I decided to make a post about my past experience with computers, starting with the very first. I thought it would be interesting to read what other peoples experiences were too. This post also ended up a lot longer than I intended, which is why I added just a brief summary at the end.
I cant remember how old I was but my first experience with a computer was a skiing game on a Sinclair ZX81 owned by a friend of my parents.
Then a friend of mine got himself a BBC micro B when I was 10, so I would be round his house playing games many times after school. This would have been in the early 80's, and soon after that, my parents bought a Sinclair ZX spectrum, which I mainly used for games, but my father actually took the time to learn to program and I remember being very impressed with the analogue clock program he wrote. I used to copy programs from magazines, some worked, some didn't and I would have to go through the listing line by line until I had corrected all the typing errors (there was invariably more than one) Frustrating to say the least. I managed to write a few simple programs of my own, but they were really basic and usually did just one thing, like using the “GOTO” command to print a never ending list of profanity! (What schoolboy with a computer didn't)
We had the spectrum for quite a while, upgrading the memory from 16K to 48K during that time, until my father bought an Amstrad PC which ran a very early version of windows, may have been one of the first versions. When it booted it just came up with a C prompt, and one had to type “win” to actually load windows. I think it had a 20MB hard drive, maybe not even that, not sure how much memory though and an 8086 processor. My father used a lot of DOS based software, like Lotus 1-2-3, since windows had not been around for long, there was a lot of it about still.
Our next computer was a laptop costing £2000. It ran windows 3.11 and had a had a x286 processor with 20MB hard drive, I think that was a Compaq. My memory about the exact specs.
is a little hazy. I remember my father using disk compression on many of our early PC's because of the limited storage.
As a college student in the 90's learning electronic engineering, one module focussed on programming. We used development boards based on the Z80 processor, coding in both assembly language and machine code, neither of which I ever got the hang of. For anyone who has not coded in assembly language, each line of code carries out just one instruction at processor level, machine code is even worse as all the code is entered in hexadecimal.
I understand what some commands do, its usually the syntax I get wrong, like forgetting a curly bracket. Unfortunately, assemblers are not too specific when it comes to typos like that.
My father was still running a lot of DOS based software for work and home finances. I never took much of an interest in computers since the Spectrum, just using my fathers for the occasional college assignment, until I bought my very own PC at a computer fair in 1995, a refurbished Compaq for just over £400. It ran windows 95, had a 486 processor running at 16MHz, 850MB hard drive and it even had a CD ROM drive and 14.4K modem. Soon after I got it, I was online and hooked on the internet, I didn't really have a clue about computers at the time, my father knew more than me!!
Three years later I got rid of that lump and paid a friend to build a computer for me. This time with a 2.1GB hard drive but still stuck to a 486 processor running at 33MHz and windows 95, I couldn't really afford a high spec. machine back then.
At that time I was living in a shared house with no internet, so gaming was pretty much all I did.
I went through a variety of PC's over the next 8 years, always being a couple of versions of windows behind the majority (and that never really changed up until a few years ago)
Around 2000, I tried red hat Linux for the first time on an old lap top which I kept as back up for the PC I owned at the time.
It wasn't a great success with the display drivers only managing 16 colours...yes 16 colours, not 16-bit colour. I probably could have found a suitable driver, but at that time I didn't know where to look. I expect there were support forums for Linux back then too, but did not think to search.
In 2004 I built my own PC. AMD Sempron, 250GB HDD, 2GB DDR RAM, and a very heavy metal case. I installed windows XP and had that for a good few years. I gradually added things and upgraded the hardware over the years, until I had replaced everything but the case. I also tried Ubuntu and Kubuntu for a while (Jaunty Jackalope, if my memory serves me) I had a friend online who knew Linux so he helped me with issues like finding drivers and various other fixes.
The case was way too heavy and cumbersome though, so I bought myself a laptop 4 years ago which I still have today. AMD A4-5000 processor, 500GB HDD, 4GB DDR3, Radeon HD8330 graphics, running windows 8.1 and of course now Kubuntu 14.04 side by side. Can't say I'm a real fan of windows 8, Windows 7 was by far a better version in my opinion. I think it may have been Windows 8 that gave me the final push towards Kubuntu.
To Summarise
Early 80s: Sinclair ZX Spectrum
Late 80's/early 90's - Amstrad PC with 8086 processor running one of the first versions of windows, then a Compaq laptop running Win 3.11, 286 CPU.
Then systems owned by myself...
Mid 90's - My first Compaq PC running Win 95, 486 CPU, 850MB HDD
Late 90's - Custom job running Win 95 also with 486 CPU, 2.1GB HDD
2000 (ish) HP Pavillion, Win XP, 200MHz MMX CPU, 40GB HDD, 512MB RAM
2004-2013 home made, constantly upgrading, final spec's upon selling: Win XP, AMD Athlon 3200+, 4GB RAM, 500GB + 250GB HDD
2014 to current- PB laptop AMD A4-5000, 500GB HDD, 4GB DDR3. One of most up to date computers I think I have ever had, at least it was when I bought it.
Still getting used to Kubuntu, but have to say I'm loving it so far, despite a few teething problems, which are mostly down to my lack of knowledge about the OS. Installing Kubuntu is almost like having a new computer again, after all it is the software that makes the computer.
