Comment by imiric

:) It's difficult to imagine this today, but back then most households had a single ("the") computer shared by everyone. This was a challenge for adventurous geeks interested in Linux for two reasons. First, you couldn't get help with setting up Linux from the internet if the computer was out of service or you couldn't get online (getting your "winmodem" recognized and working was an endeavor all by itself). So I totally relate to your trips to the library. I used to print all the possible manuals and tutorials up front before attempting an installation, and have all the drivers I might need on floppies ready to go.

But most importantly, if you messed up the Windows installation for any reason (Linux was unusable after all in those days for mere mortals...), you broke the machine for everyone else in the household. I remember getting into trouble for this several times, and tinkering with Linux was always a rush because of it. I finally got my own _personal_ computer a few years later, which was a huge relief.