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Where one can find ancient Linux distribution installation images (ISO) such as RedHat Linux 5 (not RHEL), early versions of Mandrake Linux?
el.pescado
Posted 2010-08-26T18:01:34.617
Reputation: 791
Where historic Linux distributions can be found?
Answers
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ftp://archive.download.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/ has every released version of RedHat. ftp://archive.debian.org/debian-archive/ has every released version of Debian. Both have sources, binaries and installation floppy images but not isos.
http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/ has all out-of-support releases of Ubuntu.
http://snapshot.debian.org/ has almost every package that went through Debian unstable since March 2005.
ftp://distrib-coffee.ipsl.jussieu.fr/pub/linux/ has a grabbag of old-ish releases.
Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
Posted 2010-08-26T18:01:34.617
Reputation: 58 319
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For some REALLY old distributions see oldlinux.org. Their collection is far away for complete but on the other hand there seems to be couple of gems like Caldera 1.0 prerelease or SuSE Linux 1.0.
Many educational ftp sites do still host quite ancient releases, but a quick peek lead me only to Red Hat 7.3 (at ftp.funet.fi), so that may still be a bit recent for you necromancer ... :-)
Janne Pikkarainen
Posted 2010-08-26T18:01:34.617
Reputation: 6 717
Wow, Caldera. That was my first taste of Linux. – lamcro – 2010-08-26T19:21:24.200
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The FTP sites that host the files (like the .edu sites) usually don't delete the old files. Like here for example you can get manndrake all the way back to 2004.
Jarvin
Posted 2010-08-26T18:01:34.617
Reputation: 6 712
I'd like some older ones. You cannot find any RedHat Linux distributions there. – el.pescado – 2010-08-26T18:14:43.450
@el.pescado: My suggestion was more of a general one with an example. You can find FTP Mirrors to most distributions that go back for years. Looks like Mandrake was first released in 1998, so I'm not sure if that is when this particular FTP started hosting the files, or they just keep 6 years worth of data, but perhaps you could look through a few of the different mandrake mirrors. – Jarvin – 2010-08-26T19:47:50.453
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I have found so far:
- ftp://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/pub/linux/distributions/ (RH 7.3)
- http://redhat.lsu.edu/ (RH 5.2 - this one rocks!)
el.pescado
Posted 2010-08-26T18:01:34.617
Reputation: 791
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Really, check the long-standing FTP sites. You can still get Slackware distributions from disturbingly long ago that way.
SysAdmin1138
Posted 2010-08-26T18:01:34.617
Reputation: 5 239
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Red Hat Commercial Linux 2.1 (from 1995) can be found at http://cd.textfiles.com/infomagic/imagicldr199511/disk2/ .
john_e
Posted 2010-08-26T18:01:34.617
Reputation: 646
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I have Mandrake 8.0 Traktopel on my website as of now, 6.1, 7.0, and 7.1 coming shortly; along with Caldera OpenLinux 2.2 and X11 and Console Utilities from TuCows Linux. I have only been able to get Traktopel working, and on the ancient VMware 3.x, so the others are untested.
https://sites.google.com/site/fedorafiles/linux-stuff/old-linux-distros
Have fun!
Ihatewindows
Posted 2010-08-26T18:01:34.617
Reputation: 1
Redhat Linux 5 not RHEL? RHEL is Redhat Linux is it not? – Chris – 2010-08-26T19:10:50.307
1No. RHEL is RedHat Enterprise Linux. It is somehow successor of RedHat Linux. RedHat 5.0 is based on Linux 2.0, RHEL 5.0 on Linux 2.6 - that's HUGE difference;) – el.pescado – 2010-08-26T20:43:53.437