Slackware was the first Linux distro I ever installed on my own machine (I think that was the case for most of us at that time).

I can remember very well trying to scrounge up enough floppies to write out the "A" and "N" sets -- the minimum needed to have a functional system with working "networking" (in my case, dial-up).

After struggling for days to get a working "chat script", I finally managed to get online.

I don't miss it but, in a way, it was sort of a "rite of passage" and you were forced to learn how your system really worked.