Julia Evans

out of curiosity, when did you first start using unix systems?

(please no replies with details on this one, if none of them fit exactly that's ok, just trying to get a very rough sense)

2020s
4.8%
2010s
17.2%
2000s
33%
1990s or earlier
45%
Poll ended at .
Feb 20 at 11:02pmWeb
Show threadjxvvtFeb 20
@b0rk first time tried or started to use regularly?
Show threadGreg. Just Greg…Feb 20
@b0rk It would be interesting to compare this against, “When did you start using a computer”
Show threadZimmieFeb 20
@TerpEE93 @b0rk And also to both of those things in age brackets rather than calendar year brackets.
Show threadpez23Feb 21
@TerpEE93 A TI-99/4A sometime in late '82 early '83?
Show threadLisPiFeb 21
@TerpEE93 @b0rk Or "when did the Internet become remotely affordable where you live?".
Show threadMarcos DioneFeb 22

@lispi314 @TerpEE93 @b0rk define affordable. Those years with my family we were not that far from poverty line, so we couldn't afford it even if it was. All those offline man pages and docs were a life saver. An the free terminals at the uni.

How could I afford the uni, then? Well, in my country they're free, no student debt.

Show threadLisPiFeb 22

@mdione @TerpEE93 @b0rk There was no university where I lived, or pretty much anything. "Commuter town" was a generous description. As would be "town".

So even hearing about UNIX was not really happening unless you were already working in that field (nevermind a kid or something), nevermind downloading a copy (maybe some ancient copy might've been found on floppies or CDs in magazines in libraries or something, perhaps, if one knew to look in those at all).

DOS and Windows, sure, there were ads, I think.

And even when the government finally provided help for acquiring IBM compatible computers for modernization, any Internet use would've required expensive by-the-minute long-distance calls (I'm translating it, that's not what we called them) so that was simply not happening unless you were comfortably well-off.

Even calling family living far (long-distance call far, that is, and prices got worse the further that was) was expensive enough you largely just didn't. Write a letter, it's cheaper and you don't have the risk of paying a fortune just to talk to an answering machine (if they have one). I think there was also a flat fee for even just attempting a long-distance call even if it failed.

It was past 2000 when that started to actually change here for anyone that wasn't living in a city. (I'm pretty sure some rural places are still screwed even now.)

Show threadchiasmFeb 20
@b0rk basically reflecting the age distribution of mastodon members???
Show threadBrett CoulstockFeb 21

@chiasm @b0rk skewed to people who follow certain people and hashtags and servers I guess.

But yes, 90's for me too :-)

Show threadchiasmFeb 21
@BrettCoulstock @b0rk well I was introduced to Sun BSD in 1987, so I was counting that. 😁 Fond memories!
Show threadSimerrönFeb 20
@b0rk about 2012, but didn't stick with it at first. I was a gamer teenage boy and most games didn't run well back then.
Since 2020 I use only linuxes for personnal uses. Stuck with microslop at work for now.
Show threadSpitfireFeb 20
@b0rk that includes Linux, right? 😳
Show threadmossmanFeb 21

@spitfire @b0rk yeah I wondered the same thing. It's not clear if Linux is being considered in this list...

Not that it matters in my case - I had the pleasure of goofing around on my dad's HP mainframe in the 1980s (and an ICL mainframe before that in the 1970s - don't know what that ran, but the punch cards made nice model aeroplanes...)

Show threadNorbi📷🚴‍♀️💻Feb 21

@mossman
On ICL 1907 and 290x in the late 1970s the OS was called George 3/4.
It had sort of scripting on the commandline which I used to circumvent restrictions for students in online vs. batch compiling for reasons.
We had a very fast Algol-68 compiler from the royal radar department.

@spitfire @b0rk

Show threadmossmanFeb 21
@grauzone @spitfire @b0rk I went looking on Wikipedia after I posted that. Seems the ICL stuff were very weird systems with very weird firmware/OSes
Show threadDavid WheelerFeb 20
@b0rk Marked for starting with Linux in 2000, then remembered I futzed with AIX a little systems staring in 1996.
Show threadchxFeb 20

@b0rk

The world was young, the mountains green,
No stain yet on the Moon was seen,
No words were laid on stream or stone

Show threadGöran RoseenFeb 20
@b0rk Plenty of us oldtimers here...
Show threadPhil WilmarthFeb 20
@b0rk Do you consider mac OS unix or not?
Show threadSeth GalitzerFeb 21
@pwilmart @b0rk Not until OS X.
Show thread🇺🇦 haxadecimal 🚫👑Feb 21
@sgsax @pwilmart @b0rk
or A/UX
Show threadAsymmetricblueFeb 21

@brouhaha @sgsax @pwilmart @b0rk Now that’s something I’ve not thought about for a while.

