dos to linux
Posted by grecoangelo888@reddit | linux | View on Reddit | 85 comments
My journey from DOS to Linux!
Yes I am that young :D
And today is my Birthday!
I wrote my master’s thesis on my university’s brand new DOS computer with a green screen and a printer that made more noise than a truck.
Went through all of Windows, from 3. to win10, except vista off coarse.
My favorites were 7 and XP. Then everything went downhill.
A week into win11 I realized how much I am fed up with this s**t. f**k w*d*s.
I will miss photoshop and lightroom though.
The big switch was to Linux Mint, on a dual boot, because I was scared to death from the terminal.
After exploring tty I realized that I can fix things as much as I can f**k up other things (never did rm -rf / though haha!).
So I started my new journey in installing and fixing things (especially nvidia) with the terminal and very basic bash scripting.
From mint went on to Ubuntu for 2 months (didn’t like it, reminded me of windows BS again, I know most of you will disagree and hate this but, ...my opinion).
If Ubuntu is Debian based so why not go to the source: Debian Gnome stable, testing, sid and i3 (loved it).
Now I am on Arch and Hyprland (yaaaay!).
I managed to f**k up 4 installations till now.
I am still learning and consider myself a newbie, because I am.
Went through lots of videos and wiki pages and now I do most things in terminal! (another yaaay! Although most of you know things I am still dreaming of learning).
Thank you and… Wish me a Happy Birthday if you want!
Because everybody is still drunk and didn’t realize its my birthday today.
My very simple setup:
Hyprland, waybar, fuzzel (was wofi before uwsm), foot, nemo, librewolf & firefox, swaync, btop, nano, ranger and vim (still learning how to use them).
What I don’t have:
Args, hyprdots, ewww, cava, hyprpanel etc.
Equivalent_Bird@reddit
Happy Birthday! (A bit too late, maybe?)
I'm a linux user and I'm also from the age of DOS. I totally agree with Windows BS, my favourite Windows versions are too XP and 7. My opinion is, windows nowadays is a bootloader for bloatware, spyware and adware - from their supply chain Microsoft.
I'm also new, I started from Ubuntu, for a couple of years, then mint, then manjaro pop os, endeavouros, arch. Now I'm playing with fedora and kali. As a former distro-hopper, i have 5 linux installed and one rarely-used windows 11 for tiny emergency tasks such as printer maintainance with factory driver. As a career, I've been a pro in Adobe for decades, I started to use Adobe since Photoshop 5.0 and After Effects 6.5, but Adobe nowadays is also BS. I've Switched to Photopea, Blender and Krita, everything in linux. Now with AI plugins, they are more powerful.
Apple and Google today are BS too, imo. I still miss G+, good old twitter and nokia with replaceable batteries and charge once a week, iPhone 4 was good too, can be handled in one hand without bumped up camera, and people are less sucked into a screen.
I feel the world is shifting, and i think it will reshape into what it ought to be in a few years, hopefully.
sweet-tom@reddit
Happy birthday and a happy new year. 🎂🥳🎉
If you still miss Windows tools, use a virtual machine. Depending on your computer, RAM, and disk space, it may or may not be a good experience.
Good luck with your journey.
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
Thank you! Happy nwe year
I don't miss anything in windows except lightroom
trying to learn gimp now
have done a lot of vm till I decided what distro I liked
ppen9u1n@reddit
Belated happy birthday! The closest alternative to Lightroom is Darktable. You could combine it with Digikam for photo management.
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
Thank you
will try
sweet-tom@reddit
Thanks! 😊
If you don't rely on Windows tools, then Gimp, Krita, or any other open source tool may be useful.
You can also try openSUSE Leap or Tumbleweed. The latter is a rolling release.
Good luck!
Apprehensive_Tax8334@reddit
There are a lot of alternatives but if really needed and your comp is powerful. There's dockur, a windows vm that run on docker container.
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
Thank You!!!
SnooCookies1995@reddit
You can also try krita.
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
thank you!
will try
skydrell@reddit
You can try rawtherapee, free alternative to lightroom
atightgroup@reddit
Happy belated birthday!
We're probably pretty close in age. I started with a Commodore 64 in high school and used an 8086 based DOS machine in college. In the early 90s. I purchased a new 486DX machine with 4MB RAM, Win 3.1 and DOS.
Today, a flavor of Mint is my OS of choice and I am always learning more.
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
Well you can remember names of pcs, I can't
learning never ends !!!
thank you!!!
Striking-Chance-5660@reddit
I also tried loooads of different distros. Have to admit settling on Ubuntu after a while simply because I personally found so much worked on it. Many, many years back I was a Suse mega fan 😂
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
I didnt say it was bad
but something with their rules and snap i didnt like
again my opinion and thank you
Eat_Your_Paisley@reddit
Since your so old skool DIYer a simple google search would have revealed how to remove snap.
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
I know how to search and find answers for mostly everything... that's how I learned to use linux and many other things...
