Linux - A Newbie's Experience

December 18, 1995

Introduction

I bought sarah in the autumn of 1993 when people were pretty much giving away '386s. I didn't want a 386. However, a contract i was working on dictated that i test my Windows program on a minimalist Windows machine. Thus, my need for a 4MB 386.
I plopped down my $900 (sans monitor).
After i finshed my testing (in 30 minutes) i thought that i'd give it to my wife for her graphics work (CorelDraw).

"Look dear, i bought you a PC. You need to name it for the network."

I installed CorelDraw over the network off of my CD. (Bonus points for Bill Gates here)
We double clicked the balloon icon and stared at the Hourglass cursor.
We made coffee.
Look! A Corel page. Wow, check out all the colors. Let's load a sample...
We went to dinner.
We came home.
Sarah went back in her box to sleep.

Two years later, Chris Caserio and i were discussing our new Internet connection and the need for some server that wouldn't be one of our workstations. i.e. "Not on my box."

"I have this old 386 at home. I've read lots of evangelical things about this free UNIX called Linux. Let's use that."
And thus, sarah came out of the closet and onto my desk.

It took about a week to get everything up and running which was much longer than i wanted, and here's why.