Today it's my 20 year anniversary of becoming a Linux user, so I'd like to post one desktop screenshot from every year that I've used Linux.Starting with this screenshot, from 21th September 2005. Just shortly after I installed Ubuntu 5.04 for the first time, on the 20th of September. At the time I was dual booting with Windows 2000. It took me about a month to adjust and make myself feel at home. After about two months I wasn't booting into windows at all anymore.
2006. Now I was really at home in Linux. I was doing a good bit of customising too.
2007. I was deepening my appreciating for Linux. At this point I had installed a lot of packages from the Ubuntu repositories.
>>106650322I meant, appreciation.Also around this time, I had installed Linux on another spare computer that I was using to experiment with soundcards that had hardware synths for MIDI. I had icewm on that one.
2008. My life was moving in a new direction. Ubuntu started feeling buggy with the new releases coming out at the time. So mid that year, I switched to Debian Etch. This was also a turning point for me - instead of installing the 32bit version of the distro like I had been doing up to this point, I installed the AMD64 version.At the time most people were still on 32bit, so there were a few things that were commonly used that didn't work so great on AMD64, like the flash player (as shown in this screenshot).Also there were occasional weird bugs in things that were probably a result of things not being tested so heavily on AMD64.
2009. At this point, I was doing all kinds of things with the computer running Linux. This screenshot here shows some of the kinds of things I was getting up to - this is Panzer Dragoon Zwei running in Yabause.
2010. That year, Minecraft started getting big. I tried it out and spent a month playing it for hours on end. What an experience. It's something that I would never forget.
Congrats, Patrick!
>>106650276Hello, is this the Kusty Crab?
>>106650426Thanks.>>106650435No. This is Patrick. Hahah.2011. Things were starting to get shaken up in the Linux desktop world.Gnome 3 was announced, and it was a big break from Gnome 2 which I had been using. They basically threw everything out and did a total redesign, a redesign that got rid of almost everything I liked in Gnome 2.Although Gnome 3 hadn't yet hit the distro I was using, I knew I would have to deal with it eventually, so I decided it was time to switch to XFCE.After a couple of weeks I was right at home, it was like an even better version of Gnome 2 that loaded and ran faster. I never looked back.
>>106650276Cool thread anon
>>106650322fpbp (on that screenshot)Also checked
>>106650458Thanks.2012. At this point I had been using XFCE for a year. I was still using some GNOME software, like the image viewer. At the time, themeing for GTK3 was difficult because they kept breaking the CSS every minor point release.I was somehow still able to get my custom GTK theme to work, with a lot of trial and error and messing around every time there was an update.
>>106650276Finally a good bread. It's hard to believe there are still some oldfags in this site, but hey, congrats for using Linux all this time. Sometimes I wonder how long I'll do it myself.>>106650322>Year 2007>anons were already shitposting about Linux and shilling Apple productsI guess some things never change>>106650290Gnome 2 was pretty comfy, you can get an almost identical setup nowadays using MATE.>captcha: TTPS8
2013. Things were really kicking off now. I had two monitors and I was starting to experience the benefits of it for various productivity tasks.
You've come a long way. Any advice for beginners?
>>106650528>I guess some things never changeThe only board that I ever used that is dramatically different from the early 00s is /b/ imo
>>106650276Unemployed for 20 years, bravo!
>>106650580Actually I held a part-time job in the summer of 2011
>>106650528Haha. That's true. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Myself, I would never buy an Apple product.>>106650545The best thing I can think of is, you should install all kinds of random packages from the Debian repositories and tinker with them and work out how to use them.And especially you should learn Tcl/Tk. Go to https://tcl.tk to see what I mean.>>106650580If I told you about my career, you wouldn't believe me.2014. This was a difficult year all around, the culture wars were starting to get heated. The gnome developers were still shaking up the Linux desktop scene with all kinds of strange ideas that affected everyone, not just Gnome users.
2015. My 10th year of using Linux. While I was going through the ups and downs of life, my computer was still rock steady, running Debian stable and XFCE.
...are you still using the same stupid purple theme?
goo thread, shitty os and desktop. where is the ricing?
interesting thread, have a bump anon
>>106650402Did Yabause run any decent on Linux back then?
