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Comment by F00Fbug | Hacker News Reader

That was my first exposure to Linux in 1995. I remember downloading 30-something floppy disks over a painfully slow T1. I deployed our company's sendmail email server a few months later, running on an old PC. In 2006 I switched to Linux as my daily driver and if I need windows these days, it runs as a VM.

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Check out Mr. Fancy T1 line over here. I remember downloading Slackware floppy images over 28.8 dialup. Talk about pain. I recently stumbled on a dusty box of them whilst cleaning out the attic.

I'm thankful I never experienced that. My family switched from AOL dial up to an AT&T ADSL connection (either started out as 128, 256 or 512kbps down circa 2006 IIRC). It still didn't make downloading FreeBSD and Fedora Core 6 ISOs easy but it definitely was doable in a reasonable amount of time!

(Caution: Monty Python Reference) 28.8? I used to dream about 28.8, I had 14.4, and before that 2400baud.

Do you remember the dreaded 'floppy disk is probably unreadable' sound during installation of any software on floppy?

2400 baud. I wish. I had to manually dial my rotary phone and then place the handset into my 300 baud CAT acoustic coupler modem.

To be fair by the time I 1st used Slackware that 300 baud modem had long been replaced and I at the time I had bonded ISDN channels for 128kbs connection paid for by my employer. Soon replaced by a T1 to my home also paid for by my employer.

Noice!

Did you employer give you a spec-'d out computer/workstation too? I don't even know how you hook up ISDN equipment, but I know an SGI Indy had it built in.. ~1993.

We were a DEC partner , so I had a DEC 3000 AXP which was eventually replaced by a 500 series AlphaStation.

I just heard it again as I read your comment, and it sent shivers down my spine.

I set a kitchen timer to 12 minutes for each floppy disk's worth of download at 14.4k. It took many evenings of interrupting my TV watching every 12 minutes to kick off a new zmodem download. If it was indeed 30 disks (which seems reasonable; some of the disksets were only 3 or 4, others were 8 or more, depending on which packages you wanted), that would have been 6 hours in one shot with no overhead.

I have fond memories of installing Slackware and messing around with it in high school, around ‘98. I had access to a cable modem and cd burner. If I recall correctly at that time booting directly from cdrom was still not always available so the default method to install Slackware (and also to boot it after installation) was using a floppy plus cdrom.

I soon figured out that it was easy to skip the cdrom altogether and make a minimal install using just the boot disk and ftp. So easy yet you had to be deliberate and understand what you were doing. Such a great learning exercise.

A T1 was about ten times faster than a 3-1/2" floppy drive wasn't it?

I never thought of a T1 as "slow" until I started downloading CD images for Linux distros. The first cable modem connections I had were so much faster for downloads.

T1 is about 1.54mbit/sec IIRC

You could download a floppy in like..10-15 seconds on a T1

It would take a minute to copy the files to a floppy.

I remember being a kid and hearing about T1 lines and being amazed at their speed and how the server for the game I played was running off one. I pictured it as some special commerical offering that was rare to have.

Funny learning how slow those are by today standards.

It was T3 that was the bomb back then, wasn’t it?

Yeah, sounded cool too. Back then 512kbit ADSL was exciting.

T1, T2, T3, OC-3, OC-12, and OC-48 are terminologies you don't hear anymore.

Where I’m living ADSL is still exciting (and one of only 2 options for wired Internet service). Currently on 2 (semi-stable) 60mbps down / 15mbps up pairs bonded together sold as a 100mbps down / 20 mbps up service. I keep it because the cable provider charges a ton for anything over 10mbps up when not on a promotional rate.

In 1995, many early ISPs were still on fractional T1s or even 56K leased lines! I remember upgrading one from 56K to T1 in mid 1995. T3s were rare: large regional ISPs and backbone providers.

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