Hacker News Reader

I was only six at the time, so I don't have first hand knowledge, but from what I gather there was no really free kernel/operating system at that time. Minix was under license restrictions, the BSDs was tied up in legal battles, and GNU was still on it's endless search for the perfect kernel.

Linux was sorely needed at the time!

View on HN

The other thing to remember was Windows was still 16 bit at the time. Linux started off as 32bit. Being free was great, but I would have also (and did) payed for a 32 bit operating system at the time. I actually used OS/2 in the mid-90s before moving to Linux.

I can't stress enough how basic it was. Getting the kernel up and running was only 1/2 the battle. Getting X to run was a significant undertaking, and probably more difficult.

There were a number of PC Unix clones at the time, though most were relatively expensive (especially if this was just your hobby).

Eric S. Raymond maintained a buyers guide FAQ, though for some reason, he stopped maintaining it around 1994 ;-)

http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/clone-unix-guide.txt

Reply on news.ycombinator.com