>>106650276Damn you're old. It'll be 11 years for me around Christmas. I installed Debian over winter break with AwesomeWM because of the /g/ desktop threads. I did the minimal install because of /g/'s talk about bloat so that was a fun time. I got stuck in Vim trying to do visudo which actually used vi at that time, no idea how I managed to get out.I've used a few distros in that time but I've been back to Debian with AwesomeWM for a few years now.>>106650647TWO browsers
2016. Suddenly, something serious happened - I started learning to program. I picked up BBC BASIC and started writing lots of programs for the "Brandy" BBC BASIC interpreter. I started to really appreciate the meaning of the word "computer".
>>106650692is that you in the picture?nigger how old are you ?
>>106650692 >I started learning to program. Wait, you spent 11 years on Linux with zero programming background? Interesting. I thought the majority people who use Linux have at least some familiarity with coding. What was your impetus for dualbooting?
>>106650740>I thought the majority people who use Linux have at least familiarity with codingHell no. Look through any Linux wiki, thread, or forum, and witness a never-ending supply of absolutely dog shit advice from respected seniors repeatedly telling the reader to sudo nano one file after another, one at a time, because they're too stupid to provide a single terminal prompt that leverages sed, awk, cat, tee, etc.
>>106650692Why did you pick a Basic in 2016?That's the last language I would have expected at that time.
>>106650766cuz he's a basic bitch
>>106650766My family's first computers were the BBC Micro and the Acorn Archimedes, and I grew up knowing a little bit about BASIC through them. I wanted to dive deeper into it than I had done as a child.>>106650750I picked up some bash scripting tricks early on, but I hadn't done any serious full-on programming until then.>>106650680It ran pretty well. Sadly these days I can't get it to work, it looks like it became unmaintained and fell into disrepair.>>106650685Vi was always strange. I never worked out how to use it.>>106650710Haha. That's Jimmy Wales in the picture. He's a legend. I read wikipedia every day.2017. Big things were happening this year. I got a cheap Acer laptop and I used it to test and develop a new custom GTK theme.
>>106650788>Sadly these days I can't get it to work, it looks like it became unmaintained and fell into disrepair.Yep that's Yabause for ya. Beetle Saturn has essentially solved Saturn emulation though.
2018. I was diving deeper into multimedia. That year I watched "Mermaid Forest", a really special and mystical experience. It's the kind of thing you'd never forget.
>>106650692Why would you learn BBC basic in 2016 when there are so many better options?
>>106650788>Bobby Brown - Every Little StepI KNEEL.
reading this thread while listening to the resident evil 0 save room theme on loop and i got a very strange feeling.
>>106650812That's a subjective thing. It depends on what you're looking for in the experience.>>106650821Yeah man. King of stage.>>106650805I need to play with it sometime.2019. This was a really special year. My computer I had been using since 2007 suddenly became unreliable. One day in November it started crashing, so I ran some diagnostic tests like Orthos/mprime. This was the last screenshot I ever took with it, shortly after this it crashed one last time and stopped POST'ing.I also made my own simple programming language and interpreter written in C and I was starting to write lots of small programs for it, like the scrollytext demo seen in this screenshot.
>>106650750>>106650765
>>106650276>21th
2020. Things were getting wild in the Linux desktop world. You could finally play games with ease, thanks to Steam and Proton. It was like a door into another world opened up.
>>106650850Did you use a parser generator or just handroll a recursive descent parser? Tree-walk or did you write and target a VM?
Blessed thread
here's mine, it's looked the same since 2013.
>>106650893I handrolled the most simple evaluator mechanism I could come up with. I like simplicity.2021. At this point, I was starting to get really into playing Super Monaco GP (sega genesis).It gave me the sense of something that had been missing in my life up until that point. If you've ever felt it, you know what I'm talking about.
2022. A big change took place. I moved away from my purple colour scheme I had been using since 2006 and switched to a more reddish colour.
>>106650276>pngs and not jpgs full of artifactsGreat thread 10/10, I'd contribute some of my old pics but the drive died>>106650750>I thought the majority people who use Linux have at least some familiarity with coding. I got into coding like three years after I fully switched to Linux, some of the stuff I wanted to do in bash was not really working out and that pushed me to python and then C++
>>106650983looks much nicer. also this thread is great, ive never cared for desktop sc threads but i like to see your progression
>>106650999I'm happy you appreciate it. Also, nice trips.2023. I started experimenting with PRNGs. I had PractRand tests running for hours and hours.
