>> How different is computing now compared to 1996?
Distributed computing went from being "something that is possible" to "the default". Otherwise, all the standard resources such as processors, RAM, disk, and networking all got faster and cheaper. USB revolutionized plugging in peripherals. All the CRT displays are gone.
From the Linux command line point of view, you're more likely to use tools written with python, perl, or ruby, but the big change there is package managers. You don't download source or binaries from FTP sites as often as you did in the old days.
Distributed computing went from being "something that is possible" to "the default". Otherwise, all the standard resources such as processors, RAM, disk, and networking all got faster and cheaper. USB revolutionized plugging in peripherals. All the CRT displays are gone.
From the Linux command line point of view, you're more likely to use tools written with python, perl, or ruby, but the big change there is package managers. You don't download source or binaries from FTP sites as often as you did in the old days.