I tired Linux a few times in the past, but didn’t really start using seriously until 2019. I love poking around old OSs and distros, and I want to spin a few up in some VMs my next free evening.

Any suggestions? Open to any distro (or let’s be honest, DE). Any versions that holds a special place in your heart or that’s exceptionally novel? Really interested to see what’s out there!

  • bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world
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    26 days ago

    I’ve been meaning to fiddle with OpenIndiana and Illumos for a while, which both trace their roots back to Sun Microsystem’s Solaris. It’d be really cool to poke around in a system that didn’t grow off of BSD or Linux.

    • ace_garp@lemmy.world
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      27 days ago

      Yeah, Knoppix was kind of a ‘Tucows vibe’ distro. Pretty approachable.

      Zen Linux was another short-lived 2005 liveDistro, which had a nice feel and Art.

      Also, installing all https://trisquel.info/ versions side-by-side and doing a 17 year fast-forward would be cool.

  • Sinirlan@lemmy.world
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    27 days ago

    Gentus Linux comes to mind, obscure distro based on Red Hat (not RHEL mind You) released by now forgotten ABIT, a motherboard manufacturer. I was daily driving it as teenager back in 2001 for couple of weeks until I learned by trial and error how to get windows 98 installed back. Another one would be Mandrake Linux which I was dual booting couple years later.

    • 0x0@programming.dev
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      27 days ago

      I read gentoo instead of gentus, found it awkward that someone would call gentoo obscure, did a websearch, came back to the post with gentus as a reply, re-read the post.

  • shiroininja@lemmy.world
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    27 days ago

    I’m nostalgic for Ubuntu when it still had Unity as default, and Linux mint around 2014. That’s when I began coding, and that’s the time I liked the look of them more than the current modern offerings. Plus there was more ease of customization it felt like

  • lemmyvore@feddit.nlEnglish
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    27 days ago

    Red Hat used to be a really solid choice for desktop back in the 90s and early 2000s. Some milestone releases:

    • 6.2 was the first version to put up ISO images for install. This is the one to get if you really want a blast from the past (early version of anaconda installer, ext2, LILO bootloader, Linux 2.2, Gnome 1 etc.)
    • 7.3 was the last version to come with the Netscape browser.
    • 9.0 was the last version before they split into Fedora and RHEL. It’s the last and most mature desktop release of that era, included the “Bluecurve” unified look and feel introduced in 8.0 but had bugfixed versions of KDE and Gnome.
    • LeFantome@programming.dev
      0·
      25 days ago

      What do you mean 6.2 was the first version to put up ISO images for install? I installed 5.2 from ISO not long ago. I have installed 4.2 in the past.

      • lemmyvore@feddit.nlEnglish
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        25 days ago

        Before 6.2 you had to get them on actual CDs which wasn’t an option in many places. Starting with 6.2 they put them online on FTP.

  • Handles@leminal.spaceEnglish
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    26 days ago

    I’m still nostalgic for CrunchBang, and I continue to use OpenBox with any distro I try… Keep your DEs, I’m good 😄

    • spicy pancake@lemmy.zipEnglish
      0·
      26 days ago

      CrunchBang was my jam in late high school. I couldn’t believe how much more lightweight it was compared to Lubuntu, which had been my main for years due to having a potato laptop

      • Handles@leminal.spaceEnglish
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        25 days ago

        Right? Those terrible low-spec, off-the-shelf laptops can really cook with Openbox on a Linux distro.

      • spicy pancake@lemmy.zipEnglish
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        26 days ago

        I respect Bunsenlabs for lacking the chaotic instability that I loved to hate about Crunchbang in high school, and which I hate to wish I could love as a busy adult requiring a stable system…

  • lnxtx@feddit.nlEnglish
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    27 days ago

    Early versions of Ubuntu,
    Red Hat before RHEL,
    Mandrake/Mandriva.

  • Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    27 days ago

    Just for curiosity, where do you get these old distributions?

    I might try the Ubuntu version which got me into Linux one of these days😇

  • hobbsc@lemmy.sdf.org
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    27 days ago

    RedHat 5.3 with fvwm (or fvwm95) is very nostalgic for me because it was one of the few walnut creek CDs I managed to get working. Mandrake and early SuSe were cute as well.