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Comment by harel | Hacker News Reader

I still have the InfoMagic Linux CDs from November 1995. Mostly slackware focused. Can't bring myself to throw it away....

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In the mid to late 90s when dialup was the only way to get to the internet for most people, I remember buying magazines specifically to get the bundled software CD. Sometimes it was games, demos, and web browsers but quite often full Linux distributions.

Yes, you could install Slackware from a stack of 30 floppies, but that was the kind of thing you realistically only did once, out of either desperation or novelty.

You’re right about only doing something like that once—since your parents would have murdered you for running up the phone bill.

The InfoMagic setup for Slackware went with a floppy for setting boot and lilo and the cd for the rest. Looking at the CDs now, the 1st was Slackware, and others were RedHat, Debian and what appears to be a dump of mit.edu, sunsite, and also GNU and X. I don't think I ever managed to install anything out of those. In 1995 I had the will but far from the knowledge to do any of that. The booklet also just went through the Slackware setup, and not any of the other distros.

I remember sending cash or a cheque to someone and receiving 3 to 4 redhat CD-ROMs. Fond memories.

Might want to consider ripping an image of these and uploading it to Internet Archive for preservation (if one doesn’t exist).

My first foray into Linux was around 96/97 with Debian that was included with Boot Magazine (later Maximum PC). It turned out to be a huge disaster and I trashed my Win95 system because I didn’t know what I was doing. It would be fun to find that CD again and try getting to work finally on period hardware.

I will do just that. Good idea.

Same with my stack of 2600 Magazines from the late 90s. I'm never going to read them, nobody I know is interested in them, but I'm never going to throw them away.

Ha, I feel the same way. I used to lug mine around from job to job to fill up my work bookshelf. Also I have some Phrack magazines mixed in as well. Did you buy yours at Boarders with cash as well? :D

Borders did sell them in the UK (until the eventually closed up shop).

They are in my Garage. Along with Amiga Format and other such magazines. They can use them to cremate my body but until then, they remain where they are.

I would pay cash money for a collection of old 2600 issues. I bet I'm not the only one.

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