Re: New WiFi adapter

On 2/23/25 12:22 AM, Charlie Gibbs wrote:

On 2025-02-23, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:
 

On Sat, 22 Feb 2025 21:08:32 -0500, c186282 wrote:
>

    Admittedly though, MOST people will make their first Linux install
    stick using Winders. Tragic. I got it started using RHEL and early
    SUSE that came on floppies bought from WalMart. Never needed Win
    after that. Had to deal with its BS at The Job for a long time alas -
    MUCH happier with my Linux servers and such but the staff was NOT
    gonna switch to Linux, most could barely work Win. Alas only ONE
    other Linux convertee in the place.

>
My first Linux was Slackware on floppies, about 40 for the full install
iirc, downloaded and created on a Windows box, strictly DIY. I do have a
SuSE box, 8.2?, with hard copy documentation and 4 DVDs. $79.99 at Best
Buy. I think that came after the Red Hat release with the notorious gcc
2.96 and screwed up Python.

 When I first decided to set up a Linux box I went to the local bookstore
and looked through their Linux books and picked the one I liked best.
It happened to be by Patrick Volkerding and it came with a CD containig
Slackware 3.5.  I booted and installed it from scratch on an Acer laptop
with 48MB of RAM and a 1.3GB hard drive - which in those days was enough
to run X.  In fact, I took a Windows program I had written and ran it
under Wine; it displayed its GUI screen, collected data from a serial
port hooked to my Amiga, and talked via my LAN to the main processing
program that was running on a native Windows box.  When I first got it
all going I sat there for 5 or 10 minutes just giggling hysterically.
 These days I run Linux (currently Debian Bookworm) natively.  XP under
VirtualBox gives me all the Windows stuff I need with none of the bloat
or spyware.  Most of the stuff I write is back-end software for Windows
(much of it TCP/IP based) so I don't need the latest fancy GUI stuff (I
do write a few screens, but they're fairly primitive, i.e. adequate for
our needs).  My programs also compile and run under Linux (gotta love
the C preprocessor) - it was a fairly easy port since I already had
them running on SCO boxes in several shops before getting into Linux.

   Tried Slack ... but it was a lot of work. Early RH was
   'just easier' and SUSE far more so. Still see Slack
   as a sort of 'teaching-oriented' system ... but the
   number of students willing to put up with that level
   of do-it-yourselfness seems to be shrinking. If it
   ain't got a dazzling GUI and LEGO-style assembly for
   yer phone these days then the kiddies ain't interested.
   Bought a version of Oracle DB for SUSE, but for some
   reason never used it for anything. Found it under a
   big pile of stuff in my office when I retired.
   Anyway, yea, at first a BIG pile of floppies !  :-)
   Even then however, it was clear that the Linux Way
   was better than the M$ way.
   I too did a lot of "back-end" stuff ... services and
   servers the Winders people would use, but never ever
   understand. So long as it all "just worked" they kept
   paying me, so ......
   Some 'embedded' stuff too - solder and chips and
   ASM for PICs and friends. Was always interesting
   to create 'new machines'. The place used to do a
   lot of research and needed devices you, then, could
   not buy off the shelf. Hell, I remember when there
   was barely any DOS software - if you wanted it you
   had to make it yourself.