67.

Went Linux only in 2006 (OpenSuse 10.1 on a Pentium) when I started studying for my Dip Ed.

I should add that my first experience with a computer was in 1976, learning Fortran on a Burroughs time-share system at West Point. I learned Pascal on a PDP-11/40 in 1977/78. I've actually written a program or two in ALGOL-68 as well during that time.

I've personally owned a ZX-81, Apple II+, TRS-80 model 4P, Memotech MTX512, and a Toshiba T3100SX. The latter is what I first attempted to install Linux upon in 1995/1996. I had tried RedHat, which failed miserably. The Slackware version available at the time was the only thing that would work. I've stuck with Slackware ever since, despite that machine (and all of the above) being long gone.

I've been building my own systems since the late 1990s.

EDIT: Wow, forgot to mention my first interactions with Unix/Linux. I first saw Xenix on some systems the US Army used in the early 1980s for logistical support systems. I first used some flavors of Unix while at graduate school in the early 1990s. I was using DESQView on the T3100SX mentioned above at that time and someone had an overlay that simulated various unix commands on top of that environment. I soon started working for Bell-Northern Research (Big Nerd Ranch, AKA BNR) in late 1995 at their Richardson, Texas campus. (Well, BNR and Nortel are both gone now. I had nothing to do with that.) BNR used HP-UX at the time, which matched the way Slackware worked (in terms of X-Windows, C compilers, and a lot of other stuff) very well.

After a few years, BNR was absorbed into Northern Telecom and the IT department wanted to replace rather expensive HP workstations with MS Windows PCs (running Win95). I volunteered for a PC and immediately put Slackware on it. I ran Slackware in that environment for ~10 years, running almost anything (including ClearCase) until the layoff Cuisinart finally got me.

At work, I'm using OS-X which is mildly annoying. At home, my machines run Slackware (my wife's machines run Windows).

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I started using Slackware in 2005 when a co-worker gave me three surplus computers. Two of them were the original IBM Pentiums, and those were the two I got working with Slackware 10. Slackware was an accident; whatever I tried first didn't want to install and Slackware did. Several months later I took the leap--I installed Slackware on my personal laptop. Haven't looked back.

I used one to self-host my website, which was why I got interested in Linux in the first place--a fellow told me I could self-host with Linux. I gave the other one to my daughter.

My first experience with Linux was just before that--I booted my laptop to Knoppix, which at the time I think had a KDE interface, and said, "I want some more of this."

Since then, I've used a number of distros, mostly Slackware, Debian, Ubuntu (on an old Dell that came with it pre-installed), and Mageia, and tried many more in Virtual Box. I've always had at least one Slackware box.

My first experience with a computer was a class in the mid-80s about how to use Display Write 4, a word processing program that IBM shipped with its early DOS PCs, but I really didn't get to use it--that was back when the first persons to get computers in an office were the secretarial staff, because women did the typing. I know that that sounds sexist. It is and the workplace was, though the barriers were starting to break down some by then.

My second experience with a computer was with an old IBM 8086 with DOS 3.2 we had lying about my office at a previous job. I managed to get it working and eventually moved it to my desk. My first actual home computer was a Tandy 386 that I got on clearance at my local Radio Shack in about 1989--DOS and Windows 3.1.

I am a little horrified to see that I will be 60 next year, time is moving faster now.

My computer background is quite the opposite of the cool stories I have been reading here: I started with Windows 3.11 for Workgroups and MS-DOS 6.22 and had a blast with the BBS system which was very active in the early 90s. The rise of the Internet had the unfortunate side effect of ending the BBS system. 'All these things will be lost... like tears in the rain...' Quote anyone?

I eventually landed with one of the early Ubuntu releases. Hoary Hedgehog from memory and stayed with Ubuntu until things starting going a little awry in Ubuntu land and came to Slackware with version 12. I am finding it very comfortable here although I still maintain a presence in the Ubuntu world. Only really cool thing I did in these years was to be one of the co-developers of the big shell script / CD Ripper abcde for some time... So if you ever wonder who was crazy enough to add support for qaac in abcde: that was me .

Still having a great time and with retirement coming soon I plan on continuing enjoying Slackware...

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"Blade Runner"?

Edit in: Yes, it was from "Blade Runner".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner

and here,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tears_in_rain_monologue

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I loved BBSs and we were lucky enough to have some good ones where I lived. Then AOL opened up its internet gateway and they all went away.

(Misplet wrod correxed.)

1 members found this post helpful.

One of the great scenes of any movie.

Ah, the excitement and innocence of the age! I remember being active on an Amiga BBS in the 80s. In the early 90s vendors hosted drivers and software on BBSs. Bing, bong, hiss, hiss, hiss!

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Especially there was a crazy messaging system which I operated with the Blue Wave offline mail reader, and BBS software which I don't even remember the name of using z modem download protocol... And as you so aptly said: Bing, bong, hiss, hiss, hiss!

I started with a 14.4k modem and graduated to a 56k modem before it all went away. I remember my 'fast' modem was an unusual one with a white, curved front: a Banksia MyModem56V modem, cutting edge in its time. All under windows I am afraid, mind you in the early 90s Linux was only just starting out and even Slackware was a baby...

I'll be 36 this July. Our first family computer was probably some form of a 386 or 486. I was young enough I had no idea about computer internals. I remember my dad later said that he had a 10MB harddrive and was able to compress it to 30MB. It was running some form of DOS, and we used doshell for navigation. We had gorilla and nibbles, plus wheel of fortune and jeopardy, which were extremely difficult for my less than 10-year-old self. I became quite comfortable in the commandline.

