Installing SUSE Linux 7.0 on the $5 Windows 98 PC!

[@krovelMx]

35:40 you drew that "B" so masterfully that it immediately made me think it was not a "B", nor an accident 😂

[@Wzeyisbacklmao]

Lmao wtf

[@ZanyCat]

penith

[@philtkaswahl2124]

Box: Promises to get it up and running in 20 minutes. Video length: 42+ minutes. MJD audience: Leaning forward expectantly.

[@clashblaster]

To be fair, he got it up and running in less than 20 minutes of video time.

[@CameronReape]

@@clashblasterthe rest was fighting X11

[@ShadowTheHedgehog85]

I'm actually from Nuremberg, where SuSE has its HQ. Back in the 90s, when I was in school we exclusively used SuSE for all Linux stuff. They even moved their offices to a building directly opposite my school. But the old offices were the best. Looked like a real nerd space. I know because I went there whenever a new version was released, because they gave the predecessor edition away for free to students.

[@vetrixfx9264]

yoo wie cool ist das denn ist aber suse wirklich noch in Nürnberg ansässig? ich dachte die sind lange weg von da

[@sasha-fe2bl]

​@@vetrixfx9264they have a couple german offices but their hq is in luxembourg now

[@PlaidDin]

Yooo! :0 This is so cool! Would you happen to know who the artist behind the chameleon illustrations is? 👉👈 They're so sweet!

[@ShadowTheHedgehog85]

@@vetrixfx9264 SuSE ist noch immer in Nürnberg ansässig. Mittlerweile in einem Business-Park an der Frankenstraße.

[@ShadowTheHedgehog85]

@@PlaidDin I don't know the artists name, sorry. But by the level of geeks and hackers that SuSE used to be back in these days, it must have been some talented SuSE employee.

[@RadikAlice]

Seeing old KDE is always a treat

[@DryPaperHammerBro]

Try trinity! It's mate for KDE 3!

[@RadikAlice]

@@DryPaperHammerBro Haven't heard that name in a hot minute!

[@judgedreadloomy2889]

I agree. I didn’t get into Linux til 2015. It’s always nice to look back.

[@loz9324]

it really a treat. my first introduction to linux was at a computer convention in the 90s. my dad would take me to them and he showed me an "alternative os" computer that was using KDE

[@KayBearYT]

This has to be the greatest Return on Investment! How many videos have you produced involving the $5 PC😂👍

[@RemnantCult]

The early days of Linux distributions will never not be interesting. Those were the pioneer days in a way.

[@distinctdipole]

This brought back some memories. Back in 1999, I worked for a web solutions company. All our local machines ran Linux and the StarOffice 5.2 integrated desktop was set as the admin team's graphical shell under XF86. Pig to setup but once done, ran flawlessly. The rest of us used KDE or FVWM.

[@jeffreyparker9396]

This brings back memories, the first Linux distro that I used was SUSE 7.1, followed closely by SUSE 7.3.

[@pianokeyjoe]

Funny, I used 7.1 personal successfully with my P2 system with ATI Rage Pro and then I went to 7.3 which I used on a few other P3 systems also successfully, but wow, SuSE became my go to Linux distro because of these 2 distro versions. In the end, the kind of PC hardware used IS a major factor in the "Have Alot Of Fun" part of the experience.. if not? Sucks to be us back in 1999/2000 lol!

[@jeffreyparker9396]

@@pianokeyjoe yeah, I ended up with SUSE because it was the only Linux distro that actually booted successfully on my computer, due to my lack of experience with Linux at the time I didn't even do any troubleshooting when it wouldn't boot.

[@Derpingtonshere]

Man that box and the stuff that comes with it is just a beautiful thing. I remember getting things like this back in the day and just getting giddy with excitement over the experience that is about to come... I wish I still had these but unfortunately they all burned in a house fire. I am super glad I get to see someone experience things like this for the 1st time because you seem just as passionate about these things as I am. Thank you for the videos and I cannot wait to see what you have in store for the next video!

[@eastfrisianguy]

SuSE was quite well-known in Germany during the early 2000s (my school used it) and especially after 2005 with openSUSE (which was free), because computer magazines regularly included it on their CDs/DVDs. At that time, not everyone had internet access to download it (and downloading it would take forever anyway). I tested it around 2005 on my old AMD-K6 PC, but unfortunately, it kept freezing. Somehow, I friend of mine re-configured X11 and after that it worked fine. It's nice to see how much more advanced the development of Linux is today-I'm watching the video on Linux Mint 22.