I am not trying to argue here I just stated my opinion and a fact for me and I am trying to avoid big companies
Eat_Your_Paisley@reddit
You could have said that vs you whole “I’m so old” schtick
94746382926@reddit
What are you trying to prove here?
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
I am not to trying to prove anything
just my story to bring a smile ... on my face too
94746382926@reddit
No not you, the other guy who was being a dick lol
Eat_Your_Paisley@reddit
I’m trying to express my distaste at someone from my generation trying to pull the “look at me in so old” thing.
The poster used a common computer when it was common, and is now patting himself on the back for using something common.
If he’d tried this in the Arch BBS to post likely would have been moved to the bike shed.
79LuMoTo79@reddit
you must be fun at parties, if theyd invite you.
Eat_Your_Paisley@reddit
Why would I want to go to a party with someone like the OP?
thegza10304@reddit
not the arch bbs bike shed!!
Striking-Chance-5660@reddit
One thing I love about Linux is how many distros there are and everyone can find one that works for them!
Tilas123@reddit
I use Ubuntu with debchroot or sum basically you set it up like arch to be as minimal as possible so least attack surface and can even operate as a server but yes 100% the platform Ubuntu is just so well maintained and keeps things easy even on standard desktop versions with no configs it’s a good os that functions as it should with great compatibility. Very reliable and you never have to be concerned your system will break cause you didn’t turn it on for a bit and recompile your packages ahaah.
Tilas123@reddit
Just use openbsd compiled from scratch on arch and then proceed to use the machine as gentoo only downloading and compiling packages as opposed to using the openbsd package links (trusting github > distros packages precompiled) this mitigates any potential risk of: A bad actor inserting malicious unknown code that isn’t included in the github repo into our openbsd machine
A bad actor who released or has taken control of release binaries for any packages in the package manager. And since only using open source packages all being compiled from source mitigates this entire risk on the premise
GITHUB AND ITS PACKAGES ARE SAFE
And honestly sadly they are not I would manually review them myself before using
Idrk where I’m going w this It started as a joke but then I kept on explaining.
Tilas123@reddit
GitHub is owned by Microsoft if you actually did this host your own git repos locally that are important and have them sync from github source can be found on other git websites like github or some developers like the suckless team use their own .git site with their domain to host all their changes etc so just have a look around if it’s open source really it’s gotta be somewhere.
Tilas123@reddit
Idk why I’m writing this alll no one is ever gonna do this sum1 reply to do this with a video if u did
79LuMoTo79@reddit
i use debian now, btw.
in 2012 i used ubuntu a few months went back to win 8.1 (its nice) 2016 win 10, its ok 2024 win 11...i switched to pop os cosmic, didnt stay. mint, then kubuntu. i dislike snaps.
i needed a stable os because i alway manage to break a thing. skill issue xD
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
I love Debian too btw
I really dont understand the btw that everybody is using
I love arch now...
and yes I managed to break everything too
Tilas123@reddit
Basically people who are annoying say “btw” after mentioning they run arch which I personally use btw which is where it originated but you can use it for anything depending on the amount of brain cells u have. I also run gentoo BTW. Or it can be used sarcastically like I run Linux Mint BTW since the joke is it’s hard to install. But arch is literally run and run arch install if you want to and know some basics about Linux and shit to setup your desktop and you can just use gnome or kde if you need it to just work. Try arch BTW. People over inflate how hard it is also one of the most well documented OS’s head to the arch wiki for install and guides for setting up doing anything with any program you like specifically written for arch and personally you can even use it for other distros ( where applicable ) it is that extensive. There’s a real perspective of where arch is at the only barrier to entry is people’s common jokes of it’s difficult to install. Be free. Use arch. I don’t work for the arch dev team I promise I’m just yeah 👍.
79LuMoTo79@reddit
just for fun
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
thanks
deleted_by_reddit@reddit
[removed]
Tilas123@reddit
As a reference I run gentoo on my beefy computer that can compile everything fast asf and minimal custom arch on my laptop with 2 different rices for each using dwm and suckless tools a proper setup. Yes I’m saying I would rather use gentoo than Debian.
Tilas123@reddit
Yo dude crazy idea u should get: args hyprdots, ewww, cava and hyperpanel etc. honestly kinda lazy to not have set that up yet.
-jackhax@reddit
Happy cake day! Also, this is reddit. You can swear.
Tilas123@reddit
Yo dude crazy idea u should get: args hyprdots, ewww, cava and hyperpanel etc. honestly kinda lazy to not have set that up yet.
Tilas123@reddit
Fuckin oath fr?
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
thanks
KilnHeroics@reddit
> My favorites were 7 and XP.
Never understood the fascination about XP. Interface designed by fisher price. Yea you could revert to classic, but still, they thought it was a good idea. Windows 2000 instead of XP, too bad support ended too early. XP is what made me to try out Linux at those days (couldn't afford a Mac).
