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   Dave Lane :flag_tino: 🇳🇿 (lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Monday, 20-May-2024 12:48:18 JST Dave Lane :flag_tino: 🇳🇿

   Just had a #DogWalkFlashBack to '94, the week I first arrived in Aotearoa. I installed Linux for the first time, on my desktop computer (486 dx2 66MHz, 32MB RAM, monitor was 800x600 pixels, common at the time). I remember the giddy feeling of realising that I had actual real multi-tasking, and I could log into my system from outside the Lincoln Uni campus. Plus I could log into my old account at UW (Seattle) & from it back into my desktop. Heady days. People came from all over campus to see it.

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     Dave Lane :flag_tino: 🇳🇿 (lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Monday, 20-May-2024 12:48:09 JST Dave Lane :flag_tino: 🇳🇿

     in reply to

     Lotus Notes didn't have a Linux client... which meant I'd need to run Windows in order to function within the organisation. So I quit. And I started my own company. Never regretted it.

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     Dave Lane :flag_tino: 🇳🇿 (lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Monday, 20-May-2024 12:48:11 JST Dave Lane :flag_tino: 🇳🇿

     in reply to

     Heh - I should note that my employer, the Forest Research Institute (now Scion Research, a NZ-gov't-owned 'Crown Research Institute'), had told me to 'source yourself a PC' when I arrived at Lincoln (where I was part of an FRI research team of 3 - everyone assumed I was a postgrad). So I got a PC and installed Linux (they probably assumed I'd installed Windows, but I never asked for clarification 😎 😉 ). I managed to exist in that situation for 4+ years, until they decided to deploy Lotus Notes.

     Abhiseck Paira :gnu: :gnuhurd: repeated this.
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     Dave Lane :flag_tino: 🇳🇿 (lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Monday, 20-May-2024 12:48:13 JST Dave Lane :flag_tino: 🇳🇿

     in reply to

     30 years later, I still feel fortunate every day to have this embarrassment of riches that is #libre | #FOSS | #openSource (I vastly prefer #Copyleft) software, & that I've been been able make it a viable, even prosperous careers. Because I know that if I can do it, others can too! More details: https://davelane.nz/my-open-history

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     Dave Lane :flag_tino: 🇳🇿 (lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Monday, 20-May-2024 12:48:15 JST Dave Lane :flag_tino: 🇳🇿

     in reply to

     I can still remember how privileged I felt being one of probably just a handful of people in Aotearoa running Linux in those days - we were a small, tight-knit community. There were 2 other people on Lincolns campus where were doing it. I remember getting called into Royston Boot's office (the aptly named Lincoln IT manager) because I'd been saturating the Uni link trying to download the 25 floppy disk images required to install Slackware... Took me a week got get valid images copied to disks.

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     Dave Lane :flag_tino: 🇳🇿 (lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Monday, 20-May-2024 12:48:16 JST Dave Lane :flag_tino: 🇳🇿

     in reply to

     Those were the days when most people ran crappy old Windows 3.1 or, if they were very lucky and extravagant, a Mac 'doorstop' (as we used to call the little towers). A monitor that could do 1280x1024 pixel resolution cost over $1000. One that could do 1600x1200 cost $2500 & required you to reinforce your desk to be able to hold it up. The graphics cards (Matrox were a market leader back then) came with a few MB of RAM & you bought a separate CreativeLogic sound card to get more than squawks.