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Originally Posted by Hitch
Hell, I was in my 30's before we had a "desktop computer" in the office--which we had because my husband and I built it (286 box) and brought it in. With diskettes, you betcha!
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The first computer I used was an IBM mainframe at a bank. The bank seemed to run at least one of everything made, so I logged time on other platforms, too, like Digital Equipment Corporation mini-computers.
The original IBM PC, with a 4.77mhz Intel 8088 CPU, (up to) 640KB of RAM, CGA graphics, and two 360KB 5.25" floppy drives was just starting to appear on desktops, as an engine to run the Lotus 123 spreadsheet.
I resisted getting a computer at home. I spent most working hours in front of a CRT screen, and wanted life outside of computers.
The first "home" computer I got wasn't a PC. I was working for a small Unix systems house that resold AT&T gear when AT&T was in the computer business. AT&T had tried to compete with the IBM PC with a desktop Unix workstation called the UNIX-PC. They cancelled the line, and a 3B1 (a more powerful version of the UNIX-PC in the same form factor) became available at a fire sale price and I got one. (I still have it.)
My first actual PC was a pre-owned XT clone running MSDOS 3.3. I tricked it out with a faster replacement motherboard, NEC V20 CPU, Hercules video card, an addon card with 1MB of expansion RAM, split between disk cache, RAMdisk, and EMS memory for apps that could use it, and two 20MB Seagate ST-225 MFM hard drives.
Life goes on and things change. My Palm TX PDA has more RAM, a faster processor, and more storage (in the form of a 4GB SDcard), than my original PC and several generations of later ones I got to run Windows, and I could carry it in a pocket.
The current desktop is a refurb ex-corporate HP model. It came with a quad-core 3.1ghz Intel i5-2400 CPU, 8GB RAM, Intel HD2000 graphics, and a 512GB SATA HD, with Win7 Pro preinstqalled. The base cost was $250. I added an SSD card originally bought for a failed Dell desktop it replaced, cloned Win7 to it, set it as boot drive, and installed Win10 Pro. It's low end as such things go, but entirely adequate for what I do with it, and it Just Works.
Quote:
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I had one of the first brick phones, also in my 30's. My own personal cellphone use hasn't really changed much since then, but I admit, I'm glad that they're smaller.
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My cell phone is the smallest, cheapest, least powerful feature phone Samsung makes, used with a prepaid plan. At home I have VOIP service through my cable company, and the cell is only used when traveling. All it does is callas and SMS, and that's all I
want it to do. Everything else is something else's job.
I
have a smartphone, but don't use it as a phone. It's a pass along from a friend who lost it, get another phone, found it again and passed it to me. I wiped it and reconfigured. It's a PDA with WiFi, Bluetooth, and a serviceable 8MP camera. It's incredibly useful, but not a phone.
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Dennis