My first computer
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This was the first computer I used - Burroughs mainframe B6700.
- It predates microprocessors, home computers, personal computers (PCs), portable computers, PDAs, laptops, netbooks, tablets, smart phones, smart watches etc.
- It predates BBSs (Bulletin Board Systems), SMS, the world wide web, email, mailing lists, personal homepages, guestbooks, myspace, facebook, twitter, snapchat etc.
- It predates unix, linux, ms-dos, novell netware, windows, macOS, ios, android etc.
- It predates 8" floppy disks, winchester drives, 5 1/4" and 3.5" floppy disks, 5 1/4" and 3.5" and 2.5" hard drives, USB memory sticks, Solid State Drives (SSDs), file servers, dropbox etc.
- It predates color monitors, 8-bit sound, the mouse, desktop publishing, multi-media, VR, AI etc.
- And it predates, Microsoft, Apple and Google.
Life was simple then.
What was the first computer you used?
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Commodore PET in 1979 was my first computer.
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@pete-s The B6700 and UNIX kind of co-existed. UNIX was started in 1969, but wasn't public till 1973, but was in use at AT&T in 1971, the same year that the B6700 released. The B6700 was publicly available first, and was production ready first. But UNIX was in use at AT&T at the same time.
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For those wondering, the Winchester drive, the namesake of modern spindle based hard drives, was 1973. Old, but not as old as the Burroughs. But older than most people remember. The original Winchester was the IBM 3340. It shipped in 35MB and 70MB sizes.
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@scottalanmiller I remember the first time I actually saw a system with a winchester drive. I had no idea what it was except it was this thing that was like a floppy disk but with more space than you ever going to need.
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@scottalanmiller I remember the Commodore too. But maybe another similar model. It was touted as a serious machine. Before VIC-20 and Commodore C64. Motorola clone 6502 and 6510 CPUs in those. Same CPU as Apples first computer, the one that basically started the company and made it into more than a couple of guys in a garage.
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@pete-s said in My first computer:
@scottalanmiller I remember the Commodore too. But maybe another similar model. It was touted as a serious machine. Before VIC-20 and Commodore C64. Motorola clone 6502 and 6510 CPUs in those. Same CPU as Apples first computer, the one that basically started the company and made it into more than a couple of guys in a garage.
This was CBM, before they even used the title Commodore alone. This one was 1977, but business, not consumer. VIC=20 was right after it in 1980. The VIC=20 was their first consumer model. Although they were super similar in a lot of ways under the hood.
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@scottalanmiller said in My first computer:
@pete-s said in My first computer:
@scottalanmiller I remember the Commodore too. But maybe another similar model. It was touted as a serious machine. Before VIC-20 and Commodore C64. Motorola clone 6502 and 6510 CPUs in those. Same CPU as Apples first computer, the one that basically started the company and made it into more than a couple of guys in a garage.
This was CBM, before they even used the title Commodore alone. This one was 1977, but business, not consumer. VIC=20 was right after it in 1980. The VIC=20 was their first consumer model. Although they were super similar in a lot of ways under the hood.
Yes, if I remember correctly I saw "your" machine in a shop that was selling business supplies and I they had some business applications running on it. But I think it had a full size keyboard on it. Anyway, the application might have been VisiCalc, the grand-daddy of Excel. Impressive stuff at the time.
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Ahh, this was it.
http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/pet/h/p200132.jpg -
@pete-s exact one in the picture that I posted, lol.
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@scottalanmiller said in My first computer:
@pete-s exact one in the picture that I posted, lol.
Except the keyboard.
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@pete-s said in My first computer:
@scottalanmiller said in My first computer:
@pete-s exact one in the picture that I posted, lol.
Except the keyboard.
OH yeah, I had the keyboard shown in yours. The one that went on to be the VIC=20 keyboard.
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My first was a Tandy 2000.
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Does an Amiga 500 count?
If not my First "PC" was a 486 Tiny Computer -
TI 99 4/A
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I have fond memories of Dig-Dug on a TRS-80. Wasn't my computer, sadly.
My first computer was a whitebox 486DX2 built by a local shop. Full height 512MB HDD, it could save all the things in a DOS/Win3.11 era.
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@hobbit666 said in My first computer:
Does an Amiga 500 count?
If not my First "PC" was a 486 Tiny ComputerHe didn't say PC, all of us posting had computers before PCs even existed. The 500 was well into the PC era, so you are unique there, but it was common at the time not to use PCs at home.
My first Amiga was the Amiga 1000, I still have it.
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@scottalanmiller said in My first computer:
@hobbit666 said in My first computer:
Does an Amiga 500 count?
If not my First "PC" was a 486 Tiny ComputerHe didn't say PC, all of us posting had computers before PCs even existed. The 500 was well into the PC era, so you are unique there, but it was common at the time not to use PCs at home.
My first Amiga was the Amiga 1000, I still have it.
The Amiga 500 was an awesome computer for arcade style gaming. It had sprites and good sound. I had one too. Motorola 68000 16/32 bit CPU in those machines. Same as Apple had in their Macintosh before the started with PowerPC.
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I bought my first computer when I was 12 (1988). It was a used 8088 with 640K memory (if memory serves), amber screen, two 5.25 floppies, no hard disk - $250. turned right around and went to Sam's club and bought a 30 MB drive for $300 - that was pre ATA (is that called Winchester?) My dad installed the drive, then I installed DOS 3.x on it.
I know I used computers before that, but I don't recall what they were though. I do remember playing with an Apple IIe in elemetry school, but we didn't have one at home. I think my computer was the first one owned by us in the house. Though my dad had a "portable" computer from the military that he brought home often. It was as large as carry on luggage today.
