# Any other "old" computer people out there?



## tecwritr (Oct 28, 2008)

After seeing the "Any other "old" e-reader people out here?" I felt like I had to do computer people.

I started with a TRS 80 went on to:
Commodore Vic 20
Commodore 64
Commodore SX64
Commodore Amiga
Acer PC
Dell PC
HP Laptop
Toshiba Laptop (2)
I also hand built 4 different PCs over the years


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## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

I still have a complete C64 with tape drive, floppy disk, and monitor in storage, don't know why, I'll never use it again, I have a wrist watch that probably has more computing power.


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## Kathy (Nov 5, 2008)

The first computer I bought had 256k of memory and I thought it was a lot. Everything had to be stored on floppy disks. Worked on older models, but that was my first buy. It actually had Windows, the first version on it. I was working for EDS and was assigned to the Enron account in Houston. They were moving from the DOS world to windows. I had to teach 5000 people how to use Windows and most didn't want to learn. The mouse was the hardest thing for the secretaries get use to. They didn't want to give up their electric typewriters. There was one secretary who was 2 years from retiring and she was not happy using computers. She was in the class and kept telling me that her mouse wasn't working. I walked to the back of the class and I couldn't find her mouse. I looked down and she had it on the floor, trying to use it like you do with a sewing machine. Needless to say, it was downhill from there.


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

My first computer was an Atari 800 I got for Christmas... I think I was 14 at the time. I didn't get another until my Mac Classic II, which would have been around 1990. From there I have owned several other Macs, and a few PCs.


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## MonaSW (Nov 16, 2008)

How about an old Tandy TL2? I think it had the first 20MB hard drive.  It still had DeskMate instead of Windows.


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## Thumper (Feb 26, 2009)

I started with a Timex Sinclair; no hard drive, no RAM...yet we thought it was the coolest thing ever.


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## kevin63 (Feb 10, 2009)

My first one was while I was in Grad School.  It was a Packard Bell with 25MB hard drive.  I think I had Word Perfect for Windows V 2.0 on it.  No internet connection.  I have had 8 computers and laptops since then.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Computers I've owned:

TRS-80 with 4k RAM*
Atari 1200 XL @ 64k RAM (eventually added an external 5-1/4" 360k floppy drive and thought I was in heaven)
no-name PC clone running MSDOS with *two* 5-1/4" floppy drives, probably about 256k RAM, eventually replaced one of the floppies with a Seagate hard disk with an amazing 30MB of capapcity: how could you ever need more storage than that?!
As assorted history of desktop PC's and OS's ensued, each going through evolutions of updated CPUs, peripherals, storage devices, etc.
My first notebook computer was from Commodore - don't remember model, but it was IBM/PC compatible running Windows (probably 3.1)
I've gone through a number of notebooks (though not as many as desktops) and am now using a DELL Inspiron 1501 with 2GB RAM.**

The first computer I had any real contact with outside of a few games of Star Trek in college was a Honeywell DPS-8/70 with 2 CPU's running the Multics operating system. Note that each "CPU" was roughly the size of a tall refrigerator, and each disk drive about that of a small washing machine. This was at the Software Development Facility for the Enhanced Naval Warfare Gaming System in Moorestown NJ (for the US Navy).

_____________
* Yes, any youngsters out there, that is not a typo: 4 kilobytes of RAM. 
** I.e.: approx. 500,000 times the RAM of my TRS-80


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

I can hardly remember all of them. We started with an Osborne 1, then an Osborne Executive, then a Zenith. Then we marched through the processors: Intel 286, 386, 486. A Toshiba laptop was next, I think. Then a variety of laptops for home use and different desktops at work. My workhorse at the office is a Dell. My current laptop is a Sony. Name a brand, we've probably owned it at one time or another.

L


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Our first computer (1986 or so) was an IBM clone 80286.  Top of the line.  Two -- count 'em TWO 5 " disk drives and a 20MB Hard drive on an installed card.  Fancy.  I think on board memory was something like 256 K.   That actually lasted us quite a long time.  We upgraded here and there -- DH likes to build them from parts -- and at one point had a Pentium processor computer in a box that said 80286.  We called it the stealth computer.

