I installed Slackware in the fall of 1994. I only had about 10 blank floppies so I would go to the computer lab and download the "A" base system, then wipe those, go back to the computer lab, download and install the "AP" application set, and so on for the development tools, X Windows System, and more. It took most of the weekend but it was amazing having a Unix system on my Pentium 90.
I had a brand new IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM which was not supported yet. About 6 months later it was and I started ordering the multi CD set from Walnut Creek cdrom.com every 6 months or so to get new distributions.
I was actually able to dual-boot and install from hard disk when I installed slackware in .. August 95? But, zmodem on a 14.4k modem meant each download took 12-13 minutes, so it was an entire weekend of just walking around the house with a kitchen timer and kicking off a new 'disk' each time it buzzed.
I had a brand new IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM which was not supported yet. About 6 months later it was and I started ordering the multi CD set from Walnut Creek cdrom.com every 6 months or so to get new distributions.