Upgrade already! If you're still using Windows XP, you're a menace to society

[roamer_1]

I have a dell 4300 running XP Professional.  If it had an ethernet connection port instead of a dial-up telephone thingie I'd be surfing the interweb like it was 1999.

Whoa. That thing came with WinME or XP gold. What a lucky guy /sarc

[DB]

I have a dell 4300 running XP Professional.  If it had an ethernet connection port instead of a dial-up telephone thingie I'd be surfing the interweb like it was 1999.

I've currently still got all my old computers starting with an IBM PC-1 with the monochrome display. It also has the CGA adapter installed... The next one is a 20 MHz Dell 386 with 16 MB of RAM. The RAM cost a small fortune back then (1987 I think). And they continue from there every few years...

[roamer_1]

I've currently still got all my old computers starting with an IBM PC-1 with the monochrome display. It also has the CGA adapter installed... The next one is a 20 MHz Dell 386 with 16 MB of RAM. The RAM cost a small fortune back then (1987 I think). And they continue from there every few years...

My first brand new tech purchase was a hdd for my Tandy 486sx... I'd jacked it up with a Kingston super chip to make it a 100DX... But the 40mg hard drive died, and I went and bought one brandy new... What massive vistas I had ... That drive was like looking across Monument Valley... Who could EVER fill up 200mg? It was crazy.

[Wingnut]

I've currently still got all my old computers starting with an IBM PC-1 with the monochrome display. It also has the CGA adapter installed... The next one is a 20 MHz Dell 386 with 16 MB of RAM. The RAM cost a small fortune back then (1987 I think). And they continue from there every few years...

Nice.
I have a Tandy 1000 or 2000 I don't remember which sitting in storage.  I finally ditch my TI 99 4a 5 years ago.

[Elderberry]

Nice.
I have a Tandy 1000 or 2000 I don't remember which sitting in storage.  I finally ditch my TI 99 4a 5 years ago.

I still have a SYM-1, but I can't remember when I've fired it up. I pitched the VT100 monitor I used with it. I'd have to use the Hex Keypad and LED Display to use it.

[Wingnut]

I still have a SYM-1, but I can't remember when I've fired it up. I pitched the VT100 monitor I used with it. I'd have to use the Hex Keypad and LED Display to use it.

Wow.  At least the Tandy had a regular CRT 13 inch monitor! 

[DB]

I still have a SYM-1, but I can't remember when I've fired it up. I pitched the VT100 monitor I used with it. I'd have to use the Hex Keypad and LED Display to use it.

Cool! The first processor I used was a Z80 and I wire wrapped the perfboard assembly together and wrote the code by hand on paper in machine code, hand calculating the jump and call offsets/locations... It used fuse-link ROM to hold the code that was one time programmable... It was an autodialer for touch tone phones. You could hit the pound sign and two digits of a stored number to auto dial it on any touch tone phone in the house connected through it... The stored numbers were in a small RAM. It worked... I still have it... That was around 1978 I think and I was 16 or 17...

One edit note, this was not a kit or magazine project. I just went and bought the individual parts and built my first CPU project from the ground up...

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

I remember back when you had to park your 20mb hard drive, haha! My old 286 is kicking around somewhere i bet, with my old school papers on it. Would be amazing to dig it out, if my parents still have it.

[DB]

I remember back when you had to park your 20mb hard drive, haha! My old 286 is kicking around somewhere i bet, with my old school papers on it. Would be amazing to dig it out, if my parents still have it.

The IBM PC-1 didn't even have a battery backed up real time clock. You had to enter the date and time each time you powered it up... I initially ran the "cassette BASIC" that was part of its ROM set.

[Elderberry]

Cool! The first processor I used was a Z80 and I wire wrapped the perfboard assembly together and wrote the code by hand on paper in machine code, hand calculating the jump and call offsets/locations... It used fuse-link ROM to hold the code that was one time programmable... It was an autodialer for touch tone phones. You could hit the pound sign and two digits of a stored number to auto dial it on any touch tone phone in the house connected through it... The stored numbers were in a small RAM. It worked... I still have it... That was around 1978 I think and I was 16 or 17...