Speaking of A/UX and MacOS X, let’s pour one out for NeXTSTEP and MachTen.

Show threadmjdxpFeb 21
@Asymmetricblue @brouhaha @sgsax @pwilmart @b0rk and don't forget the walking corpse that's solaris, puppeted by oracle to entrap legacy system users...
Show threadSébastien BarbieriFeb 21
@mjdxp @Asymmetricblue @brouhaha @sgsax @pwilmart @b0rk Sun Solaris... that was great. So easy to setup, fully windowed... too easy
Show threadpez23Feb 21
@brouhaha @sgsax @pwilmart @b0rk Yep, this is the one. An old TBBS board I used to call made the switch to A/UX when it came out. Goodbye FidoNET and doors, hello C compiler, email, Usenet, IRC and MUDs.
Show threadvoid friendFeb 21
@b0rk I read the parenthetical, but with the first linux Slackware distribution dating from 1993, I would have been interested in seeing more resolution there (even “1980s or earlier”). Especially also since it turns out it's the most popular choice at this point.
Show threadOrb 2069Feb 21

@void_friend @b0rk

Yeah -sort the greybeards from the 'ygdrassil or slackware cd' noobs 🤣

Show threadTTimoFeb 21
@b0rk omg Fedi .. we're all a bunch of old people here.
Show threadLongplay GamesFeb 21
@b0rk I think this snip from a pic I recently uploaded gives you a good idea...
Show threadSteggyFeb 21
@Longplay_Games @b0rk I remember my dad having that Fortran book back in the day, but he was more a COBOL programmer
Show threadDavid, a Bostonian in Tokyo.Feb 21

@b0rk

I worked on 'nix internationalization at AT&T's Tokyo Office, 1988/1989. We thought we could make Unicode fly in 16 bits. Wrong.

Hilariously, when Mickey$oft reimplemented VMS to create the first real modern OS for peecees (NT, OS/2 Warp doesn't count), they listened to us, and used utf16 for internal stuff. Now that even 32-bit unicode is a variable-width encoding, it doesn't matter.

Working at AT&T for an idiot boss wasn't fun, and I've never touched a Unix since. And won't. Ever.

Show threadAngua Feb 21
@b0rk

Thank you for asking, that makes me feel even older than I did anyway.
Show threadAmber Or BustFeb 21
@b0rk good luck asking for no details on a poll about first UNIX systems 😅
Show threadTanquistFeb 21
@b0rk
I had a Unix box in my university office that doubled as a space heater.
Show threadReidFeb 21
@b0rk let this poll be a lesson in choosing histogram buckets 😂
Show threadAdam - K3CANFeb 21
@b0rk do Unix-like systems count?
Show threadLoseFriendsandAlienatePeopleFeb 21
Surprising results
Show threadMr TaylorFeb 21
@b0rk I mean Mac OS is Unix based soooo…
Show threadJ$Feb 21
@MrTaylor @b0rk It’s the only system thac can legally call itself Unix, even.
Show threadSibshopsFeb 21
@b0rk Redhat Linux like 1996, not sure which version that was.
Show threadTristin Alexander S.Feb 21

@Sibshops @b0rk

I was born in 1996. I dabbled with linux in the 2010s in highschool and college, and didn't switch fully until late 2010s early 2020s.

Crazy to think people have been in this longer than I've been alive.