[@adey88splace]

I love it when literature is included in the install packages. It is helpful at times.

[@JeordieEH]

I still use and loved SuSE. I had the professional version of 7 8 and 9. I remember getting case badge suse stickers and they were awesome. I remember not having a lot on my computer and didn't want to buy a whole lot of software. Yet I wanted a whole lot of software to make my computer interesting. I remember hearing about linux and wanting to try it, I had gotten a hold of red hat, suse 6 and wanted to try debian. I seen SuSE and heard about it being a good distro if you want a lot of software. I seen the professional edition in the store one day and just had to grab a copy. I loaded up my computer with everything I could install off of 7 cd's. My computer was well used. I had windows for gaming, software and productivity and server stuff on linux. I eventually started running two computers with a kvm to have more linux in my life, because gaming just required windows.

[@courtneymertz4596]

I love using openSUSE! I use it on my main desktop PC, and on the new laptop that I got this year! I really like how stable and up to date openSUSE is, I really like the packages it uses, YAsT is a god tier settings manager, and I love the mascot both SUSE and openSUSE have! I did read that openSUSE will be changing its branding, along with the name, but thankfully, the team behind openSUSE is willing to do that task. I’m really excited to see what name they will decide on, and that the openSUSE project will still be alive and well! ❤

[@No-mq5lw]

SUSE is my #2 Linux distro behind Gentoo specifically because of YaST. The mix of bleeding edge, moderately up to date, and LTS all under the same umbrella is extremely neat.

[@Crixer234]

What've heard that was not 100% true, SUSE was **suggesting** changing the name, but they are not making any demands, or suggesting pulling any funding but i believe a community member did not took this well and portrayed the suggestion as a demand and many Linux news sites took it as a demand by sourcing their posts.

[@vetrixfx9264]

i hope they stick to the chameleon branding in some way

[@mistie710]

I've been using SuSE since before this version (I switched from RedHat 5.2 to SuSE 6.x many years ago!). I didn't really use KDE2 much but after SuSE became openSUSE I did start using KDE3. Now running openSUSE 15 and I STILL USE KDE3!!!

[@domesticcanadian]

Damn and MJD and Bringus video on the same day. Life is looking good. I'd love to see a Collab with you two.

[@JordonAM]

Just actually got finished watching Bringus's video. That would actually be pretty cool

[@ciach0_]

Finally, I was missing when things went wrong

[@xqtggru]

what do you mean?

[@ciach0_]

@@xqtggru this wouldn't be a classic MJD video without things going wrong, and today we had the system hanging up and the installation was stuck on X11 config

[@xqtggru]

@@ciach0_ 😃👍

[@whaletech07]

Fun fact: openSUSE and SUSE Linux are entirely different projects made by different developers. openSUSE has got consent from SUSE to use their branding, but SUSE has recently asked openSUSE to rebrand.

[@cameronbosch1213]

That seems to be changing soon though.

[@spatiumowl]

​@@cameronbosch1213Yeah, SUSE has politely asked OpenSUSE to change their branding

[@RadikAlice]

Was gonna comment that very thing

[@kyle8952]

That's not a "fun fact", it's wrong. OpenSUSE was created by moving the development branch of SLES outside of SUSE the company into it's own nonprofit org, as a way for SUSE to save money. (you don't pay community volunteers). Every release of commercial SUSE Linux (SLES etc) has been created by taking an OpenSUSE release and adding a few small proprietary things, then selling with a support package. SUSE are putting pressure on the openSUSE board to change their branding, because OpenSUSE branding makes people think "Why should I pay for SLES if I can get almost the same thing for free?" They are still just putting openSUSE in a box and selling it for money, that does not change.

[@Qyngali]

@@kyle8952 another reason is that people confuse the 2 and asks for support in the wrong places.

[@CoolestFireySpartanEver]

Oh boy! Another Michael MJD Video? MJD, I love your content! I'll have a new OS coming in October, but if I finish it, I'll let you experience it first!

