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Slackware was my first as well. You really learned Linux using it. I probably rebuilt that drive a dozen times because I’d bork something and it was easier to reinstall than it was to figure out how I broke it in some new novel way.
Also not having a phone to look stuff up and having to rely on looking stuff up in books was hell now that I think of it.
Having the phone these days for reference is huge. When I did my current arch install a few years back, I realized how clutch it was having that option because it definitely wasn't a thing even back in the mid aughts. Sifting through even the console manual was tedious as opposed to just searching for a solution, it makes one grateful for the current state of things.
That was a reason back then to pay for a distribution box - it came with a very good printed manual. Which had beginner friendly sections like "now that you have a running system let's configure and build a kernel matching your hardware".
Yup, it was the good old time, on a 486
Same, Slackware, went over to Red Hate for a while then Debian - am using Ubuntu now. I'll never forget (in 1998) setting up Slackware as a server on an old spare 486 the company I worked for had laying around. It had a SCSI hard drive. Oh the pain. USENET was the only good reference, and you'd sometimes have to post and wait a day for a response if you just couldn't figure it out.
Got that server running and saved the company hundreds of dollars a month - they had been paying egregious fees to host brochureware. They thought I was Superman.
it was easier to reinstall than it was to figure out how I broke it in some new novel way.
I came to the same conclusion. But I couldn't get it to reinstall. It kept wanting to use the old partition. (2001, maybe Ubuntu?)
So I knew how to solve that. If the linux installation is wiped, then it'll surely allow me to reinstall fresh. So,
rm -rf /Begins deleting files...
"Wait, my Windows partition is under that, isn't it." Ctrl+C frantically, it won't stop. Pull the plug.
I did get my files back. Just, you know, without file paths or file names. Do you know how many DLLs and worthless text files there are, by the way?
Also not having a phone to look stuff up and having to rely on looking stuff up in books was hell now that I think of it.
Oh man, not having a second device to look things up and fucking up your
NICmodem drivers. Impossible situation for a noob, but somehow I kept going.