Your first computer?

[Rainbow Sharpie]

Since today marks the second anniversary of my first (and only) desktop computer's hard drive finally giving into old age (2000-2008), I was wondering, dear TZers, what was your first computer like? Was it a desktop? Laptop? Was it as fast as lightning? Slower than molases? Tell us here!

My first computer was a Gateway with Windows Millennium Edition, aka Windows ME. We eventually got it upgraded to XP in about 2003. It was extremely slow; we had AOL on dial-up, and got kicked off about every 6 hours. Imangine that with Intel Pentium III! Annoying, it was.

So what's your memories with your first computer?

 

[Michael24]

Very first home computer was an IBM XT:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_XT

It was about 1989/1990, and they were being phased out at the company my dad worked at, so he brought his home. I believe the OS was MS-DOS, as it would simply boot up to the C prompt - C:\> My brother and I had to learn how to access programs by typing in actual codes rather than just clicking icons like nowadays. We got the hang of it pretty quick, but nowadays we laugh at how primitive it seems. I remember the excitement of being able to use a computer to type out book reports and stuff courtesy of "pfs:Write." It originally didn't even have a hard drive, just dual floppy drives instead, but my dad later bought a hard drive. We still laugh nowadays at how exciting that 10MB hard drive and the 128kB of memory was at the time. LOL!! Back then, especially since we never had a home computer before, it was just almost mind-blowing to have it in the house. LOL!

It was later upgraded to Windows 3.1, and eventually was replaced by a new computer with Windows 95, but the XT stayed in mine and my brother's bedroom for us to mess around with it. We had it up until about 1998 when we moved. Before then I had used it as a prop in one of my college film shorts, so it's funny to see it whenever I watch it and see all the text that scolls by on the screen as it's booting up.

 

[cohenmarioman]

My first personal computer (as in all my own) was an XP Compaq, I think it was 2003. It only had 1GB RAM, quite slow compared to now.

 

[dothesmartthing]

Although I shared that old Packard Bell computer with my brother in 1997, I didn't really own one until 2003, when I received a Windows XP desktop as a late Christmas present. Since it was brand new, it was definitely fast, but it started to slow down as the years progressed. Finally, in 2009, I bought a laptop to have more convenience surfing the Web and working.

 

[dendawg]

My first computer was a TI-99/4A.

 

[Anyone00]

Commodore 64: yup, I'm old.

 

[Shawn Hopkins]

We was way too po when I was growing up to actually own a computer, but the first I ever got to mess around with was an Apple IIe in my gifted and talented class in seventh grade. It had a monochrome screen and a big floppy disk drive and I loved playing educational games on that thing with my friend Steve.

When I went away to my second college my mom saved up her money and got me a used 386 SX PC from some guy who ran a computer business out of his house. It was already out of date when we bought it, it had 2 MB of RAM and was manufactured by AT&T to some weird dimensions that made it pretty much not upgradeable. It had DOS and Windows 3.1, and it was in that space where it could run Wolf 3D but would choke on Blake Stone. No CD drive, either, so when I wanted to play something from a CD sometimes I would copy it to a floppy first.

But I really loved that computer, anyway, and one of my friends helped my pirate Word Perfect 5.1 by copying it from a computer in the computer lab and I wrote papers, short stories and a novel on it. I remember I was so obssessed with it when I first got it that my roomate called it my "damnable computer," and one of my friends and I would play RPGs on it.

We also had a few games, mostly shareware, and I wrote a batch file menu so my parents and family could use the programs because they could never figure out the DOS prompts. My dad really liked playing with it, I think that if he had lived longer he would really have liked the Internet and other computer stuff we have today.

 

[Sparticus]

... I can't remember what the Dinosaur was, exactly. All I know was that I was the only kid in town with a computer for a very long time. XD My Dad got it for work, didn't really like me to mess with it, but eventually let me type up papers and play games on it. This was in 3rd grade or something. I got to be my class's computer guru because of it, because my teacher had managed to talk someone into donating us a similar machine, my dad could fix big problems, and I could troubleshoot little ones. Alas, I have long forgotten most of by DOS knowledge. This joke still makes sense though:

C:/DOS
C:/DOS/RUN
RUN/DOS/RUN!

/nerd>

Anyway, the first computer that was MINE mine was Dweezle; a glorious Compaq Presario running Windows 98. I got it through a school program so it was technically a loaner, but I have fond memories of that machine. ^-^ Warcraft 2, Photoshop Delux 2.0 and surprisingly snappy 56k dial-up internets. Good times, good times...

 

[chalmers]

My first computer that I bought for myself was a custom built Acer desktop that I got the day that Spiderman 3 came out(I remember this because I was supposed to go see it that day, but I stayed behind to play with my new computer). Before that, I had owned hand-me-downs like an Apple II, a computer that I can't even remember the brand of that ran on Windows 3.1, a Micron that ran on Windows 95(later upgraded to Win 98), and an E-Machines that ran on Windows 98. I also own a HP laptop that I got earlier this year, and is what I am currently using.

My Acer is actually a really good computer for a brand that was relatively unheard of until recently, and I really like it. It has 4 GB of RAM, 500 GB of hard drive space, two CD drives(including a LightScribe that I took from a HP), and a 22 inch flat-screen monitor. However, it is back at home packed away in a box, and by the time I'm able to use it fully it'll probably be time to upgrade it. I'll probably keep the monitor though.

 

[defunctzombie]

My first computer was a compaq presario with a celeron processor. I didn't know it at the time but that's as crappy as a computer can get for 2003. The thing had 30 gigabyte hard drive, which is as much as my ipod has now.

