188

submitted 1 week ago by SatyrSack@quokk.au to c/linuxmemes@lemmy.world

104 comments fedilink hide all child comments

This image was created by /u/kuebic@discuss.tchncs.de for this comment here: https://discuss.tchncs.de/comment/21735989. I had encouraged them to post it somewhere, but as far as I can tell, they never did.

Panel 1: “Installing Windows 20 years ago” screenshot of install wizard with just a couple buttons
Panel 2: “Installing Linux 20 years ago” screenshot of a busy command line
Panel 3: “Installing Windows today” screenshot of a busy command line
Panel 4: “Installing Linux today” screenshot of install wizard with just a couple buttons

top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[-] gustofwind@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago

My favourite part of the Linux installation process is when it automatically places itself before windows in the grub menu boot order

Inb4 don’t dual boot: I occasionally need to for work 🫩

[-] renegadespork@lemmy.jelliefrontier.net 14 points 1 week ago

Better than Windows just straight up overwriting your Linux boot partition on an update.

[-] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 1 week ago

Just boot partition?

I once installed Linux Mint by shrinking Windows 10 partition in Linux against the recommendations. On first Windows boot it seemed fine, except that C: was still showing the old size.
On next Windows reboot it got annihilated with "Repairing drive C:".

[-] renegadespork@lemmy.jelliefrontier.net 2 points 1 week ago

I wouldn’t blame Windows for this one. In this case, this is likely because the Windows partition table wasn’t updated when you changed your C: partition, so Windows legitimately thought there was filesystem corruption because the size didn’t match its partition table.

You should always used the currently installed OS to free up space first, so it’s aware of the change. Then run the installer and install to the free space you made.

Or better yet, use separate physical drives for different OSes.

[-] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 week ago

Problem is, Linux Mint installer says nothing about that as far as I recall, and just offers a convenient slider to allocate space between Windows and Linux.

And that was my first computer. Yeah, I am relatively new to computers.

But hey, I only lasted with Windows for 2 days. In Windows 10 I couldn't even wrap my head around when to use Control Panel and when settings, because look, mature OS, we have Settings 1 and Settings 2.
In comparison, Linux Mint 20 MATE was far simpler, so having really used neither, I went with the easier one. However, that doesn't mean I had any idea what I was doing. I didn't even understand the concept of partitions.
Just imagine a total newbie.
"Where is the file stored?"
"On... the computer...?"

load more comments (1 replies)

load more comments (9 replies)

[-] Sunsofold@lemmings.world 15 points 1 week ago

Installing windows for most of that time hasn't been a thing people do. They bought a computer and it had the internets (the picture with the blue e) and the word (the picture with the paper and a W) and that was pretty much them sorted. We're weird for knowing the difference and that's not a bad thing to be.

[-] Samskara@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 week ago

SUsE Linux had a nice GUI installer in 2005.

[-] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 week ago

Caldera had a GUI installer in 1998…

Caldera OpenLinux Installer

[-] paper_moon@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

I never used Caldera, but holy hell the font and design of this installer brings back so many memories.

load more comments (1 replies)

[-] pedz@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 week ago

Ugh. That reminds me of the Microsoft admin fanboys where I worked, dissing Linux because its all command lines, while saying that MS inventing PowerShell was a stroke of genius making their lives easier.

[-] foggy@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

I had a coworker, about 30 years old... Who taught computer science at a college prior to us working together... Who said to me "Command line? That stuffs ancient, man."

Just in case you were thinking about spending money on college tuition to learn computer science...

[-] Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 week ago

If an ancedote has someone questioning if they should go to college for computer science, they should definitely not be going to college for any degree.

load more comments (1 replies)

[-] elo13@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 week ago

Meanwhile in Finland my first exposure to a Unix shell was in an introductory IT course in uni, and that inspired me to switch to Linux four years ago. Without all of that I would have never got my current internship where 90% of my work is in the terminal.

[-] FosterMolasses@leminal.space 2 points 1 week ago

CAN CONFIRM LMAOOOO

Don't pay back your loans, it's all a scam hahaha

[-] LoafedBurrito@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

I am new to linux Mint and mullvad had an update ready, so i clicked update. It just stayed downloading on 0% for like 5 minutes, so i remembered this ISN'T WINDOWS. So i opened terminal and sudo apt upgrade and Mullvad was updated and new version installed.

