What Was Your First Computer?

[JERUS]

I almost never turn off my computer so I get one forced restart a month, no biggy. I will say 8/10 almost make me want to go linux, the reason I loved windows is because it wasn't so "user friendly" in that I find user friendly designs to be a PITA because I'm not used to it. What is right for most isn't right for me because I'm used to what was because I took the time to learn how to use it. So now all the "easy" things are hard for me

 

[AndriaD]

I almost never turn off my computer so I get one forced restart a month, no biggy. I will say 8/10 almost make me want to go linux, the reason I loved windows is because it wasn't so "user friendly" in that I find user friendly designs to be a PITA because I'm not used to it. What is right for most isn't right for me because I'm used to what was because I took the time to learn how to use it. So now all the "easy" things are hard for me

I agree; almost as soon as I cranked this one up, I downloaded a program to give me back the normal "desktop" -- it's called Pokki. The only time I ever see the screen with all the blocks on it is when I want to restart, and when it first starts up. I guess the "blocks" thing is probably great for touchscreens, and my laptop has that feature, but I have all my usual I/O devices plugged in, plus another monitor, so I very seldom ever need to touch the screen. I do love having dual monitors, though; I keep FF on the bigger one, a 19" widescreen samsung, and Chrome on the laptop's screen. Having 16gb so I can run both with umpteen tabs and never feel the difference, that's what I love best about this new laptop -- with my old xppro, I had to stop running FF because it was such a resource hog.

Andria

 

[JERUS]

I agree; almost as soon as I cranked this one up, I downloaded a program to give me back the normal "desktop" -- it's called Pokki. The only time I ever see the screen with all the blocks on it is when I want to restart, and when it first starts up. I guess the "blocks" thing is probably great for touchscreens, and my laptop has that feature, but I have all my usual I/O devices plugged in, plus another monitor, so I very seldom ever need to touch the screen. I do love having dual monitors, though; I keep FF on the bigger one, a 19" widescreen samsung, and Chrome on the laptop's screen. Having 16gb so I can run both with umpteen tabs and never feel the difference, that's what I love best about this new laptop -- with my old xppro, I had to stop running FF because it was such a resource hog.

Andria

I run 2 "monitors" too, the second being my TV, so I do all my computer stuff on the monitor and run whatever I want to watch on the second. While I somewhat regret buying this nice computer, I will say it's nice doing just liek you said, running whatever the hell I want and never having it skip a beat.

 

[deviantplatypus]

Packard Bell 386sx 20mhz. It's strange to think how that compares to the Nexus tablet I'm using right now.

 

[Whiskey]

Ok guys.What should my next lap top be?

 

[CrazyChef]

The one that Joe is giving away.

Oh, wait - I"M getting that one.

If I had to have ONLY ONE computer (laptop) I would get a MacBook Air.
(I've become jaded with MS over the past few years)

 

[freemind]

First computer I ever laid finger to keyboard.

Using code, we had to make Pi "the little dog" jump the fence.

 

[Whiskey]

The one that Joe is giving away.

Oh, wait - I"M getting that one.

If I had to have ONLY ONE computer (laptop) I would get a MacBook Air.
(I've become jaded with MS over the past few years)

Back up plan in case

 

[AndriaD]

Ok guys.What should my next lap top be?

1) *not* an ASUS;
2) one that allows max memory expansion -- 16gb is optimal;
3) one that doesn't have an internal CD/DVD drive, because those are power sucks if you want to run on batteries -- use an external USB drive (they cost about $25!)

Other than that.. whatever's cheap.

Andria

 

[Whiskey]

Thanks for the tips, Andria

 

[CrazyChef]

What's wrong with ASUS? ACER computers are crap, but ASUS?

 

[AndriaD]

What's wrong with ASUS? ACER computers are crap, but ASUS?

Haven't had a single problem with my Acer. My son had an ASUS, and when he contacted "tech support" about a problem, they told him "google it."

Andria

 

[MrScaryZ]

What's wrong with ASUS? ACER computers are crap, but ASUS?

~Asus makes the best enthusiast motherboards hands down... their PC's can be a bit high but they are great quality

 

[pescadore]

I am not sure what kind it was but it ran on DOS and fit in a suitcase. When you opened the case the screen popped up and at that time it was considered a portable computer.

 

[HRC]

Commodore 64
Tandy 1000

 

[pcrdude]

Mac Performa 630 cd, then Macbook (Pismo), Macbook Pro 17" (2006), now Macbook Pro 2015 with 1/2 terabyte SSD.

 

[Firestorm]

My first computer was an Apple II in the late 1970s. I still have my first purchased programs on cassette tape (before disk drives were available).

 

[Robert B]

First computer that I actually owned was an IBM PC in late1982. Dual floppies, 16k ram upgraded to 64k, monochrome card etc... Worked selling Apple, Kaypro, NEC, a few others, and all the peripherals that went with them. The company I worked for developed the first multi-function card for the IBM PC, but was plagued with problems and soon over shadowed by the AST multi-function cards that became the standard at the time.

I remember the first commercially available hard disk in 5.25" format for the PC. 5mb Devong, which included the Tandon drive and Devong interface card. They had something like a 50% failure rate just from shipping. I don't think they had developed a way to "park" the heads yet. They did distribute a floppy with a head parking program later. Devong also developed the firmware to override the bios to boot DOS from the HD instead of a floppy. That was pretty cool at the time.

 

[OBDave]

My mom was involved in upgrading a regional savings & loan from their mainframe to PCs in the early 80s - when I was 3 she brought home a Compaq of some sort or other and started teaching me to type before I could even write legibly. No idea what that was, but I remember my 286, 386, and 486 machines, one featuring a "turbo" 99mhz speed. I mostly just used them to play games until I discovered Prodigy in the early 90s and started racking up $200/mo access bills that put my ass in the proverbial sling right quick...

 

[CrazyChef]

Q-Link for the Commodores.
I spoke with Timothy Leary on Q-Link back in the late 80's. It was freakin' awesome at the time.

 

[zaroba]

IBM PS2
50MHz 80486
2mb of ram
20mb hard drive

Top of the line in the early 90s and cost 2 grand

I remember back then dreaming of what we could do if we had 1 gig of hard drive.
It was an unfathomable amount and at the time filling it would have been near impossible.
Now, 20 years later, I've got over 15TB and need to upgrade. lol

 

[Jetson]

Late '70s - early '80s I worked with bulky terminals, crappy little screens, magnetic tapes and noisy IBM keypunch card machines and other primitive noisy crap that shed a ton of heat in dedicated "computer rooms." Then I had a Zenith with giant floppy discs that took a half hour to boot to DOS and could play Monopoly if you wanted to spend another 15 minutes loading it.

First real modern computer was P.Bell with a gig and a half hard drive and some crappy proprietary interface on top of Windows that took up half the drive, and the tutorial .WAV files and crap bundled software that took up the other half.