2024. I started writing lots of Tcl scripts. I made a filesystem space usage analyser in Tcl/Tk.Tcl/Tk is very powerful. You can write full GUI apps in very few lines of plain code. You can have a GUI app up and running in no time.
>>106650983>pattyPlease tell me you didn't become a tranny
>>106650276Your first screen shot is gnome but the rest I think or xfce. Have you used xfce the whole time? when i first started I didn't like gnome or kde and gave window maker a try and i never left.Window Maker is perfection, runs on a potato, and it basically never changes.
2025 today. I also recorded a video to celebrate my 20th anniversary, if you're interested it's here. https://www.vidlii.st/watch?v=oh6sWwFH1UN>>106651092What's wrong with being trans?>>106651115I switched to XFCE in 2011. I loved it instantly and never looked back.Window maker sounds and looks cool, I need to try it sometime.
>>106650545Don't listen to Linux users that hate Apple
>>106650603>If I told you about my career, you wouldn't believe me.would be fun to hear desu
>>106650750>I started learning to program.>no greentextthe fuck?
>>106650545dualboot is pointless, just get multiple computers. you can ssh into your linux desktop from a macbook and do anything you'd normally do, it's finedon't linux distro hop, just find which is most aligned with how you think about computers and keep using that unless you have reasons to run multiple (I don't)
Just for fun, you should make a mockup of what you would like to be doing on your desktop in 2026.
>>106651184So don't listen to Linux users at all? Well, trusting your Windows muscle memory will help you a lot more on modern Linux than reading forum advice written by incompetents (see >>106650765 for examples of incompetence)
>>106650788Wait, I remember this exact same picture, I think I saw it years ago in the xfce-look website when looking for gtk themes, or maybe during an internet search, I can't remember exactly. Man, the world feels a bit tiny sometimes.>>106651176I don't use xfce but I feel your desktop perfectly encapsulates why it's popular. It always looks the same and doesn't make stupid or unnecessary changes. One question though, were you never interested in tiling window managers? what's your current opinion on other desktop environments?
>>106651228if you're using linux at all it's because your personal preferences about computing matter to you. The only thing you need from other linux users is specific fixes to problems and exposure to new programs you could be using. In practice my preferences have just solidified around what's easy and what works and what I'm used to. I have no idea how non-coders even bother with linux, it seems foolish. I've literally had to fix out of tree kernel audio drivers before a 9am standup call out of pure spite for switching to my macbook.
>>106651184Apple had some great ideas but with the death of Jobs any great ideas are gone. The company is in a death spiral and even their OS, based on the awesome that was NeXT is decaying into total shit.
>>106650545Take backups. Use programs that let you restore your system as it was earlier very quickly so that you can recover from fuckups.
>>106651266>I have no idea how non-coders even bother with linux, it seems foolishBecause they're not using Gentoo circa 2005. They're using a modern distro with pipewire and systemd where literally nothing you have said is relevant to the average end user. I haven't touched a terminal in months mate lol
>>106651263>One question though, were you never interested in tiling window managers?i wanted to ask this as well
>>106651282I posted on irc about my extremely complicated automated jackd audio setup that uses systemd extensively to ensure every connection is enforced and the first response was "just use pipewire lol" tier bullshit. If you're just clicking things and don't program or have any interest in making the computer do what you want, why are you even using linux? I'm using the terminal every day because commands become aliases, which become scripts which become automated stuff that works like magic and I stop thinking about the effort it took.
>>106651347>If you're just clicking things and don't program or have any interest in making the computer do what you want, why are you even using linux?Because Linux distros are the best operating systems there are lol
>>106651270>Apple had some great ideas but with the death of Jobs any great ideas are goneDid you forget about this
>>106651347>the first response was "just use pipewire lol" tier bullshitAlso, what's wrong with your computer fitting YOUR needs more effectively and efficiently? People telling you to use pipewire isn't bullshit; they're telling you to get off a deprecated platform.
>>106651347>that uses systemdwell that is your choice but all my machines still use sys v init and cron
>>106651282>>106651266>>106651347>I have no idea how non-coders even bother with linux, it seems foolish.>If you're just clicking things and don't program or have any interest in making the computer do what you want, why are you even using linux?Just because you go full CLI/autismo doesn't mean other people will use their own Linux systems the same way, it's not black and white. Nowadays it's pretty easy for your average normalfag to use Linux, for better or for worse, you don't need to be a hacker to do so. Maybe little Timmy's computer cannot run Winblows 11 so he installs Mint, or he wants to fully customize his desktop, different people have different needs and reasons. I'm a no-coder and I use Artix Linux, at one point I even tried Parabola for shits and giggles, I just like how Linux works, it's fun.