Eventually we moved on and had Windows 3.11, then a new computer running Windows 95 and on. Once I headed off to college in 2001, that's when I got my first taste of Linux with Redhat 7.0. Our first class taught us UNIX using Linux and introduced the everything's a file concept, along with basic scripting. We weren't allowed to start up X, and the instructor promised he'd know if we did (thinking back now, it was probably due to logs and config files stored in your home directory, but this was all new to me.

I decided I liked it and I wanted to try it on my laptop that I inherited from a friend (an old Gateway Solo 2500 -- I later upgraded the screen from a 12.2" to a 13.3", the CPU from a Pentium 233MHz to a Celeron 400MHz, the HD from a 4.3GB to a 20GB, and the RAM from 32MB to 160MB). I got the fancy new Redhat 7.2 image and burned it to a CD and then spent the afternoon installing it. Once finished, I ran into my first and final (at the time) issue. My CD drive and network didn't work. I had no idea how to fix this (but I couldn't believe it since I was able to install it from the CD and then once booted, it just didn't work) and just said screw it and reinstalled Windows 2000. I took a few more Linux classes and excelled at them, but never considered putting it on a personal machine again.

Flash forward a few years and I had a newer laptop that I had been streamlining Windows XP (I had it down to 11 or 12 processes on boot) and my buddy was doing a lot of distro hopping and ran into a problem with some version (turns out it was this distro called Slackware that I had never heard of). I remembered a bit from my prior experience with college, so I started helping him. Eventually, I decided I wanted to try Linux again after seeing what he was doing with it. He had either Slackware 10.1 or 10.2 and I installed that on my new machine. The CD and ethernet NIC worked! ...but my wireless didn't. I spent about a week compiling kernels and out of tree drivers (the IPW2200 drivers, which have long since been incorporated into the kernel). But I was hooked. Slackware slowly started taking over all my boxes until I finally was sick of dual-booting my desktop (realizing that I would have it in Slackware for 2-3 months and then felt I needed to reboot into Windows for 10 minutes). I decided to finally kick out the last crutch back in probably 2011 and got rid of my dual boot and went with only Slackware.

It's been a great ride!

4 members found this post helpful.

As already answered and linked above by cwizardone - Ridley Scott's masterpiece, the original Blade Runner. The tip of the pinnacle of pre-cgi film making.

As I recall, Rutger Hauer tossed the scripted lines and made up the now famous lines and simply used his own without the director's foreknowledge - now classic, including the Vangelis musical score.

The original theatrical release, although still a great film overall, had a much different feel than the more recently released Final Cut. It included a dopey voice over narration by Deckard and a silly dialog between Deckard and Rachel as they escaped north in a surface car (after all those flying cars appeared in the movie). Also, when the Hauer replicant dies after saying those now famous lines at night, in rain, on the roof of an old apartment building and releases the dove he has been holding - the dove flys away into a clear daytime sky with an industrial background - dopey. There was evidently quite a lot of bad blood between Scott and the studio people who insisted on those over Scott's objections. There were several subsequent releases which improved it quite a bit, but the Final Cut released in 2007 was the first one where Scott had his own way - also the best! And he fixed the dove's fligt, among other things... Great stuff, a favorite, they don't make 'em like that any more!

We now return you to your normal programming...

4 members found this post helpful.

62 yo, slacking since 9.1

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There have been several different cuts, from the "Director's Cut" (1991) up to that "Final Cut". I've seen most of them.

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i am 56, and started using Slackware in the fall of 1993. that makes it v1.0 i guess. i bought at that time some crappy Gateway box with an even crappier 3.1.1 OS installed that was crashing every hour or so. at some point i switched to OS2 which was definitely more stable but they also kept asking for more money, even for items like an ethernet card driver.

luckily there was an australian colleague in the lab who mentioned some strange guy up in northern Europe who was creating a form of free UNIX i was just starting to become familiar with as we used plenty of AIXs, IRIXs and SUNs for our research. that's when i suddenly had to cumulate a ton of floppies - i remember the stack on my desk, up to 80 i needed of those for a Slack install, one more or less reliable than the other.

i use Slackware ever since, and with that Linux, for private purpose and in the academic context, and now also in a startup project where heavy number crunching & stability matters. i am endlessly grateful to PV for creating Slackware, and i wish i had more money to donate a significant amount to help him to keep his business & his family up and running...

In my early 40's.
Started quite young dealing with apple IIe in mid 80's. Next computer was an 286 olivetti in 1992 iirc, coming with proprietary OS above dos. Screwed it in a day and had a cousin that installed windows on it.
Next step was a 486 build from new and old parts with a celeron. Bought a Slackware 9.0 book with cdrom and since dual booted alongside Windows, upgrading hardware from time to time.
Second Slackware machine was an old Vaio with Slackware 11 (still running it though).
Lacking of new hardware, I ran macos that I was borrowing from my ex wife on newer machines.
As I bought a new laptop, tried to dual boot with debian for a month (missed to look at current changelog and thought Slackware was dead!) and wiped it out with windows 8 to have it running Slackware-current.

Can't be more happy now!

I'm 41. Started in Linux with Mandrake Linux 7.2 a long time ago.
Slacking since 9.0 and currently playing with Arch and OpenBSD as secondary distros as well.