Your First Computer - what was it ?

[Deaths Advocate]

Pentium 286? Can't really remember it. It did have Civ though!

 

[Leifmk]

Vic 20, back in 1983.

After about a year, upgraded to a Commodore 64. One of the best computers ever. Then a bit later again (1987 I believe) it was time for an Amiga 500. Still have both of those sitting somewhere at my parents' place (only rarely fired up either after moving out to go to university twenty years ago).

Indeed, after entering university in 1992 I didn't have a computer I could call my own before 1998 (at which point I was graduated and in my first real full-time job); in those years between there I just used whatever the computer labs had, or whatever my parents had when I was home for holidays. By then it was all PCs, all the time.

 

[wolfigor]

the glorious Commodore VIC-20
The VIC-20 was the first computer of any description to sell one million units

 

[Verarde]

First computer I remember was an old Gateway computer, with which I played Backyard Baseball 2001 when I was five. That game was my life.

The first computer I bought with my own money is my current one, a Dell Inspiron N5110 laptop.

 

[peter grimes]

Oh my, yes! Do you remember being surrounded by "Flotsom and jetsom"? Actually, I think it was called Pirate something or other. Text adventures are so fun. Man, now I wanna go play a MUD again!

OMG that's the one!! I'll ask my brother if he remembers the name - but I think you're right about the Pirate part.

I don't recall getting very far in the game. Not through lack of trying, though.

 

[CKS]

The first computer I had to use was an InterData 7/16 at school. It had 4 teletypes and it saved to paper tape. My family's first computer was a TI 99/4A; we ended up with several of them because there was a rebate on them for more than the selling price. We got a Commodore 64 - with a disk drive - about 3 months later, though, and that was what we used.

The first computer that was all mine was a 386DX running at 40 MHz; I didn't get it until grad school.

 

[Arakhor]

We had a BBC machine in primary school and a box full of 5.25" floppies with educational software loaded onto them. In secondary school, we had a room full of Acorn Archimedes 3000s, complete with 3.5" disk drives, which is where I learnt to use a mouse with my right hand, just like everyone else.

The first machine we had at home was an ancient PC with just 30 Mb of free hard drive space and no CD-ROM, which was just enough to run Windows 3.1 and Word Perfect. The first machine that I owned was a Celeron, with a 400 Mb processor, 64 Mb of RAM and a 1 Mb on-board graphics card. It even had its own 40x CD-ROM.

Oh my, yes! Do you remember being surrounded by "Flotsom and jetsom"? Actually, I think it was called Pirate something or other. Text adventures are so fun. Man, now I wanna go play a MUD again!

"You are in a cave in the woods."

 

[kiwitt]

... I learnt to use a mouse with my right hand, just like everyone else.

I use both.

A computer programmer friend of mine said he used his left hand for his mouse as he did not require as much precision with the mouse and required more with his right hand as he was entering code.

I have been using my left hand ever since on my main computer.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

First:

Then:

Then came the generic world of PC.

 

[Zelig]

I use both.

A computer programmer friend of mine said he used his left hand for his mouse as he did not require as much precision with the mouse and required more with his right hand as he was entering code.

I have been using my left hand ever since on my main computer.

I also use both depending on what type of keyboard you're using - if you're using a keyboard with a numpad it really makes more sense to use your left hand for your mouse, since your numpad is in the way of where the mouse should go if your keyboard is centered.

 

[Tahuti]

To get back to the OP, my first computer was an Intel Pentium Pro clocked at 133Mhz with 16 MB ram, running Windows 95 OSR 2.

 

[illram]

First computer I remember my family having was an old 286 PC. I still remember how the floppy drive sounded and the waxy feel of those old 5.25 paper folders. MS-DOS at the time was considered a new cool revolutionary thing.

We also had an Intellivision but that doesn't count does it?

I didn't personally own my own PC until I was in high school. It was a Pentium Pro, I forget the manufacturer.

 

[bugwar]

So many old people showed up in this thread.

If you are lucky, someday you too can be a dinosaur.

 

[Arakhor]

Does that mean that in 65 million years, millions of people will insist that I too coexisted with humans?

 

[innonimatu]

I'm not old, but I did start with a ZX Spectrum before moving to a 386. Ok, so perhaps I am getting old...

For dinosaur stuff I once had to keep an old PDP-11 running for some months, but it was some 20 years old when I inherited the maintenance! It didn't had 5.25" inch floppies... it had 8"floppies! A pain to use, but it was the only computer for which I was sad to do the final shutdown.

 

[Zelig]

I really hate how modern programs use a floppy disk as an icon for saving.

 

[Birdjaguar]

This was the first computer I bought, I think in 1986, for $5,000. It's a Compaq Portable 386.

 

[Core Imposter]

Tandy 2000. Of course there were no computers available when I was in high school and I was late out of the gate due to my prison time and before that I was doing the things that landed me in prison.

The thing cost 3 grand. Didn't do much.

 

[Furiey]

For dinosaur stuff I once had to keep an old PDP-11 running for some months, but it was some 20 years old when I inherited the maintenance! It didn't had 5.25" inch floppies... it had 8"floppies! A pain to use, but it was the only computer for which I was sad to do the final shutdown.

Oh boy, I remember playing colossal cave on using one of those.

 

[Arakhor]

Cave!!