>>106650276>incel virgin samefags himself every 3 hours to save his dead troll thread from page 10>againhow shocking and unexpectedwhy havent you killed yourself yet loser?do something useful for your mom and fertilize her compost pileeveryone wishes you were dead, especially your momhow embarrassing it must be for her to have to explain to her friends all the time that her son is still a fat incel NEET loser eating all her food and taking up room stinking up her house being a 50 year old smelly NEET incel that spends every waking minute of his incel life "owning M$"there is no bigger no-life loser on this entire shithole of a site than you, and that's saying a lotjust end your worthless life already, the world will be a better place without you
>>106651455????????????
>>106651436>Nowadays it's pretty easy for your average normalfag to use Linuxappealing to the normalfag is always a mistakethe greater your appeal the worse your product. to use linux you don't have to be in the cli 100% of the time but you should be comfortable with it. you should always be able to drop down and do whatever needs to be done
>>106651490>the greater your appeal the worse your producYou didn't even notice that a non-coder could use Linux. Clearly my comfy Linux experience has not molested your intentionally obtuse computing.
>>106651490what I hate is that this becomes the perception of the "average linux user" in the "community" because that's what people see. They just see the pointeless ricing over and over and think that's all anyone does with it.
>>106651490I fully agree, but my point was that you don't NEED to be a hacker or a programmer to use Linux, and that people use their computers in differents ways and that's okay. But yeah, nowadays most people just want to click buttons and don't care about how or why things work, I understand your average Joe doesn't want to become a sysadmin but as you said, it'd be great for him or anyone else to at least learn the basics, otherwise Linux just becomes Windows 2.0.
>>106651576>otherwise Linux just becomes Windows 2.0Linux becomes Windows 2.0 if your DE is written in fucking JavaScript, which it isn't (unless you use Cinnamon). Linux development culture is so radically different from Windows culture and exactly 0% of this is due to the terminal, but because people want to make a better OS than Shitdows. Saying that Shitdows or FagOS are good enough for people who don't code is just unfair.
>>106651517and them? they aren't seen anywhere, good riddance to /dev/null
>>106651596Kek sometimes I forget Gnome and Cinnamon extensions are written in js. And I do think Windows and Macos are good enough for normalfags, but that's because they use their computers for videogames, youtube and social media, so of course they're fine with that. I don't mind them changing over to Linux as long as they're willing to learn, but unfortunately most of them don't, which is somewhat frustating because personally I just want them to know how good Linux and free software can be, but when you try to explain it to them they treat you as an elitist or a retard. If you take a look at the current most popular Linux distributions, you can see how most of them mimic how Windows operates in one way or another, which is kind of a shame really. I guess we're just the minority.
>>106651753>And I do think Windows and Macos are good enough for normalfags, but that's because they use their computers for videogames, youtube and social mediaThey get spied on and their RAM gets filled even after a cold boot. That's completely unacceptable.>but unfortunately most of them don't,Because you don't need to. You can download a moderately good distro with Plasma and start playing games on Steam no problem. Linux is good because it is good; not because you personally want to enter sudo nano dhcpcd.conf instead of just clicking the network icon on your systray.> I just want them to know how good Linux and free software can beLinux converts are going to be pretty much exclusively using FOSS outside of Steam, and they're going to immediately feel how much better it is than Windows and Mac. sudo nano dhcpcd.conf is completely irrelevant to the fact that Linux just has better software and provides a superior experience.>you can see how most of them mimic how Windows operates in one way or another, which is kind of a shame reallyHow would you have it?
