I really wish that I was born early so I’ve could witness the early years of Linux. What was it like being there when a kernel was released that would power multiple OSes and, best of all, for free?

I want know about everything: software, hardware, games, early community, etc.

  • dan@upvote.au
    8·
    4 hours ago

    +++ath0 is a command that tells a dial up modem to disconnect. I’ve never seen it used in IRC this way, but my guess is that the modem would see this coming from the computer and disconnect.

    This was back in the days when everything was unencrypted.

    • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      1 hour ago

      Yes, and encryption had nothing to do with it (though I suppose it would have prevented it in this case).

      A properly configured modem would ignore this coming from the Internet side, or escape the characters so that they didn’t form that string.

      • dan@upvote.au
        1·
        5 minutes ago

        Encryption would prevent it - that’s what I meant :)

        I think the trick is to convince someone to send that string, so the modem sees it coming from the computer. Similar to tricking someone into pressing Alt+F4 or Ctrl+Alt+Del twice on Windows 9x.