My history with Linux goes pretty far back. IIRC the first Linux system I used was Slackware and the kernel version was 0.97. (Maybe 0.93?) That was long before loadable kernel modules and it was routine to compile your own kernel to support your particular H/W.
But actually I feel like my *nix history goes further back than that. The first project at my present client (where I'm working currently) was developed on DOS using the Intel tool chain. We obtained the MKS toolkit (an early commercial product that is much like the Cygwin tools.) Using that was a breath of fresh air compared to what was available on the DOS command line. (This was before Windows.) I was hooked.
When I bought my first PC it ran SCO Unix SVR3.2 (long before SCO became a tool of Microsoft.) (Actually that was my second PC, the first was a Heathklit H-8 that ran CP/M on a 92KB floppy diskette.
) I ran that for a while until I became angry that that I missed an SCO sale for a C++ compiler for under $500. At about that time IBM put OS/2 with their C++ compiler on sale for about $250 and I jumped ship. I missed a proper shell, but OS/2 had REXX which was pretty interesting. I used that for a while and even got some OS/2 work with a couple different clients.
Eventually it became clear that OS/2 wasn't going anywhere and I heard about Linux so I gave it a shot. It's been my primary OS ever since.
And back at my present client, they're evaluating Linux for a part of the system (unfortunately not the part I'm working on.) It seems like things have come full circle in a way.
Ahhhh... good times!
Thanks for the opportunity to reminisce.