Our first 'on line' experience was when we lived in England and singed up with CompuServe.  My dad had gotten an America On Line account so having an e-mail address kept the telephone cost down.  That was in 1994 or so.

Ann


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## Rhiathame (Mar 12, 2009)

tecwritr said:


> After seeing the "Any other "old" e-reader people out here?" I felt like I had to do computer people.
> 
> I started with a TRS 80 went on to:
> Commodore Vic 20
> ...


Too Funny! That is almost exactly what my progression has been except I have gone through about 7 computers in the last 3 years between work and home.


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## wilsondm2 (Dec 8, 2008)

My first computer was an Atari 800xl - I dearly loved that little machine. with its 300 baud modem, single sided single density 5 1/4 disk drive. <sigh>

I worked at a computer store then and we worked with: Kaypro, Epson QX-10, Zenith, H-P, and Columbia (IBM clone) Those were the days.

I later got a used Epson QX-10. That was a beautiful cpm machine.

My first Pc was a Zeos custom built 386 machine.


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## Kindle Convert (Nov 8, 2008)

The lovely Tandy 1000 RL...at the time, I thought it was awesome!  Mono. screen, Deskmate and Dot Matrix printer!  Used it to post on local Bulletin Boards with the "screaming fast" modem and do college homework.  Was in my 20's at the time and fell in love with computing so I took DOS and Lotus classes to learn more as I was working full time in Banking.  LOL!


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## geoffthomas (Feb 27, 2009)

While I try very hard to think about the very first "home" computer, some items are:
I have programmed on things like the IBM 609 calculator, some old tube memory (don't ask) "computers". but.....
I still have an 8bit Northstar Advantage - ran both NorthStar Dos and CPM.
Also have a working Osborne 1 - 8bit with only a small screen - have to scroll just to ready 80 chars.
Have a TRS 100 one of the early "laptops".
Did own an early compaq portable - 30 pounds and only 10meg harddrive.
Also had the original IBM portable - just like the compaq.
And as I build machines for special purposes, it just goes downhill from there.  Have a lot of old equipment in boxes in the workroom.
I prefer however to just buy a good system from HP these days.
Just sayin....


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## Anju  (Nov 8, 2008)

I used an "old" computer at work - wanted a trash 90 but couldn't afford it.  I'm so old I don't even remember the name of my first very own computer, but I do remember thinking I had enough memory for ever!  I think it was one that I had "built" for me!  Also remember using the first Apple at work - but all the engineers hogged that so I didn't get on it all that often.  Did have a word processor - wow was that ever nice!


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## jpmorgan49 (Feb 10, 2009)

I started with:
Atari 400
Atari 800 with 5 1/4" Floppy drive
Epson Equity PC, I upgraded to a 20 MB Hard Drive (WOW)..
I then had several Gateway Computers and several Dell Computers, the next one will be built by my computer Geek daughter...
jp


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## WalterK (Mar 2, 2009)

First systems for me were as follows:

Sinclair
Apple IIe
Apple Macintosh 512K (with upgrades along the way including memory and external HDD.)
Apple IIgs

- Walter.


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## Neversleepsawink;) (Dec 16, 2008)

My first computer was a Commodore 64.  Next computer I built with my cousin...cost me the low cost of $1,500.00...it was amazing...I connected to the internet in 7 minutes...LOL!!!  Back then that seemed awesome.


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## tecwritr (Oct 28, 2008)

This will scare hell out of some of you.  When I worked on the space shuttle external tank program I knew engineers who were running design computations on Commodore 64's


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## Neversleepsawink;) (Dec 16, 2008)

tecwritr said:


> When I worked on the space shuttle external tank program


Wow how cool!!!


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

tecwritr said:


> This will scare hell out of some of you. When I worked on the space shuttle external tank program I knew engineers who were running design computations on Commodore 64's


Doesn't scare me. . .I don't have to ride on the space shuttle! 

But now that you mention it: they can put people in orbit and a man on the moon so why can't they put folders on my Kindle! 

