Julia EvansFeb 20

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 .
Show threadGreg. Just Greg…
@b0rk It would be interesting to compare this against, “When did you start using a computer”
Feb 20 at 11:11pmWeb
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.)