To install it I used something like 60-80 1.44" floppy disks on a Packard-Bell which I created using the network connection and computers at school. I successfully installed it, but I never got the video past 800x600 (though I played with modelines til my eyes crossed). My only network connection was a modem. I can't remember if I had ppp at that point, but something makes me think I did because I was so excited to have multiple shells connected to the school machines.
The whole reason for even trying was to get a unix environment at home to run LaTeX. I was in graduate school in the math dept at the University of Kentucky. I've been running some flavor of linux at home ever since (slackware, redhat, debian, centos, ubuntu).