Ann


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

tecwritr said:


> This will scare hell out of some of you. When I worked on the space shuttle external tank program I knew engineers who were running design computations on Commodore 64's


Doesn't really scare me: after all 00000010 + 00000010 = 00000100 regardless of the computer being used, or else there's a real problem with that computer to do much of anything.


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

First "real" computer was a 286, sometime in the early/mid eighties.  The guy who set it up in my office said there was NO WAY I would ever fill up those 20 MB.

Then DD's dad built me a new one about two years later, and I asked what for  --  mine was working fine.  I didn't see the advantage (yet) of more space and faster processing.  He was a little offended, as I recall.

A few more home-built ones after that, until about 2000.  The tower hasn't been updated since then, and works so nicely that I don't want to mess around with it.  Since 2002 I've mostly been using a Sony ultra-lightweight laptop  --  the first one for five years, now on my second.

But I also still have my pre-286 Olivetti word processor, a HUGE thing, because I have about 20 disks for it and nothing else can read them and every once in a while I need some of the info on them.  I should go through and print it all out (it has a daisy-wheel printer, so that would take a while) and scan in what I need to keep.  One of those projects that never makes it to the top of the list.


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## skanter (Mar 1, 2009)

tecwritr said:


> After seeing the "Any other "old" e-reader people out here?" I felt like I had to do computer people.
> 
> I started with a TRS 80 went on to:
> Commodore Vic 20
> ...


I started with a 
Commodore Vic 20
Commodore 64
Commodore SX64
Commodore Amiga

went on to several Macs and PCs.

I used the Amiga with a Video Toaster/Flyer (editing system), which included a *9GB HD which cost $3600.*!


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## Tarma (Oct 27, 2008)

Started with the Atari 800 and a tape drive. Added a 300 baud modem shortly after and the rest was history. I upgraded through all of the Atari's until they quit, then moved on to home brew computers. Don't think I've bought a "brand" name since the Atari. 

I think the early days of Compuserve, GEnie, Delphi, etc were something special.


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## luvmy4brats (Nov 9, 2008)

We had a Commodore 64 and then the 128. After that I know we always had a computer, but couldn't tell you what kind.

I do remember doing computer programming in the 6th grade (1984) and using a tape drive.



Ann in Arlington said:


> But now that you mention it: *they can put people in orbit and a man on the moon so why can't they put folders on my Kindle!*
> 
> Ann


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## Glynnis (Nov 25, 2008)

In 1983, while I was working for the state of Minnesota, I attended a conference where Charles Nesbitt ("Megatrends") was the keynote speaker. He asked the assembled state employees to raise their hands if they had a phone on their desk at work. Everyone raised their hands. Then he told us that, within 10 years, we would probably find a desktop computer to be an equally essential part of our jobs. There was a lot of laughter in the crowd - most of the management weren't at all interested in using a computer themselves, but it didn't take long for the first computers to start showing up in our offices.

Our unit secretary got a computer -- or actually a dumb-terminal -- for word processing. As a planner, I had a typewriter in my office to type out my rough drafts. It didn't take long for her to insist on teaching me the word processing program (Word Star!). I ended up buying a used CPM-system (two 5" floppy drives, no memory) and a dot-matrix printer. Thought I'd died and gone to heaven. A year or so later I bought a 286 with a 20MB drive and figured I'd never fill up the memory (ha, ha, ha). It's been a long series of IBM-clones since then, both personal and professional, by just about every manufacturer you can name (and some no longer in the game). My first "portable" was a cluge that weighed as much as a backpack full of textbooks! I'm now using a year-old Dell desktop (232GB), a big flat screen monitor (I sure don't miss the old monitors!) with a Verizon wireless modem. The new computer cost about half of what I had paid back in the 1980s for that 20MB 280 PC.

BTW, I'm currently reading Christopher Buckley's new book, "Losing Mum and Pup", and his descriptions of how his father, William F Buckley, clung to his WordStar program to the very end are an absolute riot!

