It wasn’t too early, maybe 1997.
I was like 12 or so and I had just installed Linux.
I figured out, from the book I was working with, how to get my windows partition to automaticallyount at boot. Awesome!
I had not been able to figure out how to start “x” though.
So I rebooted into Windows, for on EFnet #linux, and asked around.
Got a command, wrote it down on a slip of paper, and rebooted into Linux.
I should mention, I also hadn’t figured out about privileges, or at least why you wouldn’t want to run around as root.
Anyway, I started typing in the command that I wrote down: rm -rf /
.
I don’t have to tell you all, that is not the correct command. The correct command was startx
.
After I figured it was taking way too long, I decided to look up what the command does, and then immediately shut down the system.
It was far too late.
I decided long ago never to walk in anyone’s shadow.
If I fail, if I succeed… At least I lived as I believed.