raspberry Pi (and any Docker image I create) as well as FreeBSD for any VPS I might need. I prefer the BSD’s to UNIX (especially FreeBSD) but unfortunately do rely on Docker for development work.