That's not the first computer I used, though. I've used Apple 2, old IBM PTS, and the good ol' NES. We were poor, so we never had anything fancier than Nintendos until the 2000's.

 

[Manga4life]

My first real computer was an e-Machines desktop I purchased myself back in mid-1998, it was a tower only (keyboard, mouse, speakers included) because I already had a monitor that a friend gave me and I mainly purchased the thing to use AOL and because all my friends had one, other than that I had no interest. I think it had a 5 GB hard drive and 32 megs of RAM is I remember correctly, I got it fairly cheap as a refurbished unit from Comp USA, even though the specs were kind of crappy it served it purpose back in those days. After about a year the thing just stopped working, but Comp USA gave me a free 2 year warranty with it since it was a refurbished unit and they applied what I paid for the computer to the purchase of a new one sometime in early 2000. So I got another e-Machines unit, this time it was brand new and had 64 megs of RAM and a 20 GB hard drive (whoo hoo!), I eventually sold that computer a year later to a buddy and ended up with an HP that lasted me until last year. The HP had a 40 GB hard drive and 128 megs of RAM and that machine lasted me the next 8 years until last year when I purchased a Toshiba laptop with 4 GB of ram and a 500 GB hard drive, I'm using that computer to this day and it serves every purpose I need, I love it!

 

[Surreal Kangaroo]

As far as computers that I personally own my one and only is my HP Pavilion laptop with Windows Vista that I got for graduating from high school in 2008.

As far as computers that have been in the household, I have no clue. I remember having Windows 3.1, but I get the feeling there was at least one or two before that.

 

[Classic Speedy]

If memory serves me, I believe it was an Apple II. I was pretty young when I used it, though. The first computer I actively used was a Macintosh Classic, which was followed by a Bondi Blue iMac in 1998, an dome bottom iMac G4 in 2002, and my current computer (owned since 2007), which is a flat panel iMac.

 

[Pyrax]

My first real computer was an e-Machines desktop

Same here, except mine was bought around 2006.
It worked about until around January 2008 when in started to suck.
It ultimately broke around Febuary.

My current computer is a compaq laptop I got for christmas two years ago.

 

[Startrekman700]

join the old club.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_VIC-20


My fav from childhood


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:TRS-80_Model_3_01.jpg

 

[Kevin the Geek]

Though it technically wasn't mine, my first major experience with computers was when my grandparents got a computer with Windows 98, in April 2000. Through 2000 and 2001, I would frequently go to my grandparents' house to use their computer to surf the Internet.

In December 2001, my parents got me an Internet appliance device that allowed me to browse the Internet. With that device in my hands, I didn't use my grandparents' computer as often as I used to.

In June or July 2003, my brother got a computer with Windows XP. However, he didn't like me or my mom using it that much, since we weren't computer experts. Later in the year, he started using his computer to play Final Fantasy XI. He would probably still be playing that game, if we didn't switch to WildBlue satellite Internet, which isn't really good when playing games online, in May 2008 (We had dial-up before switching to WildBlue).

In May 2004, we got a small TV and a device that allowed us to surf the Internet on a TV, since our Internet appliance device was about to stop working.

In early 2006, my grandparents gave us their computer mentioned above, since they got a new computer in 2005. I started to use the old computer they gave us, until I got a new computer in August 2006.

I'm still using the computer that I got in August 2006, and 4 years later, it still seems to be in good condition.

And that, folks, covers my history with computers.

 

[Beefy]

My first computer was a TI-99/4A.

w00t! Mine too.
Although I used it for the games more than actual real computing work.

I remember writing my own games in TI BASIC, and storing them to cassette tape because we didn't have the floppy drive. Being the n00b that I was, I had the tape drive right next to the monitor. Magnetic tape + magnetic field from monitor = lost data. I had to go through the code line by line to find where the data got changed.

Then in 1995 we got our first Windows-based PC, an HP Pavilion:
Intel Pentium CPU 100MHz
8 MB of RAM
1.2 GB hard drive
4x CD-ROM drive
14.4 Kbps modem
1 MB of video RAM
Windows 95 16-bit

Over the years we upgraded it with 40 MB of RAM, a 2.6 GB hard drive, 33.6 Kbps modem, and a 40x CD-ROM drive. woohoo!
Going from 16-bit Windows 95 to 32-bit Windows 95 caused more headaches.

 

[simpsonsfan]

Our first computer was an emachines Windows Millennium Edition. We bought it in 2000 and continued to use it for 7 years. We still have it but it's not plugged in anymore. For laptops this is my second one. The first one I got was an Acer Windows Vista in 2007. My Dad has that laptop now because I decided to buy a new one last year. It's the one I'm typing on now and is a Gateway Windows 7.

 

[Temple Fugate]

My first computer, after years of begging my parents, was a Toshiba laptop with a 1 GB hard drive and the brand new OS Windows 98. The LCD screen was one of those early ones where movement ghosted a little bit. Most of my time spent on it was playing Starcraft and writing hundreds of pages of fanfiction. When my family upgraded from dial-up to broadband in 2000, I had to buy an ethernet card to utilize it. (Most laptops in 1998 didn't automatically come with that sort of thing.)

It held up until 2001, when I moved to college and advances in web browsing and PC gaming made the thing show its age. After that point I've been using PC desktops. I still miss the way its keyboard sounded when I typed on it.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Some unnamed thing. I think it was 286. No VGA, internal speaker sound. Piece o junk.

My first REAL computer was a 1992 AST Advantage 386SX with one of those legendarily annoying box loading cdrom drives. Since then its been a series of generic boxes with various chipsets until finally I bought this HP Pavilion notebook.