It's weird how windows makes things looks easy, but then they don't work well. Linux makes things look difficult, but it they work well.

load more comments (3 replies)

[-] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Tbh, Installing Gentoo today is basically the same as it was in the first screenshot anyway :D But then again, most people would object to conflating the Gentoo installation to the "Linux installation"

[-] Digit@lemmy.wtf 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

And there be ways to install gentoo [based respins] with a gui, even 20 years ago.

load more comments (4 replies)

[-] Digit@lemmy.wtf 5 points 1 week ago

Uhhh. No.

Is this like the time that travel journalist was in Hungary, saw 1 cow, that happened to be white, then wrote "all the cows in Hungary are white"?

Over 20 years ago, I installed linux with a gui (suse, as easy as ubuntu to install, before ubuntu), and still could. At the same time, could also install Gentoo, and still do. Free to choose how to install linux, any of many ways, gui or not, then as now.

... Was this made by a windows user, and windows only gives you one way, and they thought that's what it was like with Free Software too?

[-] bossjack@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Think you're taking this too seriously.

To the average Joe, yeah, Windows is easier to install than ever. But to anyone with a passing interest in the OS has needed to do more and more work just to keep the OS recognizably sane vs the mess it has become.

Contrast that to Linux, which has stayed recognizably sane or even getting better.

[-] Tja@programming.dev 4 points 1 week ago

Think you're taking this too seriously.

Welcome to Linux. You'll hate it here.

[-] chaogomu@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Hell, I looked at installing Slackware again a few months back. I think I've said enough.

Coincidentally, I actually did install Slackware as one of my first distros some 20 years ago. I actually had one of those old Linux for Dummies books, which made the experience close to painless.

Sadly, the call of PC gaming pulled me back to windows for a while. But with Steam, and more specifically Proton, now those calls are coming from inside the house.

load more comments (1 replies)

[-] kepix@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

3 out of 4 panels should be a picture where the operating system cant find the proper drivers

load more comments (1 replies)

[-] vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 1 week ago

i installed mandrake in 2004. It came with a nice graphical installer.

[-] douglasg14b@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Such a shame that Wayland did away with accessibility APIs which makes switching a hard stop for those of us with disabilities that rely on software that works with these APIs.

They work with X11, which had consistent APIs, but Wayland leaves it up to each distro to implement their own APIs, if they do at all, fragmenting the ecosystem.

Hell, even mouse acceleration curves are skuffed now, it really sucks.

[-] enumerator4829@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

X11 still works fine, despite the FUD.

Xfce4 is one option, several others exist.

load more comments (1 replies)

[-] RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com 3 points 1 week ago

windows xp WAS NOT 20 years ago

[-] SatyrSack@quokk.au 6 points 1 week ago

24 years ago! Don't forget to schedule your colonoscopy.

October 25, 2001

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP

[-] ClockworkOtter@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Don't schedule a colonoscopy unless you have symptoms of a GI disorder, or unexplained weight loss. The evidence does not support non-targeted screening programs.

[-] SatyrSack@quokk.au 3 points 1 week ago

What should be my default "Remember that you're getting old!" helpful tip now, then?

[-] RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Check your linkin park cds for disc rot.

[-] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 week ago

Ugh yeah. I've been slowly backing up my wife's, my parents', and my own music CDs, and while it thankfully hasn't gotten to many of them, it's ate enough to be annoying.

Especially because my wife's collection is mostly very specific performances of classical music and operas, which can make finding rips difficult when it's not a particularly popular recording.

And the CD-Rs are almost all toast. I'm lucky the old family PC HDDs still have most of the old family photos, so I've been able to back them up. Can't believe we used to think that backing up the pictures to disc would last longer.

load more comments (1 replies)

load more comments (2 replies)

load more comments (6 replies)

[-] ulterno@programming.dev 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Also, Green on Black is subjectively better than White on Blue.

spoiler

No puns here.
Keep it out of the gutter.