[@repoversemedium]

finally, peak OS on the peak $5 98 PC

[@gkcadadr]

Wow. SuSE 7 or 8 was my first Linux, I had bought a copied CD off of a dodgy local computer repair shop. Then Mandrake, then god knows what. I think I was 11 at the time. Almost 20 years ago now…

[@ikemkrueger]

Mandrake was awesome!

[@FlyboyHelosim]

Mandrake Linux 8.0 was my first experience of Linux, and let's just say that although intriguing, not exactly a good one. LOL

[@iltrovatoremanrico]

A huge thank you for this nostalgic trip down memory lane! SuSE was my first Linux ever, this brought me goosebumps!

[@HorrorFuse]

WOOO THE 98 PC IS BACK AND THINGS ARE FINALLY GONNA GO WRONG AGAIN- Also funny thing I was actaully watching a video about free geek twin cities lol (bringus's e-waste unboxing video) lol, anyways another awesome mjd video! keep up the good work man!

[@jonathanthegoober]

I love the linux penguin plush

[@e1woqf]

I've got one sitting here. I bought it together with my SuSE 6.4 CDs back then; the CDs don't exist anymore, but the plushie is just fine.

[@eugiblisscast]

I would love to have one too!

[@e1woqf]

@@eugiblisscast Just google "TUX plush" , choose "images" and pick one you like. Tuxedocomputers still has a TUX penguin plushie that looks exactly like the one I've got from SuSE for just 30 € plus shipping. The original manufacturer , Steiner, has it too, but for more than double the price 🥴 Good luck getting one!

[@Henk717]

Michael you should do Knoppix 4, its a fantastic look at what Linux used to be back than and for many here in europe their first Linux experience.

[@delajt]

Wow, I see your boxed copy and think "I had something like that, but in green", sure enough you see that one in de installation manual you are showing, the professional version! Good stuff, thanks for the video! Oh and before anyone asks, I didn't even use it for a week back then, oops. Got OpenSuse on my laptop these days ;-)

[@whtiequillBj]

@16:09, The Riva card is nVidia.

[@CDiepenbroek]

These old distros really bring me back to a jankier time. Thanks!

[@GeekyGami]

Fyi on most Linux distros if you do CTRL+ALT+Function key, you can open up terminals. It's likely X crashed but the rest of the system is fully operational.

[@IkarusKommt]

Those won't work if X crashed.

[@GeekyGami]

@@IkarusKommt As far as I've been able to tell, they do. X is the graphical server. Once it crashes, it freezes, but you can still perform CTRL+ALT+Function to switch to other terminals X was not running in, and those will work. They're full-on BASH terminals, not terminal emulators for the DE.

[@IkarusKommt]

@@GeekyGami All keyboard input passes through X. If X stopped working, Ctrl+Alt+Del will do nothing. Only Magic SysRq will probably work.

[@GeekyGami]

@@IkarusKommt I'm talking about CTRL+ALT+F1, CTRL+ALT+F2, ect, not CTRL+ALT+DEL.

[@sohigh7433]

​@@GeekyGamiAs someone that has accidentally deleted X (while it was running lol) in my beginner days of Linux, CTRL+ALT+Function definitely works.

[@timb7085]

Another awesome video! I used a SUSE version of linux for a server way back then - it was a pretty stable system and competed with Red had at the time for server installations. (I ultimately went with Red Hat for other servers and was much happier) - Thanks again!

[@davidkshow]

I love Linux, MJD!

[@shibamancer]

Fun fact: KDE 6 still comes with that exact Sokoban game. I recently installed Arch + KDE on my laptop and spent hours playing it.

[@BoringSims]

The GUI from this era of Linux always gives me so much nostalgia. It just looks so crisp and clean.

[@BlueRidgeCritter]

This was a lot of fun to watch, because I remember that release, buying the box set and taking it home and being real excited. I loved getting box sets of SuSE. I still have my plush gecko around here somewhere. 😂 That was my go-to distribution for several years, but it went off the rails when it split and I never thought opensuse ran nearly as well. I tried it recently just for fun and old time's sake, and took it off the same day.

[@jcas]

Dude, so many memories! I didn’t use suse back in the day, I remember I saw it in a shelf of a local software store for 800mxn (like 30usd in todays money). But I actually used star office 5.2 for windows and it is exactly as you have shown. I feel a little bit nostalgic now lol

[@bubbles581]

I ran SuSE for a few years. Its a pretty solid distro. For a while it had better config tools than many distros did.