One edit note, this was not a kit or magazine project. I just went and bought the individual parts and built my first CPU project from the ground up...

Outstanding! I never rolled my own machines. The SYM was a 6502, but I also used Z80s and 8080s. I hand wrote my code as well. You beat me to it I didn't start until about 1981 or 82.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

The IBM PC-1 didn't even have a battery backed up real time clock. You had to enter the date and time each time you powered it up... I initially ran the "cassette BASIC" that was part of its ROM set.

First time I saw a computer, other than the Atari 5200 and colecovision (if those count), must have been the at or xt that my dad got free from his work. Cause nobody i knew could afford one, i was about 10 years old. All I can remember is that it ran dos, and I thought it was pretty much the most mystifying thing ever. Came with an AT&T Dos binder with every command available and lots of info.

[Sighlass]

That's excellent! What browser and version are you using?

@Sighlass

I use IceDragon (Version 40.1.1.18)  which is an Firefox offshoot. I found Icedragon due to trying to avoid the super PREF cookie that Google use to install to spy on users (and probable still does, not sure). 

https://help.comodo.com/topic-169-1-413-4458-Comodo-IceDragon---Introduction.html

I use a supped up version add-on of UBlock Origin, a flash block add-on that I allow on sites like this, a cookie removal add-on called Click&Clean and a few other things for convenience. Most Firefox add-ons work with IceDragon which is nice.

@roamer_1

Does what I need it to do. I do the forum thing, read my news, download a few low quality movies that I am able to steal from cache with a free program called videocacheview (Ublock does good enough job to let me get to movie stream sites without too much trouble)... and I nab a little music from time to time. Facebook (with all security settings I can set to avoid public seeing anything) with family.


Small time old fart that keeps a small circle. Don't need much.

[Oceander]

I've currently still got all my old computers starting with an IBM PC-1 with the monochrome display. It also has the CGA adapter installed... The next one is a 20 MHz Dell 386 with 16 MB of RAM. The RAM cost a small fortune back then (1987 I think). And they continue from there every few years...

Wish I still had my first two:  Atari 800 and an IBM PC "luggable".

[Sighlass]

My first computer was just some huge lump that cost some huge amount around 1980. I used it to learn how to code something that looked like space invaders but was unplayable. Then I used it to print fake report cards for my mom to sign and for me to turn in the real report card with a forged name of my mom. I was a stinker for a year there. All I remember is it took a long time to boot up and only took a floppy disk. I also remember the beating I got when my scam with the report cards was found out.

[Elderberry]

In 1983 I started working for Ford Aerospace as an integrator/tester for the jSC Space Shuttle Downlink Telemetry Front-End Processors. They were Perkin-Elmer 8/32s. They had monsterous 300 meg 10? platter removable disk packs. No monitors, Just tty printers.

We had No computers in the office. The following year, the secretaries got dual floppy PCjrs. I would work late to get some time on the PCs.

[Elderberry]

When I got my first computer, the SYM-1, I couldn't find anything on it other than the manual that came with it. I found a "Hunt the Wumpus" program for the KIM-1 which was the predecessor for the SYM and I was able to adapt it to run on the SYM-1.  I would have given anything for a floppy interface. All it had was an audio cassette interface. It was klunky, but it worked. After all it came with 4K of ram and I fully populated it to 8K. Not much to save to tape.

[DB]

First time I saw a computer, other than the Atari 5200 and colecovision (if those count), must have been the at or xt that my dad got free from his work. Cause nobody i knew could afford one, i was about 10 years old. All I can remember is that it ran dos, and I thought it was pretty much the most mystifying thing ever. Came with an AT&T Dos binder with every command available and lots of info.

I've still got all the original IBM mini binders that came with the PC-1. There are several. There is even a listing of the BIOS code in one of them.

[Mom MD]

I've still got all the original IBM mini binders that came with the PC-1. There are several. There is even a listing of the BIOS code in one of them.

The first computer hubby and I bought was in the late 80s.  It had a 20MG hard drive and we upgraded to 40MG.  The salesman told us he didn't know what we would ever do with that much memory!!