Show threadbeaiouns Feb 21
@b0rk this poll gave me old people disease
Show threadwavefunctionFeb 21

@b0rk this is also informative and paints an interesting picture

From: @ifixcoinops
https://retro.social/@ifixcoinops/116100862295569698

Dan Fixes Coin-Ops (@[email protected])

POLL: Fedi people, do you have a website or blog or personal wiki or some other kind of online Thing That You Control Yourself that other people can find you on that isn't paid for / maintained by someone else, meaning YOUR THING is at a web address like you.whatever, not at you.someonelse.whatever or someoneelse.whatever/you, I mean are you paying the tenner a year or however much for a whole-ass domain name all for yourself (or for you and a small group of IRL friends), and if not do you want to be, THE POLL, and here is the guidance and elaboration on options: 1) No and I don't want my own site, Fedi and/or other social media scratches that itch for me just fine and I'm content with this arrangement 2) No, but I have a Vague Yearning or a Curious Itch and I wonder sometimes what it would be like, but so far it's just feelings and not plans, I haven't taken any concrete steps towards making My Own Website a real thing that exists, but I'm comfortable saying that I would probably *like* it to exist some day when I'm ready 3) No, but more of a Not Yet than a no; maybe I've bought a domain name and not put anything on it yet, or I haven't yet bought a domain name but I'm researching my options (whether I do it in a lazy few minutes here and there or in focused making-notes sort of study, both count for the purposes of this question), I've spent some time thinking about this With Intent, and I feel less "*wouldn't* this be nice" and more "*won't* this be nice" about this endeavour 4) Yes I own at least one domain name, come on Dan this is Fedi, and at least one of my domains even have websites or services associated with them BOOST THIS TOOT to get an INCREDIBLY INACCURATE IMPRESSION of how many people have and/or want websites and a more accurate picture of how many people On Fedi have and/or want websites [ ] 1) No and I'm OK with that [ ] 2) No and I am not OK with that [ ] 3) No and I am taking steps towards Yes [ ] 4) Yes

Retro Social
Show threadDr. Juande Santander-VelaFeb 21
@b0rk counting experiments with MkLinux [1] on a PowerMac 8200/120 as 1990s… then Mac OS X Public Beta [2], although technically none of them were considered Unices at the time…
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MkLinux
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X_Public_Beta
MkLinux - Wikipedia

Show threadJeff GriggFeb 21

@b0rk

PDP-11/45 in late 1981. First year in college.

Not even required or used for any class. Just looked interesting.

Show threadFrost, wolf of winter 🐺🎄Feb 21

@b0rk Uhhhhhh, do Macs (Mac OS X) count?

We weren't even born before 2000 though, so we're definitely not in that olds bracket. I just don't know if we're 2000s or 2010s (grew up on Mac, moved to Linux later).

Show threadRUCrazy2Feb 21
@b0rk I was using Microsoft’s early Xenix to backup their micro computers in 1983. “Xenix is a discontinued Unix operating system for various microcomputer platforms, licensed by Microsoft from AT&T Corporation. The first version was released in 1980, and Xenix was the most common Unix variant during the mid- to late-1980s”
Show threadJackFeb 21
I notice a bunch of us are old. 😁
Show threadSam ClementeFeb 21
@b0rk Was daily driving Ubuntu on the family computer at 7
Show threadThomas ArendFeb 21

@b0rk

I started 1995 with Linux.The start was not very successful. My Hardware was not fully supported. Since 2005 I use only Linux.

Show threadDavid PeningtonFeb 21
@b0rk 1980.
Show threadJ$Feb 21

@DavidPenington @b0rk 1985, me. Back then: SunOS, Ultrix were the mainstays; DomainOS, Minix also runs.

Soon after: NeXtStep, OPENSTEP, and then of course OS X (now called macOS).

Show threadevilstevieFeb 21
@b0rk using, 90s. really just using though. my comfort zone was DOS and any unix boxen around were critical systems for work, so not ideal for learning on. learning properly was in the late 00s with own kit and the ability to break things without major consequences :)
Show threadKevin Boyd (he/him) 🇨🇦Feb 21

@b0rk as you wish, no details.

But thank you for the work you do!

Show threadsynFeb 21
@b0rk that is not the distribution I expected
Show threadLeif SamuelssonFeb 21

@b0rk

☑ 1970s or earlier

Show threadsoweli Likisi ΘΔ    Feb 21
@b0rk does *nix count
Show threadFubaroqueFeb 21
@b0rk Well let me see it was really about when Ubuntu (server that is) became popular. Had used others Unixes before… somewhat, System V, Irix… but I’ll call it 2000s then.
Show threadElectropictFeb 21

@b0rk

If you do not give details when invited not to, can you legitimately think of yourself as a UNIX user?