this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2026
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in the early 00s my Dad and I bought a copy of Linux Mandrake from a Software ETC. didn't have much of a choice in the matter as unless you were in university or something that was the only way of getting it.
Man did we fuck up the family PC trying to install that thing. Came with a massive manual and my Dad figured he could do it cause he kinda sorta not really knew DOS. me? I knew how to put ram and a cpu in a computer. we were not prepared.
Unless you were in BFE, there were options for getting Linux delivered in the mid 90s.
I know I bought a Red hat 4 (not to be confused with RHEL) CD in the late 90s from some mail order thing.
This was actually "fill out a form and mail it". And they offered legit nearly every major distro. I think they even sold printed out copies of HOWTOs.
But it was quite cheap. Iirc it wasn't much more than postage and a small fee to cover time and materials.
And I paid C.O.D.
This wasn't a secret...I think I found the site either from usenet or EFnet #linux... but it wasn't like going to CompUSA.
I also remember seeing Walnut Creek FreeBSD and Slackware CDs at a nearby flea market (Flea@MIT) around then, too. Probably also the computer fairs as well.