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Historic Linux File Archive Created

Posted by simoniker on from the welcome-to-the-world-of-yesterday dept.

jemagid writes "Ibiblio (nee metalab, nee sunsite) has rummaged through all the old CDs and old FTP archives we could find, to put together a beautiful picture of the early days of the Linux community: Historic Linux. The files include snapshots of the early Linux archives including sunsite.unc.edu and tsx-11.mit.edu, and early distributions such as MCC (Manchester Computing Center) and SLS (Softlanding Linux Systems), which were some of the first attempts to make Linux easy to install and use. The early RedHat releases are also included, as is early Suse, Debian, Slackware, and Blade. The early distributions ran on machines as small as 386's with 2-4 MB of RAM, so these could be fun ways to resurrect ancient hardware."

5 of 313 comments (clear)

  1. Uhh... by grub · · Score: 5, Insightful


    The early distributions ran on machines as small as 386's with 2-4 MB of RAM, so these could be fun ways to resurrect ancient hardware.

    I certainly hope no one intends on putting these old versions on the net lest they become a w4r3z server or DDoS drone..

    --
    Trolling is a art,
    1. Re:Uhh... by johnnyb · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "and almost fell thru the hole in my ass when it said installation would require over 1gb!"

      Then use a smaller dist. Considering that there are many the size of a floppy, I think you weren't looking hard enough.

      The point about Linux is that you can make it the exact size you need. If you have big needs, get a big dist and a big computer. If you have small needs, get a small dist and a small computer.

      --
      Engineering and the Ultimate
  2. Re:Obligatory SCO comment by garcia · · Score: 4, Insightful

    unfortunately, this troll is worthless. SCO claims ownership of Linux code that includes SMP (in fact, they only can claim that code following 2.4.somethingorother is actually not GPL'd).

    If you are going to troll, at least be smart about it.

  3. The REAL value of this... by DickBreath · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The real value of this is to have an archive of the entire development history and community. Out there in the open for all to see. Right there in front of God and everyone. It will help protect Linux from future SCO's.

    --

    I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
  4. Re:This is great to see. by pmz · · Score: 3, Insightful


    It's interesting how the tools I take for granted are even older than I thought. This is perhaps the most significant reason UNIX works well, where the system was debugged in small modular pieces, because they had no choice. Sure, vi, for example, has some quirks, but it very rarely fails.

    --
    Healthcare article at Kuro5hin