 

[Elderberry]

I worked on computers at work for years but didn't own one When I discovered a co-worker had a computer, I'd ask what do you do with it? I'd get answers like, reconcile my bank account, or keep all my recipes with it. I though, all those things I could easily do with a notebook. It wasn't until I had children did I see the need for a computer. I started my children on "keyboard banger" programs. Then I discovered " Access to Information". Then I understood the need for computers.

[DB]

I worked on computers at work for years but didn't own one When I discovered a co-worker had a computer, I'd ask what do you do with it? I'd get answers like, reconcile my bank account, or keep all my recipes with it. I though, all those things I could easily do with a notebook. It wasn't until I had children did I see the need for a computer. I started my children on "keyboard banger" programs. Then I discovered " Access to Information". Then I understood the need for computers.

For me it was all about engineering tools. I often wrote my own tools to design complex filters (electronics), do circuit analysis and solve complex equations with many unknowns. I did a lot of that at home. The computer was a great tool to do those things. Before that it was programmable calculators like the HP-41C and before that it was slide rules, much more basic calculators and CRC tables...

[Taxcontrol]

My house is now down to the last two windows machines.  Windows 7 from work (no other choice) and Windows 10 (son's computer).  The rest are Linux Mint.  I even converted my wife to Linux Mint and she loves it.  Give me a year and the son's computer will either be converted or he will be off to college.

[roamer_1]

[...] the son's computer will either be converted or he will be off to college.

That's quite a threat!

LOL!

Unfortunately, I am a Windows house. Not by choice. I fix em for a living, and in order for me to understand the system, I have to live in it. 4 Win10/64 , 3 Win7/64, 1 Vista/32, 2 Mint, and one Ubuntu.

but that may change a bit... I will be getting a wire over to all my TV computers (they are on a separate LAN, and all wireless), and I intend to run them all in Ubuntu (I like Unity for across the room ops)... Gonna be a fun project, because the main media machine needs a share (Samba and me don't get along), and needs to be able to serve music and movies - not only to the other TVs, but to all the Win boxes too. That'll be a chore.
 

[geronl]

My first brand new tech purchase was a hdd for my Tandy 486sx... I'd jacked it up with a Kingston super chip to make it a 100DX... But the 40mg hard drive died, and I went and bought one brandy new... What massive vistas I had ... That drive was like looking across Monument Valley... Who could EVER fill up 200mg? It was crazy.

Mine was one of those Tandy's too.... was it one of the early ones with a CD-ROM? I had to install a new modem, soundcard and add RAM (from 4 to 28megs I think). The Harddrive was 100 Megabytes and it was originally a 25MHZ processor, lol.

[roamer_1]

Mine was one of those Tandy's too.... was it one of the early ones with a CD-ROM? I had to install a new modem, soundcard and add RAM (from 4 to 28megs I think). The Harddrive was 100 Megabytes and it was originally a 25MHZ processor, lol.

Yeah that sounds about right... I got mine w/o a hdd... used the 40mg seagate out of my 386sx - My first computer, given to me (broken) by my FiL...

heh... that one was my first experience with computers. I knew absoultely *nothing*...
About 3 months later, after I took the pie recipe out of the autoexec.bat, and some ascii dribble out of the config.sys, it booted right up...

I think it was a Tandy too - it had Tandy Deskmate and Win3.0... I stayed in deskmate, and played with some office program called First Choice... I was running a painting business at the time, and learned spreadsheets in that program. One I found out how valuable it's calculations were  in doing bidding takeoffs, that was it. I was well on my way to geekdom. It's hard for me to even believe I ever did a blueprint takeoff by hand... That was an exponential difference - an order of magnitude.

There was another little gizmo in that box, called Pathminder. It was a little eclectic file manager and text editor - Man, I loved that little program. It stayed in my kit all the way into XP SP2 (where everything DOS broke). Even after that, someone wrote a clone called (no lie) pms.exe, and that lasted in NTCmd all the way into Win7.

It sat in the path and started with p.bat - I still have a p.cmd in my machine to this very day - Not running Pathminder anymore, but it fires up A43, the File manager I use the most in troubleshooting...
How's that for legacy? I've been poking 'p enter' to fire up a file manager my entire technical life.