Your memories

[AllanY2525]

My first computer was a Commodore C-64 bought at the K-Mart on Belmont Ave, when
I was in my early 20's (1983) and living at the Parkway Tower apartments with my
mom.  It was a cool computer because you could just hook it up to the TV, and it took
game cartridges like an Atari game machine.  I remember using GEOS - an alternative
operating system for the Commodore that had a mouse and a GUI with Icons, desktop,
a trash can, etc.

My next machine was a Commodore C-128 - which had both a Commodore processor and
a Z-80 processor in one machine.  It could boot either the C-64 or C-128 O.S. from it's internal
ROMS, or boot CP/M on the Z-80 processor from floppy disks.

That little Commodore came with a Q-Link program disk (5.25" floppy) and a 300 baud
telephone modem and I signed on to Q-Link - my first commercial online service.  It wound
up getting me a job at the hosting company, Quantum Computer Services in Vienna, VA. 

I used Apple IIC. IIE, IIGS and eventually Macintosh machines at work because Quantum
developed online services for all of these PC's, as well as IBM's PS/1 and PS/2 and Tandy's
PC's.

Quantum Computer Services became America Online three and a half years later.   I stayed with AOL until
October of 2004 and retired as a programmer/analyst.

[northside lurker]

The first computer I used was in high school.  I was in a CAD vocational program, and the computers were quite out of date for the early 90's.  Most of the computers in the lab were 8086's with 640k RAM.  I was one of the lucky few who got to use a 286 with 1 MB of RAM.  They used DOS, of course.  But the teacher (a retired research engineer from the Timken Co.) had them set up so that the user didn't really have to use DOS for much.

I didn't get my first computer until 1998, my 3rd year of college. (when classes allowed the use of CAD, instead of hand drafting)  It was a PentiumPro 200, with 32 MB of RAM.

My first ISP (besides the T1 access KSU provided) was through the local cable company in Massillon.

[Towntalk]

I still have a Mac that a friend gave me but never use it since it is software deficient and my ISP doesn't support Mac. As to the Apple, I played around with it but again never went on line with it.

This was my first Apple and no that's my dog in the picture.

[joly1584]

Apple IIC!  Used it to type my husbands PhD thesis.  Thought it was the best thing since sliced bread after typing and re-typing his masters thesis on an electric typewriter.

DH still swears by MAC, I prefer my Dell.

First ISP was AOL.

[sfc_oliver]

Being in Communications the first computer I used was a Keyboard in a tactical 10 Ton tractor trailer. with the CPU housed in two others the same size. That was back in the 70's.....

At home, my first was also the Vic 20 (I actually got to work with the guy who wrote the first Adventure Program) and I too moved on to the 164. Then I went the Amiga route for a few years before switching to IBM PC........

Never did try Apple/Mac...........

[Towntalk]

Today, computers have become such an important part of our lives that it is almost as necessary as the telephone, but back in the day they were either strictly business tools or for the few that could afford one.

My first computer was a Vic 20 by Commodore and it was a second hand one at that back in the late 1980's, and graduating to a C-64 which I ran until I got a Packard-Bell 386. I also had Apple computers, and later a Mac. Today I use a Compaq that has more storage than I could possably fill in two lifetimes.

This leads me up to the question of the day. What was your first computer?

A visitor stopped in and we were talking about computers and she said that she was taking classes to learn how to use her computer, and I thought to myself, my goodness, today's computers are so intuitive that classes are really not necessary when compared to the days when a person had to know DOS, and had to be able to write their own software programs, or shell out bucks for commercial software that wasn't exactly cheap and there was no Download.com to get free software.

Oh, also who was your very first internet service provider? Back in the 1990's YSU had a ISP that was available to the public and I used that until going with the ISP I still use today.

So how about sharing some of your early experiences with computers.