[@pianokeyjoe]

Hi MJD, the S3 Virge card is notorious for locking up or having glitchy graphics in Linux of ANY kind. I will say if you had chosen VESA for the monitor, and SVGA for the driver, it may have worked with the onboard card. Funny enough, I installed SUSE 7.0 on a P3 but I have the ATI Rage Pro AGP card for that. These older Linux distros are known to be very unstable and glitchy with alot of things we take for granted in Windows and err..em.. Linux now days? So there is that.

[@vinson3725]

Funnily enough, old linux is far more stable in my experience than modern Linux lol

[@quertize]

For Nvidia cards you can use Diamond Viper 330/550/770 for Riva 128, Riva TNT and Riva TNT 2 respectively. These should be in this vintage of xf86config.

[@nicholashoi3155]

35:40 The way you drew was so smooth that it doesn't look like a B AT ALL

[@Rouxenator]

The name S.u.S.E. was an acronym for Software- und System-Entwicklung (Software and Systems Development) - wow - so original

[@LarixusSnydes]

I bought the 7.0 professional version instead and the books that came with the package were really cool. My first SuSE and also my first Linux install ever was a 6.4 version on a Walnut Creek sampler, but that was quite difficult to get working properly on my P100 Laptop. The 7.0 experience went a lot smoother already. Warm feelings. Much later I got the beloved Chameleon mascot plushy from a colleague of mine.

[@LilCow]

This is fascinating. I didn't get into Linux until SuSE 9.0 and by then things were a bit more convenient. It is neat seeing 90's SuSE. Haha the only reason I tried SuSE as my first distro was because of Geeko.

[@NiyaKouya]

Oh the memories. Back in the early 2000s a schoolmate was a real linux fanboy and had a boxed version of SUSE Linux as well. Can't remember which version, just that it came on IIRC 6+ CDs. Really interesting how far linux and its DEs have come. Who would have thought back then that linux would one day run on most web servers, routers and other (network) electronics as well as many smartphones. Just the PC/laptop market hasn't been conquered largescale yet, but with the direction MS is heading it's only a matter of time...

[@UrekGamer123]

Legendary 5$ 98 PC is back!

[@gentuxable]

StarOffice 5.2 was available on multiple magazine CDs back then. Lotus SmartSuite did the same, it looked like an effort to not lose everyone to Microsoft Office (and Works) because especially the latter often came bundled with the PC.

[@css1323]

Love the cute lizard stickers and Linux pin ❤

[@MegaManNeo]

This is very interesting to watch for me. I know the first SuSE I tried had some version of KDE 3.X on it, so it must have been 8.2 rather than 7.2 for me. Took me quite back in time and seeing that StarOffice internal startmenu which was also part of the trial version on Windows back then convinces me, it was an actual part of the software.

[@joshwa1234]

2:55 Love the stickers!

[@mattm7220]

For some reason, the way he said "multimedia" reminded me of the quote: "multimedia is just like regular media, but not as good"

[@benjamindepaz8429]

I love SUSE. That’s my go to Linux distribution. SUSE Linux 7.3 Professional was the first Linux distro I ever purchased/downloaded. I really like the Yast tool that’s available on both the SUSE Enterprise Linux and openSUSE.

[@betathwomp]

YES THE 98 PC IS BACK

[@attack0nmem0ry]

(My dumb thought @9:20:) "We've now got 666 packages installed..." Nice!🤘😈 Lol.

[@dheavy4524]

10:55 be like when Al Michaels said I thought they were already doing that 🤣

[@kFY514]

Pro tip: on most Linux desktop environments, you can hold Alt and drag the window by anywhere in its contents to move it when you can't see the title bar.

[@BekoPharm]

Now that was a trip down memory lane :D SuSE 7.x was what I started with years ago 🤓 It had this one advantage over Win98 that sold me: It did play mp3 without starting to stutter the moment some other program required CPU cycles and as we all know: music is important 🤣

[@kFY514]

I can confirm that configuring the graphics mode in those early pre-Xorg days was a nightmare. xf86config was basically useless for anything better than 640x480 at 16 colors, and that's why a lot of distros started shipping their own tools, like SaX in SuSE, Xconfigurator in Red Hat and so on, which usually had much better success rate at actually getting you to a usable desktop. Fortunately, things got much better with XFree86 4.x, which this version of SuSE seems to include alongside earlier 3.x (probably to maximize compatibility) and then Xorg, so by the mid-2000s all those nightmares of X configuration programs turned into all but just a bad memory.