[-] regdog@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

This meme would be better if it were:

left column: 20 years ago
right column: today

[-] criticon@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago

20 years ago it was way easier to install Linux from a boot disk (like ubuntu or suse) than windows from scratch. Sometimes XP didn't have the necessary drives and you'd need to find bootable drivers and load them from a floppy disk

It was even easier to install OSx86 on my laptop than windows vista from scratch in 2007

Maybe this is one of those thinking that 20 years ago was the 90s

[-] jaybone@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 week ago

Yeah in 2005 every major distro had a decent clean gui installer. I recall at the time using fedora. Then Ubuntu a few years later.

But god help you if you needed wifi drivers.

Even in the 90s Redhat had a decent installer.

[-] atthecoast@feddit.nl 2 points 1 week ago

Lots of remarks here on Linux GUI, but Windows installations of XP and 2000 all started in DOS with a blue background and yellow progress bar…

[-] Zink@programming.dev 2 points 1 week ago

I don't think I ever messed with the Windows 3.1 OS on my family's 486, but from Windows 95 and onwards I've done multiple installs of all the consumer versions of windows and was an avid user of win2k at the time. And for Windows 11 I have only ever installed it in a VM on a Linux machine to test Windows tools that are part of our builds at work.

I've also installed the last couple versions of Linux Mint a few times on some newer and older PCs. And some other distros in VMs for various reasons.

ALL of my recent Linux installs have gone far more smoothly and quickly than ANY Windows installs I remember.

Old windows? Better.

New Linux? Best!

[-] toddestan@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

The installing Windows 20 years ago panel is missing the bit where you have to push F6 and have a floppy disk handy with the drivers for your storage device. Yes, an actual floppy disk. Ditto for all the other drivers (video, sound, network, etc.) that you usually had to install once you were booted into the OS.

load more comments (2 replies)

[-] BilSabab@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

My favorite conspiracy of the moment is that Microsoft intentionally does this New Coke thing and then they will roll out actually good Windows and make all of DA MONY AND KEEL DA LEENOOCKS DIZIZZ. But it's Microsoft, so the long game will go on forever and there will be no pay off. Also - Mint is soooo gooooood to use compared to Win11

load more comments (13 replies)

load more comments

this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2025

188 points (98.0% liked)

linuxmemes

28664 readers

141 users here now

Hint: :q!

Sister communities:

Community rules (click to expand)

1. Follow the site-wide rules

Instance-wide TOS: https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/
Lemmy code of conduct: https://join-lemmy.org/docs/code_of_conduct.html

2. Be civil

Understand the difference between a joke and an insult.

Do not harrass or attack users for any reason. This includes using blanket terms, like "every user of thing".

Don't get baited into back-and-forth insults. We are not animals.

Leave remarks of "peasantry" to the PCMR community. If you dislike an OS/service/application, attack the thing you dislike, not the individuals who use it. Some people may not have a choice.

Bigotry will not be tolerated.

3. Post Linux-related content

Including Unix and BSD.

Non-Linux content is acceptable as long as it makes a reference to Linux. For example, the poorly made mockery of sudo in Windows.

No porn, no politics, no trolling or ragebaiting.

Don't come looking for advice, this is not the right community.

4. No recent reposts

Everybody uses Arch btw, can't quit Vim, <loves/tolerates/hates> systemd, and wants to interject for a moment. You can stop now.

5. 🇬🇧 Language/язык/Sprache

This is primarily an English-speaking community. 🇬🇧🇦🇺🇺🇸

Comments written in other languages are allowed.

The substance of a post should be comprehensible for people who only speak English.

Titles and post bodies written in other languages will be allowed, but only as long as the above rule is observed.

6. (NEW!) Regarding public figures

We all have our opinions, and certain public figures can be divisive. Keep in mind that this is a community for memes and light-hearted fun, not for airing grievances or leveling accusations.

Keep discussions polite and free of disparagement.

We are never in possession of all of the facts. Defamatory comments will not be tolerated.

Discussions that get too heated will be locked and offending comments removed.

Please report posts and comments that break these rules!

Important: never execute code or follow advice that you don't understand or can't verify, especially here. The word of the day is credibility. This is a meme community -- even the most helpful comments might just be shitposts that can damage your system. Be aware, be smart, don't remove France.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

poopsmith@lemmy.world

zephyr@lemmy.world

rtxn@lemmy.world