I don't know about Ubuntu, but Linux, yes. The first time I got a video card working (anything but a text interface) took a year. That was probably 1995 / 1996.
There was an obscure configuration value I needed to specify the amount of ram my video card had.
Connecting to the internet, and getting sound working were always a major chore.
Nothing even made any attempt at auto-detecting your hardware (video card, audio, network card, etc.) until Knoppix came out. I guess that might have been 10 years ago. You had to figure out what your hardware was, find the right config file, and configure your computer to use that hardware. Before you got anywhere near even being able to use a mouse.
I'm still amazed how much stuff just works these days. Booting directly into X (the GUI) without any user intervention is nuts.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2010-08-11 05:23 pm (UTC)There was an obscure configuration value I needed to specify the amount of ram my video card had.
Connecting to the internet, and getting sound working were always a major chore.
Nothing even made any attempt at auto-detecting your hardware (video card, audio, network card, etc.) until Knoppix came out. I guess that might have been 10 years ago. You had to figure out what your hardware was, find the right config file, and configure your computer to use that hardware. Before you got anywhere near even being able to use a mouse.
I'm still amazed how much stuff just works these days. Booting directly into X (the GUI) without any user intervention is nuts.