[@snich1950]

"Oh my god, it's a big dingus!" - Tyler from Brewstew

[@thatoneuser5066]

Take a look at Damn Small Linux 2024, which is currently in RC status and fits on a CD. It should be compatible with the 98 PC.

[@lpclassic60]

Something about buying Linux in a box from Best Buy has serious "Netflix used to come in the mail" energy

[@XuanThaoYenTram]

Probably the greatest return on investment. For those looking for something industry-specific, Immersive Translate now allows you to customize your own AI expert, it also allows translations in the technology field become more accurate and professional.

[@kbhasi]

Some Linux window managers let you move a window by holding down [Alt] and dragging anywhere inside the window to move it, which was helpful for instances where the window was larger than the screen area.

[@catgame515]

Good video

[@Railgun18]

This is crazy, just yesterday I was watching the old Windows 98 pc videos thinking that I would like to see a video for a linux distro on it

[@FlipidusX]

i live in Fürth, Germany - The town where SuSE have his roots 🙂 but they dont get far, the head quarters are in Nuremberg, the town next to Fürth 😀

[@fra4455]

Great video

[@BenceNyitrai-df2tt]

i have the same boxed suse linux 7 and it has all the stickers as well, its cool

[@drigondii]

This reminds me of the summer i spent putting SUSE 9 on school computer systems

[@Yeen125]

IIRC SUSE Linux is still used by retailers (eg Walmart) to run their cash registers/point of sale servers.

[@ParallelogramCH]

I'm in Switzerland and I saw a SUSE Linux Enterprise wallpaper on a produce scale in the supermarket the other day.

[@WellBeSerious12]

At the time, as an alternative to Windows, it's quite good; as long as you weren't aware of, or used, Windows programs. It's got plenty of programs for productivity, information gathering/sharing, entertainment, development, and more. Although it wouldn't compete against Windows XP's compatibility, it certainly should run faster than RTM/SP1/SP2/SP3, be more secure, and may be more stable(?). Versus Windows 2000, 2000 is more stable, popular/known, supported - but less secure and costlier (SUSE 7 - "The recommended retail price of SUSE Linux 7.0 Personal is $39.95. SUSE Linux 7.0 Professional is $69.95."). Versus Windows 98 Second Edition, it's probably a good alternative if you weren't a gamer or relied strictly on Windows programs/services. Also openSUSE is a thing we'd enjoy you reviewing!

[@kemi242]

SuSE 7 was my first experience with Linux. As far as I remember I got it free from the CD attachment of PC World magazine. I still have PTSD from messing around in SaX to set the correct graphics mode.

[@HisVirusness]

I remember using a similar install of KDE back then. It's a good thing modern KDE is nothing like it.

[@paulrobertmarino7623]

Star Office from Star Division (the original creator) was free for personal and educational use but required payment for business use. also the check lists on the box don't tell the full story of the differences between the personal and pro versions of SuSE the pro version had many more games and other software the Pro version was 6 disks and also came with a live CD which could run entirely off the CD or with a partial install in disk image files stored in a Win9x fat partition also for the best SuSE classics experience i would recommend SuSE 8.x which was the last release before Novel acquired them and did Novel things to them.

[@Diamond_Tiara]

Ah YaST, I loved how that was facilitating the install back then, it still remains a good manager. As for the bugs, should have left the graphics card and just test at 1280x1024 at 24bit I am sure it would have handled it with no bugs with the generic driver.

[@barusuuu]

ah suse, the bane of my existence in my previous job 😅

[@dyter424]

I have a boxed copy of SUSE 7.3 Professional which has been a nightmare to set up. Tried three different motherboards and a laptop, and it would either lock up immediately at the beginning of setup or kernel panic after the first phase. Turned out the hard drive was bad, but apparently this OS is extremely picky about hardware. After many attempts I finally had success with an Asus P4B and a P4 at 2 GHz. Unfortunately, while the graphics card was detected (GeForce 2 MX 400), 3D acceleration was not available without proprietary drivers. I found them on some obscure Nvidia FTP server but apparently they were too new and may have broken the install. Yeah. Guess I'll try again with a TNT2 or a Rage 128 or even a Matrox G450.