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
went on with 2000 too i know what you mean
and i couldnt afford a mac either
thank you!!
Tilas123@reddit
I went on with my wife who cheated on me with her golf coach who i hired off the street and stole all my crypto and life fortune and it is my life’s mission to avenge it. Good origin story hey?
carlo128@reddit
Happy birthday! And thank you for your post. For the Lightroom itch, I was in the same position as you and I found the little neat program called ART, which is as powerful as the adobe counterpart if you put a little effort into it. No AI and no cloud, compare it to an old version of Lightroom, before the subscription non-sense (6 or 7). It’s a fork of Rawtherapee made by a fellow Italian, so it’s a plus 😉 here’s the link if you want to try it http://art.pixls.us/
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
thank you very much
i will definitely try it
i dont use AI and cloud... I am an old school junky, I prefer to think alone
Tilas123@reddit
Sure ya r mate 😂 cringe much. Jokes lad toughen up haha.
InfinitEchoeSilence@reddit
Happy Birthday 🎉 Thank you for sharing your journey.
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
Thank you!!!
and for reading
Tilas123@reddit
Thank you for posting this!
InfinitEchoeSilence@reddit
Journeys like yours are some of my favorite reads, so I appreciate it. I hope that you celebrated and had a good one.
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
thank you!
gabriel_3@reddit
Nn
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
yes it was in the 80'
and i dont care about "I run Arch BTW" because i took arch as a challenge after trying debian sid
i love learning new things and thank you for your birthday wishes
Tilas123@reddit
Dude we get it you don’t care but like did I tell you I RUN ARCH BTW ARCH LINUX WITH A CUSTOM WINDOW MANAGER TILING AND WAYLAND AND I REMOVED ROOT CAUSE JTS BLOAT. Anyway
94746382926@reddit
Yikes, bunch of antisocial bullies in this thread. Who hurt you lol
hojendiz@reddit
TL; DR "I use arch BTW"
Happy birthday, it's always nice to read the path of new Linux users.
Tilas123@reddit
Hey man hey dude I know I’m BTW I USED ARCH and how are you?
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
thank you!
I didn't use BTW even once because I really don't understand it
eddyizm@reddit
Happy birthday!
I have an older version of lightroom running on wine successfully. That was also my biggest hold over.
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
i still have to install and learn wine
was thinking about it. i have an older version too and maybe i will try it
thank you!!!
Tilas123@reddit
in my opinion the best way to learn wine is to have it with you in person. Down the whole bottle without stopping in less than a minute. A second bottle is optional for those who go hard. Go to wines website. If you can successfully setup wine and be running doom it’s the most optimised and easy way in my opinion i just for some reason can’t seem to ever remember the steps after the first part? I do 4 bottles just to be on the safe side. Hope that helped! Happy new year!
eddyizm@reddit
Shoot for the gold. https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=5839
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
wow thank you!!!
crypticexile@reddit
u must be in your early 40s
cause this sounds like what i grew up with too ... ms dos 5 , windows 1.01 , 2 and 3 done all the windows use all the linux distro done all the hackintosh use lal the macOS, Nextstep, openstep, etc now i use all them i use windows for gaming. i use linux nixOS to be extact i dont like anything in linux nix is the best :) and i also use macOS. i'm also waiting on my upgrade from mac mini m1 to a mac mini m4 :)
Tilas123@reddit
No im not? Why would you say that.
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
I am much older
thank you!
DoubleDotStudios@reddit
Happy Birthday!!!
Tilas123@reddit
Dude it’s not his birthday that was 2 days ago weird.
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
Thank You!!!
lukeflo-void@reddit
You wrote your master thesis with DOS and have been scared of the terminal?
I use the terminal every day for nearly everything and still would be feared to write any paper using DOS (and I'm old enough to know it too, though mostly for playing games on floppy disks as a small kid...)
Happy birthday!
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
Thank You!
MacSvensson@reddit
Wow! You may be close to my age 🫣🤔 Happy birthday!!!
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
thank you!!!
Whourglass@reddit
Happy birthday, u/grecoangelo888
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
Thank You!!!
maestraccio@reddit
Buon compleanno, u/grecoangelo888
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
thank you!
muolan_mies@reddit
Happy B-day🎁
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
thank you!!!
IEVTAM@reddit
I started with red hat linux in the 90's, Novell went to Suse Linux in the early 2000's and then Vsphere used ESX. I had issues with all of them, Xwindows, Asdl routers, Novell was replaced by Windows Server and SCCM. I now use Linux Mint on two laptops and work in a school that runs over 300 Mac Laptops, but has been directed to move to Microsoft. Thank God this is the last year of my working life.
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
thanks for sharing
mac to microdoft!!! wow
Specialist_Leg_4474@reddit
I started in school in 1965 with a DEC PDP_8-we had a parrot that made band printer noises!
grecoangelo888@reddit (OP)
wow