Glynnis


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Tarma said:


> Started with the Atari 800 and a tape drive. Added a 300 baud modem shortly after and the rest was history. I upgraded through all of the Atari's until they quit, then moved on to home brew computers. Don't think I've bought a "brand" name since the Atari.
> 
> I think the early days of Compuserve, GEnie, Delphi, etc were something special.


Did the 800 have the same cassette tape recorder feature that the one with my 1200 had? It apparently used a stereo record/playback head, and only used one channel for data. The other channel could have audio on it, so that when you installed some commercial programs they would play music while loading (and I think some had advertisements). 

300 baud modems were a riot: it sometimes looked as if I could type the text as fast as it appeared on my screen.


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

Glynnis said:


> I'm now using a year-old Dell desktop (232GB), a big flat screen monitor (I sure don't miss the old monitors!)


Not everyone feels that way.  For years one of my cats happily slept on top of my monitor while I worked at the computer in my home office. It was high up, it was toasty warm, she had company -- what's not to like.

Then I got a flat screen.

The first morning I settled in to work, she came running up as usual, did her usual flying leap to the top of the monitor... and slid right off the other side. She shook herself and tried again. It took three or four attempts before she realized that her nap perch was gone. I felt sooo guilty.


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## Glynnis (Nov 25, 2008)

Susan in VA said:


> For years one of my cats happily slept on top of my monitor while I worked at the computer in my home office. It was high up, it was toasty warm, she had company -- what's not to like. Then I got a flat screen. The first morning I settled in to work, she came running up as usual, did her usual flying leap to the top of the monitor... and slid right off the other side. She shook herself and tried again. It took three or four attempts before she realized that her nap perch was gone. I felt sooo guilty.
> 
> Now that I've wiped the coffee spray off my lovely flat screen, and stopped laughing hysterically, let me express my deep sympathies to Kitty. You're right, of course, that there are downsides to everything. Hmmm, maybe there's an after-market out there for old monitors -- heated cat beds!!
> 
> Glynnis


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## geoffthomas (Feb 27, 2009)

You know it is kinda funny how things become obsolete.
Most manufacturers has stopped shipping personal computers with 3.5 inch floppies and they are becoming antiques.
Some of us remember having 5 inch floppies with some computers using them for their main storage.
And then there are some of us (me) who used 8bit computers that had 8 inch floppies as their main storage.  Running proprietary operating systems - was real happy to see CPM come around. The big deal then was getting a network (ha ha) so that all the computers could share a single computer's hard drive (major expense) with sometimes only 1 Meg.  Not real networking as we know it.
Just sayin.....


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## Tip10 (Apr 16, 2009)

Started working with computers back when they were the size of most gymnasiums.
First home computer was a Commodore 64 (unless you count the HP-25c programmable calculator that was my mainstay through college).
Been through probably 20-30 machines since then.
Remember paper tape, punch cards, 8" floppies, when a 5 MB hard drive cost significantly over $1000.
remember the days of XYWrite and Lotus were industry leaders. 
Remember when programmers had to be efficient -- absolutely had to fit things into the magical 640k limitation.
Remember the very first DOS extenders that allowed addressing of memory above the 640k ceiling. 
Used to have unopened packages of every version of DOS ever published until I donated them all to a public charity auction. 
Most cell phones today carry magnitudes more computing power than was used to land the Eagle on the Moon carrying Armstrong and Aldrin.


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## hazeldazel (Oct 30, 2008)

lol - i remember when my dad got an Apple II from work and you'd have to start it up using a 5 1/2" floppy (that was actually floppy), and if you wanted to save anything, you had to use another 5 1/2 floppy floppy disk.  I was the queen of Lemonade Stand!  I was 1337!  I had mad DOS skillz.


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## Angela (Nov 2, 2008)

We started out with a Vic 20 and moved up to C64 (2 of them), we still have one and some of our favorite computer games!!  

First PC was a clone that we bought at the Apple Store in Abilene, TX and my hubby argued with the guy for an hour trying to convince him that we did NOT need a 20mg hard drive, that 10mg was plenty and we would NEVER fill up a 20!!    I still pick on him about that!!

It has only grown from there. We each have 2 laptops and there are 4 networked PCs in the house and 2 servers. We build our own PCs.


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