Nostalgia
In The Beginning ...
I was first introduced to the wonderful world of programming when I was 9 years old (46 years ago as of this writing). My middle school had just gotten some Franklin Ace 2000s (Think Apple IIe clone) and my father bought us a Commodore 64 for the house. While my siblings were most interested in playing games on the Commodore I wanted to program. Armed with books like Jim Butterfield's 'Machine Language for the Commodore 64' I began writing my own BASIC wedges and creating portable software from the Commodore 64 to the Apple IIe (which had similar CPUs in the 6502 family based on the Z80). I loved programming. It gave me a space that I felt like I had some control and my life was not just a tail spin of undesirable events.
Seeing my interests as having potential my father got with a friend that was still in the Navy and procured a decommissioned portable that was available from surplus. It had a Z80 processor and used DR/ CPM (Digital Research's Control Program for Microcomputers OS (Operating System)). It gave me my own system that I did not have to fight my siblings to gain access to 😀. I ported over all my more useful utilities and learned the CPM kernel routines. I was in my version of heaven. A place where I belonged.
By the time I was an adult the Intel 8086 became popular in Personal Computers thanks to IBM. Most of us were a bit taken aback as the 8086 was typically used for embedded controllers and not dedicated to a stand alone system. Though, despite its many caveats it worked out 😉. I quickly and eagerly adapted to having so much more disk space and memory to play with. Things were only getting better. In the first version of MS/ DOS, which was based on CPM and Unix internally, development tools such as MASM and a Linker were standard, as they were on most systems of that era. Though MS quickly removed them leaving only BASIC for the hobbyists to play with in subsequent versions.
Somewhere around 1992 I was going through some Use Net topics when I stumbled up some articles on a Unix derivative for the Intel 386 and compatibles. I had just heard about Linux (the Kernel) and the GNU project as well. I did some more research and downloaded the source I needed. I built my own home rolled version of Gnu/Linux minus X windows as that was just to much to download on my 2400 baud connection.
That was a new Golden Era in my development life. The tool chains on 'nix (Unix like Systems) are so much better than on any other system I had used as of yet. I spent hours and days just customizing and learning to develop on this wonderful new Utopia I had found. I left MS/ DOS & MS/ Windows (3.x) behind without a second thought. I have kept current with MS/ Windows as much of my family and friends used that toy OS. I did not blame them, they were not serious about their work on computers as I was and am still today.
I often read about new users experiencing 'nix for the first time 😀. I see all their blunders, bumbling and confusion trying to make 'nix something it is not (MS/ Windows). They want something different, but do not want to change 😉. It is amusing to observe. GNU/Linux has come a long way from the days you rolled your own. There are many distros (distributions) that have been evolving around specific types of users and their use cases. I have tried many of them. I am pretty much at home with Fedora Workstation though I keep trying new distros as they appear just for fun. I still use my own home rolled (from scratch) builds in embedded systems. For my Daily Driver (a 'nix term for the system you use for daily use) I use Fedora Workstation with podman for containerized projects. It has been awhile, and a very exciting and wonderful journey.
If you are just joining the GNU/Linux community I welcome you and hope you enjoy your adventures as much as I do. If you are an old hat such as myself, then it would be nice to meet you. Drop a comment, either of you 😉.
Unus Nemo