[InclinedPlane]

Bahahaha. That wasn't even the worst of it. Imagine this scenario, you have to install linux on a pc. There's no stackoverflow, there's no google. The linux distro you're using doesn't even have a package manager. And currently it doesn't have a working ethernet driver either. Also, it's the only computer that exists in your entire house.

[dingaling]

The installation CD for SuSE back in the 1990s had a big how-to PDF, plus another documenting all the kernel compilation option flags ( we didn't have enough RAM then to run fat-and-happy kernels with everything included ).

I printed-out both of those over a long period on the work printers, using the reverse side of single-sided pages recovered from the paper recycling bins. And then settled in for a weekend...

I still remember choosing to include AX.25 in the kernel because it seemed like a cool thing with which I'd want to experiment at some point. Never got around to it!

[aeorgnoieang]

Connecting to whatever internet connection I had at the time was always the hardest thing (if all of the other basic hardware was supported).

Maybe I was better off in that I was getting my distro (Slackware) along with the giant 'Linux for dummies' book in which it was included. It still never got me far enough to be able to remove my Windows partition.

[rpeden]

I remember installing an early version of Red Hat on a machine that only had a Winmodem, not a real hardware modem that would just work in Linux.

Getting a Winmodem to work in Linux was possibly, but not exactly easy. I couldn't afford a better modem at the time, so I just kept hacking away at it and booting back into Windows and searching the web to try to figure it out. This was 1996 or so; there was far less information on the web than there is today, and search engines weren't exactly great at finding what you needed.

I think I finally got online from Linux after a week or two. :)

[fooker]

I have not-so-fond memories of trying to troubleshoot PPPoE issues.

[adrianratnapala]

I bought a book and had some floppies with SlackWare on it. The book didn't have install instructions, but it explained the basics of Unix and Linux. And SlackWare was pretty easy to install and worked well.

Also I was a teenage nerd with lots of time for home computing.

[h1d]

Copied ethernet driver through floppy disks from another machine.

[InclinedPlane]

For values of "another machine" possibly equal to "a system in the campus computer lab at school".