[@mikechappell4156]

No experience with Suse, but used RHL 7.2 circa 2000. Getting the xserver configured was work. The Xserver locked up more often than the Kernel. You could frequently kill the Xserver with [CTRL]+[ALT]+[BKSP]. I think you could move windows with ALT+Left click and drag I think. In RH it appears to work with gnome, kde and twm. (I think I used used VESA when configuring X.)

[@FlyboyHelosim]

The thing about these old Linux distros is they make you think you're getting loads of stuff, what with the menus in the 'Start' button, until you realize they just have an entry for every single thing including individual settings that in Windows would come under Control Panel, for example.

[@IkarusKommt]

Back there there was no declarative languages for the UI in the toolkits, so you couldn't have complex UIs. That's why there was so many separate dialogs.

[@FlyboyHelosim]

@@IkarusKommt I'm not sure I buy that. I mean, referring to Windows legacy Control Panel again, they could have just had one shortcut to a folder containing most of those items instead of every little thing as a cascading, pop-out, menu item. Many modern Linux distros also have shortcuts for every item, making it look cluttered, so even modern design languages don't appear to help that. What's funny is that even Windows 3.1 had this stuff figured out.

[@DimasFajar-ns4vb]

peace be upon you sir

[@iannicolson]

9:59 - Back then Covid clearly meant something different 💀

[@dylanstoesz1324]

I want that inflatable penguin. He looks so dumb I love it

[@mchenrynick]

I always forget that GIMP was called THE GIMP back in the day.

[@mateimatei3725]

That Linux Seems Sus lol

[@jonathanthegoober]

sussy linux

[@mateimatei3725]

@@jonathanthegoober shame the sticker covered the second S and Sus would have been on the box

[@ncot_tech]

I still have nightmares from running xf86config and manually editing modelines from early Linux. And I thought I was free, but now the terror has been replaced by making the nvidia drivers work.

[@Wolferia]

I love your videos

[@borlibaer]

These days I started with SuSE 6.4 Professional for running Oracle 8i RDBMS on a Super Socket 7 ASUS with an Intel 233 MHz MMX upgraded AMD K6-2+ @550 MHz tuned. All SCSI RAID.

[@MGXDR]

SUSE Linux is really interesting😎

[@btarg1]

I love how KDE has been randomly locking up occasionally since the 90s

[@randomgreekhuman]

I LOVE THE 98 PC

[@SirChubbyBunny]

Woah, that merch for SuSe and Linux are pretty damn cool. Do you do scans or archiving for all the software, booklets, and other odds and ends that come with these kits? I'm not sure if these would possibly be seen as lost media nowadays - and I absolutely don't say this because I'd love to get prints of those stickers.

[@Megatog615]

Hey I just want to let you know that if you hold the ALT or WIN key(depending on the era of Linux desktop you're using) you can drag windows from anywhere inside them without needing the title bar.

[@D.G.M.]

I think that sometime after 2007 they reworked the X11 server so that it can autoconfigure itself without all that setup.

[@Evie]

yeah i havent used suse since there was a web interface for modifying the images

[@rhettbaldwin8320]

Send in that rebate!

[@andreabc1469]

my first Linux😍

[@RAMMSPECK]

I actually have a complete box of SuSE 7.0 Professional laying around here - I can upload the Disks on Internet Archive if anyone is interested (DVD was uploaded by someone already but I have the 6 CDs as well)

[@SlaviankaTrump]

love it

[@gluttonousmaximus9048]

35:04 I wish we could find a standalone copy of this thing. Especially since pacman is now a completely different thing in the linux space.

[@rahithahsan188]

2:49 I wish Microsoft also list stickers in Window Copies

[@ShpirtMan]

In many linux environments you can drag windows around by holding alt and left mouse button.

[@holyhelga]

yast installer was pretty good

[@Amstelchen]

I still have got my chameleon plushie which came with SuSE Linux 6.3...

[@danielkawano206]

Hi Michael, please check the video in the "command line" channel where he manage to install windows 10 on a Pentium II using QEMU to bypass the lack of SSE2 instructions. A similar video would be great at your channel :)