alt Hacker NewsMy very first exposure to Linux was in 2000, my school was about to throw away an old gateway computer and I took it home and turned it into router
As a kid with no AI, no google, it was quite a feat and I’m still very proud of it
Was my introduction into how the internet works and I’ll never forget working with ipchains
I remember enduring a lot of people in forums calling me a noob, but only after spending collective hours answering my dumb questions
I credit a big part of my moderate success in tech, to being familiar with stuff at just a tad bit lower of a level than the average bear
To my friend Sam who I haven’t talked to in 20 years, thanks for the idea
Replies
Around the same time I set up an old pentium 80 that booted linux off a floppy to be a router. It ran for a few years later until Linksys wifi routers got cheaper.
Stories like these make me sad when I think about chat control and age verification. Kids in the future may no longer be allowed to talk to random helpful strangers on the internet about computers and other technical topics, because apparently the internet is too dangerous for children.