I cant remember how old I was but my first experience with a computer was a skiing game on a Sinclair ZX81 owned by a friend of my parents.
Then a friend of mine got himself a BBC micro B when I was 10, so I would be round his house playing games many times after school. This would have been in the early 80's, and soon after that, my parents bought a Sinclair ZX spectrum, which I mainly used for games, but my father actually took the time to learn to program and I remember being very impressed with the analogue clock program he wrote. I used to copy programs from magazines, some worked, some didn't and I would have to go through the listing line by line until I had corrected all the typing errors (there was invariably more than one) Frustrating to say the least. I managed to write a few simple programs of my own, but they were really basic and usually did just one thing, like using the “GOTO” command to print a never ending list of profanity! (What schoolboy with a computer didn't)
We had the spectrum for quite a while, upgrading the memory from 16K to 48K during that time, until my father bought an Amstrad PC which ran a very early version of windows, may have been one of the first versions. When it booted it just came up with a C prompt, and one had to type “win” to actually load windows. I think it had a 20MB hard drive, maybe not even that, not sure how much memory though and an 8086 processor. My father used a lot of DOS based software, like Lotus 1-2-3, since windows had not been around for long, there was a lot of it about still.
Our next computer was a laptop costing £2000. It ran windows 3.11 and had a had a x286 processor with 20MB hard drive, I think that was a Compaq. My memory about the exact specs.
is a little hazy. I remember my father using disk compression on many of our early PC's because of the limited storage.
As a college student in the 90's learning electronic engineering, one module focussed on programming. We used development boards based on the Z80 processor, coding in both assembly language and machine code, neither of which I ever got the hang of. For anyone who has not coded in assembly language, each line of code carries out just one instruction at processor level, machine code is even worse as all the code is entered in hexadecimal.
I understand what some commands do, its usually the syntax I get wrong, like forgetting a curly bracket. Unfortunately, assemblers are not too specific when it comes to typos like that.
My father was still running a lot of DOS based software for work and home finances. I never took much of an interest in computers since the Spectrum, just using my fathers for the occasional college assignment, until I bought my very own PC at a computer fair in 1995, a refurbished Compaq for just over £400. It ran windows 95, had a 486 processor running at 16MHz, 850MB hard drive and it even had a CD ROM drive and 14.4K modem. Soon after I got it, I was online and hooked on the internet, I didn't really have a clue about computers at the time, my father knew more than me!!
Three years later I got rid of that lump and paid a friend to build a computer for me. This time with a 2.1GB hard drive but still stuck to a 486 processor running at 33MHz and windows 95, I couldn't really afford a high spec. machine back then.
At that time I was living in a shared house with no internet, so gaming was pretty much all I did.
I went through a variety of PC's over the next 8 years, always being a couple of versions of windows behind the majority (and that never really changed up until a few years ago)
Around 2000, I tried red hat Linux for the first time on an old lap top which I kept as back up for the PC I owned at the time.
It wasn't a great success with the display drivers only managing 16 colours...yes 16 colours, not 16-bit colour. I probably could have found a suitable driver, but at that time I didn't know where to look. I expect there were support forums for Linux back then too, but did not think to search.
In 2004 I built my own PC. AMD Sempron, 250GB HDD, 2GB DDR RAM, and a very heavy metal case. I installed windows XP and had that for a good few years. I gradually added things and upgraded the hardware over the years, until I had replaced everything but the case. I also tried Ubuntu and Kubuntu for a while (Jaunty Jackalope, if my memory serves me) I had a friend online who knew Linux so he helped me with issues like finding drivers and various other fixes.
The case was way too heavy and cumbersome though, so I bought myself a laptop 4 years ago which I still have today. AMD A4-5000 processor, 500GB HDD, 4GB DDR3, Radeon HD8330 graphics, running windows 8.1 and of course now Kubuntu 14.04 side by side. Can't say I'm a real fan of windows 8, Windows 7 was by far a better version in my opinion. I think it may have been Windows 8 that gave me the final push towards Kubuntu.
To Summarise
Early 80s: Sinclair ZX Spectrum
Late 80's/early 90's - Amstrad PC with 8086 processor running one of the first versions of windows, then a Compaq laptop running Win 3.11, 286 CPU.
Then systems owned by myself...
Mid 90's - My first Compaq PC running Win 95, 486 CPU, 850MB HDD
Late 90's - Custom job running Win 95 also with 486 CPU, 2.1GB HDD
2000 (ish) HP Pavillion, Win XP, 200MHz MMX CPU, 40GB HDD, 512MB RAM
2004-2013 home made, constantly upgrading, final spec's upon selling: Win XP, AMD Athlon 3200+, 4GB RAM, 500GB + 250GB HDD
2014 to current- PB laptop AMD A4-5000, 500GB HDD, 4GB DDR3. One of most up to date computers I think I have ever had, at least it was when I bought it.
Still getting used to Kubuntu, but have to say I'm loving it so far, despite a few teething problems, which are mostly down to my lack of knowledge about the OS. Installing Kubuntu is almost like having a new computer again, after all it is the software that makes the computer.
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