It all depends on where you live. Before the internet you would get information by happenstance. I remember the good fortune of traveling to Scott’s valley and 15 year old me fan boy visited Borlands offices on a walk in whim I told them I was from Canada and that I was a huge fan and I programmed in turbo pascal. Hearing my story , thr receptionist gave me a patch disk for the compiler that I never would have had if I hadn’t been there ..

Just wild. I of course copied the disk to numerous friends with the gloat. “Look what I got”. Childish. Yes. But man I was NERD cool. :-)