debgoodkinFeb 25
FreeBSD Foundation

Do you remember your first FreeBSD install?
Many in our community remember when installing an operating system meant waiting on physical media, dial-up downloads, or carefully tested CD distributions, long before pulling source took seconds.

We’d like to hear your story:
• Was your first FreeBSD install from a CD?
• Do you remember your first release?

Share your experience in the comments.

🔗 Wayne Self’s original reflection: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/wself_been-thinking-about-how-much-access-to-software-ugcPost-7431565320290619392-RHVM/

#FreeBSD #OpenSource #BSD #Community

Feb 24 at 9:17pmBuffer
Show threadKMJ 🇦🇹Feb 24
@FreeBSDFoundation this make me look old :-) when remembering 2.x around 1995.
Show threadXenotarFeb 24
@FreeBSDFoundation I started here and continued with floppy disks until I acquired my first Walnut Creek CD with FreeBSD 1.x (x=something > 0). I had a stack of CDs even after version 4.x, but they were stolen.
Show threadFRANK.MCCONNELFeb 24
@FreeBSDFoundation Late 1996. 2.1.5-RELEASE. On a Dell 80486 with something like 32MB of RAM. Somewhere in those years of 2.x and ISA bus I sent in a fix for bounce buffers (anyone remember those?) which was accepted by Mike Smith.
Show threadFRANK.MCCONNELFeb 24
@FreeBSDFoundation I am thinking that Dell had one of those old weird PC CD-ROM interfaces that was neither ATA nor SCSI and couldn't boot from CD-ROM. So I think I made a boot 3.5" floppy from a file on the CD-ROM and used that for the initial boot, then sysinstall copied most of the OS in from the CD-ROM.
Show threadSeiichi MORIMOTOFeb 24

@FreeBSDFoundation 　私が初めてFreeBSDをインストールしたのは 2.2.x だと思っていたけど、外付け HDD に保存してあった現在は非公開のウェブ日記を検索してみると、2000年3月9日（木）に斎藤寛・懸田剛・大津真『FreeBSD 3.0 インストール＆活用ガイド』ビー･エヌ･エヌ、1999年に付属していた CD-ROM から FreeBSD 3.0RELEASE をインストールしときだったようだ。

　悪友にそそのかされて FreeBSD の世界に誘い込まれたのだけど、その悪友から借りパクしてしまった舟橋啓・西本隆之介『入門 FreeBSD』秀和システム、1998年は、FreeBSD 2.2.6-RELEASE をベースに書かれており、当時としては 2.2.x が安定板として広く使われていたので、最初のインストールを 2.2.x とどこかで勘ちがいしたまま記憶してしまっていたのだろう。某君、元気だろうか。

Show threadAnthony SoraceFeb 25
@FreeBSDFoundation @dgoodkin I couldn’t give you an exact version, but it was definitely 2.x, probably on CD from Walnut Creek although possibly that wasn’t my very first install.
Show threadNan XiaoFeb 25
@FreeBSDFoundation My first installation of FreeBSD was in 2015. Before that, I mostly used Linux/Solaris for work, and Windows/MacOS for personal use.
Show threadTomAokiFeb 25

@FreeBSDFoundation
The first time I've noticed the existence was. IIRC, at 2.0.5.

The first installation would've been 2.1.6 or 2.1.6.1, which CDROM was bundled with a printed magazine I've been regularly purchasing. But was just for trial.
This followed by deinstall / fresh install of newer releases when the same magazine bundled newer releases.

The first release I've switched to upgrading rather than deinstall / fresh install was 2.2.6. And at maybe the next release of the one freebsd-update was introduced, I've switched to source upgrading, as my Internet connectivity took advantage (stabler) than before.

And finally switched my personal daily driver from OS/2 to FreeBSD when IBM discontinued paid supports for OS/2. And now still I'm here.

Show threadEugene  Feb 25

@FreeBSDFoundation Oh, my first install of #FreeBSD happens at near 2016 or 2017 with 10 or 11 release. Since my laptop doesn't had a CD/DVD reader these times, I used a memstick image with a USB drive.

TUI installer reminded me the #Slackware installer, which was my first Unix-like OS. So, the installation doesn't caused any problems — just read the handbook and use the instructions from it in the comfy console…

Show threadTomAokiFeb 25
@evgandr @FreeBSDFoundation
My first experience of Linux was Yggdrasil (would be older than Slackware), but it was after my first experience of FreeBSD. And I prefer FreeBSD since then, but Vine Linux told me a lot of "how Japanese input / displaying should be on X11". It helped me configuring Japanese environment on FreeBSD.
Show threadMFeb 25

@FreeBSDFoundation The first time I put #FreeBSD 6.0 on a machine was back in 2005, using a CD. After that I just kept upgrading it to the 9.x series—no need to reinstall anything—and it survived three whole computer swaps. It all started on a little P‑mmx box running at either 233 MHz or 266 MHz, with roughly 64 MB of RAM and an 800 MB hard drive. I can’t recall the exact specs, but it was something like that. Later I gave it a bigger 80 GB drive and added more memory. By constantly rebuilding the kernel I finally got it to play movies from CD without a hitch.

Besides that, I used it for writing, GIS work, scanning and tweaking photos, and the usual day‑to‑day stuff. :)

Show threadAndrew BallFeb 25
@FreeBSDFoundation I think that was in 1998 because #NetBSD lacked drivers for a network interface that I had to use. They fixed that shortly afterwards.
Show threadGraham PerrinMar 1

＂… something with FreeBSD in September 2012 … probably toying with 9.0 on a PowerPC iMac with failing graphics hardware. Not because I was a glutton for punishment (like, the horror of a command-line loader, and the certainty that hardware was failing) – because there was nothing good to be done with the Mac, and I was curious about non-Apple alternatives to Microsoft Windows. …＂

Source: <https://wiki.bsd.cafe/user:grahamperrin>

Thirteen years later: the punishment is entirely different 🍿

@FreeBSDFoundation

Graham Perrin (grahamperrin) [BSD Cafe Wiki]