sudo nano dhcpcd.conf
Pretty cool threadThank you for sharing
>>106650850>>106650884>>106650953>>106650983>going back to ZSNES after using higanwhy
>>106651833 (checked)>That's completely unacceptable.Yeah but normies don't care, as long as they can do what they like to do they'll keep on using Windows or whatever. And if you try to explain to them why that's a bad thing they'll give you the usual "hurr durr I don't have anything to hide".>Because you don't need toI like to think of Linux as having a car. People learn how to drive a car (because they want to quickly go places) but not necessarily care how the vehicle functions, however there's no denying learning how to take care of your car properly is a good thing. They just see it as a waste of time.>Linux converts are going to be pretty much exclusively using FOSS outside of Steam>How would you have it?I wish, but nowadays popular distributions come with Spotify, Whatsapp or Chrome pre-installed which I think is retarded. I wish there was something or someone showing normalfags how good Linux and FOSS can be. The mainstream Linux distros just go "look, you can do the same things you do on Windows!", so they don't even bother learning anything beyond that. Linux isn't Windows, but for some reason it tries to appeal to that demographic, instead of teaching them how things work over here. Learning things the "Linux way" isn't encouraged, quite the opposite, I don't want them to go full CLI/freetard, but just to be aware there's more to it that Steam, ricing and free (as in free beer) stuff. Anyway, I don't want to shit up OP's thread, I was just sharing my opinion about the current Linux environment.
>>106650276Awesome thread Patrick. Thank you for this glimpse into the past
>>106652022>Yeah but normies don't care, as long as they can do what they like to do they'll keep on using Windows or whatever.In 2025 normies are paying attention to Linux for the first time lol.>however there's no denying learning how to take care of your car properly is a good thingRight, and the systray is his you take care of your car most efficiently; not dhcpcd.conf>but nowadays popular distributions come with Spotify, Whatsapp or Chrome pre-installed which I think is retardedI cannot think of a single distro where this is the case.>I don't want them to go full CLI/freetard, but just to be aware there's more to it that Steam, ricing and free (as in free beer) stuffWell complaining that non-coders shouldn't use Linux isn't exactly enlightening them
>>106652115>Well complaining that non-coders shouldn't use Linux isn't exactly enlightening themYou don't have to be a coder to use linux. My coding skills don't go much beyond a simple bash script and I can manage just fine.If Linux is a car it is the difference between knowing how to change your oil or change a tire and rebuild an engine.
>>106652187Right, and you can change your tyres via the systray. Plasma is the future
>>106652202or i can just use vi or if you are really lazy nano and edit a config file by hand.you don't need to know how to code to edit a file. i was doing that back in the days of dos
>1280x1024soul
holy shit i scrolled through the thread real quick and actually recognized you from the purple themingbased dusthillguy
>>106652226Nobody wants to do that instead of just clicking on the systray and being done with it. Pressing Ctrl+Alt+T then typing sudo vim /path/to/file is not remotely practical when you can just click on the systray, and it proves nothing about the superiority of Linux.>"Tell me why Linux is better than Windows">"Because you can set your wifi password with a terminal!">"But can't you do that on Windows?">"Y-yeah, but it's better when you do it on Linux">"And why would I want to do that on EITHER operating system?">"Uh..............">"You can set your wifi password on Linux by clicking on a systray icon, right?">"Y-yeah, but it's better if you use vim.">"Why?">"Uh............."I've never even heard of vi because it's irrelevant to end users.
>>106650322>zip.4chan.orgthe fuck was that
>>1066523244chan used to have a bunch of subdomains like that
>>106651176>starts programming and watching anime>troons out after a few yearsSad! Many such cases.
>>106652315do you think my desktop is my only computer? do you think every computer i use has a monitor? do you think i would waste resources on a gui for a file server? do you think i would even waste the resources for an html interface?the terminal is the superior way to interact with a *nix machine, simple as
>>106650276This is more of less how Linux looked when I started.Everyone really did run XMMS.
>>106652353And yet you're typing this after clicking on my post (with a cursor), in a web browser, all with the aid of a display server. Curious.
>>106650850>2007 to 2019 based, i also use computers for way too long
>>106652378and?a gui is the best way to interact with the modern web, those are two different things?i don't need a gui to set up an nfs server, for exampleI am also checking a BBS I frequent at the moment and that is all in the terminal, funny thatuse the right tool for the right job
>>106652353i dunno man a webui for a file server is nice
>>106652423And why does your nfs server mean somebody shouldn't use Linux with Plasma 6 to jack off and play video games?
>>106652441you can jack off and play all the games you want but just like i think you should be able to change your own oil or tire on a car, which i do, you should be able to edit a config file by hand.its part of the basic maintenance of the machine
>>106652450>i think you should be able to change your own oil or tire on a carAnd you can do that through the systray mate
>>106652333Trips of truth. Damn, that is sad. I remember his name from a really old Sonic the Hedgehog community I used to be a part of.
