Since I finally configured X11 in this VM for shenanigans …
The original tuXeyes running in a SuSE Linux 6.4 VM and my clone from 2017 (which does not depend on a now ancient version of Qt):
Of all the retro OSes that I’ve got running, SuSE 6.4 is clearly the most powerful one. It comes with a ton of software and development tools. Windows 2000, which was released around the same time, is basically “empty” in comparison.
But of course, none of that mattered. No popular software, no adoption. 😅 And yes, things like configuring the X server were stupid hard back then.