Nearly every Linux user seems to remember their first encounter with the OS. I decided to try booting up the first distro I ever tried, Knoppix, to see how well it held up since I first tried it over 20 years ago.

How Knoppix Ended Up My First Linux Distro

The reason that Knoppix was the first Linux distro I’d used was probably because of the TechTV show The Screen Savers. I loved the idea of a TV show devoted to computers and technology, having seen CNet in its TV incarnation, and caught bits of The Computer Chronicles. I must have caught some mention of Knoppix.

I’d heard of Linux, but also that trying to install it was difficult. The idea of a Linux distribution that you could boot off of a CD appealed to me, because I wouldn’t have to install it. I’d just gotten my first CD burner, so I was eager to explore Linux, since I’d heard about how good it was.

I downloaded a trial copy of Nero Burning ROM and extracted the ISO image to the CD. I changed the boot order in the BIOS (this being the pre-UEFI era) and I saw the classic Tux penguin logo in what I now know is the framebuffer, with all of those funny system messages.

Soon, I heard the voice saying, “Initiating startup sequence.” It seemed like a prime slice of ’90s techno-cheese.

I soon got to exploring the KDE (just KDE, no “Plasma”) desktop. It seemed close enough to Windows that I wasn’t totally lost. I tried launching the Mozilla browser (this was also the pre-Firefox era), and there was no connection. There was supposed to be a utility for connecting to the DSL modem I had, but it never seemed to work. Even in 2003, a computer without an internet connection seemed useless. Apart from some fiddling, I stuck with Windows.

My Subsequent Linux Journey

Since I’ve written about Linux at HTG and elsewhere, it’s obvious that my Linux journey didn’t end there. I knew how vital Linux and other open-source software were to the computer industry, even though I could only participate from the sidelines.

It was the Mac that ended up pushing me on to explore Unix and Linux further. Mac OS X, as macOS was called back then, was based on Unix. I’d started using it while studying video production in college. While it was great for working with video, I was able to discover the power of the command line through its Terminal application. That’s when I learned to navigate the shell and the directory, as well as launch editors like Emacs and Vim.

The addition of an my first Wi-Fi router, an Apple Airport, from back when they made routers, ended up aiding my exploration of Linux. Because the desktop PC now talked to the router instead of directly to the modem, this solved the problem of connectivity on Linux. I booted up Knoppix again and began to explore Linux again.

Now that I was comfortable with the Unix and Linux command line, as well as booting up Knoppix, the next step was to try installing a Linux distribution on the hard drive.

On the Mac, I had been using a package manager called Fink to install third-party apps. I could not only install command-line programs, but also graphical programs that could run using Apple’s X11 program.

Fink was patterned after the apt-get program used in Debian. Knoppix was also based on Debian. Given this familiarity, it seemed like Debian was an obvious choice for a “real” Linux system.

I downloaded a Debian “netinst” image and booted that up. The installation program was text-based, but I had first come into computing in the MS-DOS era, so that didn’t scare me. I did manage to get it installed, although Windows complained and ran Scandisk when it noticed that its partition was smaller now. I could now explore Linux fully.

In the mid-2000s, Ubuntu, which was also based on Debian, was hot, so I eventually tried that. Ubuntu seemed tantalizingly close to unseating macOS and Windows as desktop OSes of choice. I’ve largely stayed with Debian and Ubuntu, despite a brief detour early on into Slackware. The Debian style of system management feels like a comfortable pair of shoes I can slip into.

What’s Changed in Knoppix?

When I learned that HTG was having a “throwback” theme week, I took the opportunity to revisit my Linux origin story by booting up a newer version of Knoppix. Or at least relatively modern. The latest version of Knoppix is version 9.1, released in 2021. While this might be ancient in desktop Linux terms, the age of the software might be less of a liability for a live environment. Why worry about security when you can just reboot the system?

I downloaded a DVD image and booted into a virtual machine.

One thing that’s changed with Knoppix is its size. When Knoppix was first created, CD burners were still pretty new. DVD burners were largely nonexistent. Programs have grown larger, even on Linux. The default desktop environment is LXDE rather than KDE, though the latter is an option on the DVD image. Most people will likely use USB sticks to boot rather than optical media.

What’s comforting is how little has changed in the Knoppix experience. You get the same boot screen with the “cheat codes” that let you configure the system. I still have to use the option to configure the screen resolution.

The default browser is now Chromium instead of Firefox, though the latter is also still available.

Knoppix is still a full-featured system. I can do a lot of things I could do on any other system. I can open and create documents with LibreOffice. I can even play some games. I think no system is complete without a solitaire game (even for a Linux user, Microsoft’s version is a benchmark), and Knoppix is complete. The solitaire game is KDE’s version, KPatience. “Patience” is the term for what Americans like me call “solitaire.’ I played a few rounds of Klondike for good measure.

How Has Linux Changed Since Then?

Knoppix’s evolution has paralleled changes in Linux overall. Linux is a mainstream OS, except maybe on the desktop. It powers the internet and even the majority of smartphones via Android. Open source used to be the domain of geeks, but now it just seems to be the way to do things.

When Knoppix debuted, it popularized the concept of a live CD, having a complete system that you could launch from a disc without installing it. This was exciting to people like me who were Linux-curious but wanted an easy way to try it first to see if they liked it and if Linux liked their hardware, without committing to an installation.

Other methods of “trying before you buy” have appeared. Virtual machines didn’t really exist back then, but by the late 2000s were becoming viable even on cheap PCs. This also made it easier to try out Linux since you didn’t even have to reboot your computer.

The emergence of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) also changed the perception of Linux. Mirroring the way IBM had become an unlikely champion of Linux, the company that Linux users had loved to hate was making Linux available on Windows machines, and even telling people how to install Linux distros on their computers. You might be compelled to look out your actual window to scan for any airborne pork.

This exercise in booting up Knoppix again was a fun indulgence in nostalgia, but I can’t help but reflect on how far Linux has come over the 20 years that it’s been a part of my computing life.