(The answer to "what is a distro really providing" is probably "work through a Linux From Scratch install, and then you'll see" but I'm hoping to discover the answer to my question in a less … educational … way)
@david @codesections Slackware floppies! Or, maybe you remember SLS? 🙂
I guess I'm also "old enough", but sadly didn't get into Linux until far too late for that
@codesections I’m old enough to remember when everybody was installing applications from source, and a “distribution” was just that—an installer for the kernel, bootloader, and some basic software you would then use to bootstrap your working system.