[kb8tpw]

Tandy 64K Color computer. Big investment too.

[ducati1974]

The first computer I used was in high school in 1974. It was a Wang 3300 Basic. Programs were punched onto a paper tape about 1 1/2'" wide. I got straight A's in that computer class and was planning on going into computer programming after high school. But... life got in the way and the guy working for my father's HVAC company quit and I went to work for my father thinking it would never work out. Here I am 37 years later still doing HVAC until I retire & move to Virginia Trace in 2013!

[Pat_RI]

A Texas Instruments that I use to play a game called Parsec on. You loaded info via a cassette player or something like that.

[Number 6]

AT&T 8086 with two floppys.

[logdog]

My Commodore 64 with two floppy drives and a color printer are in my attic. I'd like to plug it in to see if it still works but can't remember if it accepts an HDMI cable. I do remember back in the early 1980's having to schedule print jobs for just before dinner because it took about 30-45 minutes to print each page.

I learned to use PCAN cards and keypunch machines back in 1971. Took my first FORTRAN course in 1975. I still think computers are just a passing fad. Why would anyone spend good money on a computer when you can drive to the library and look up information for free? And are emails really any better than the old fashioned telephone party line?

[golfnut]

I too had a TI. reading all these responses has been a real trip down memory lane....gn

[mtdjed]

I hate to admit it but mine was a used Wang PC001 with two 128K floppy disks, Wang word processing, Multiplan spreadsheet for only $3K.

[Larryandlinda]

Our first was a North Star, back in 1982. It was a 5 megabyte one we bought for our business and paid $12,000 for the whole system and it barely worked.

Now we have Macs and love them. We used to get pop-ups and viruses on our PCs but never get them with the Macs.

[silvertoken]

Kay Pro64 Used it with my TNC and 2 meter radio to chat and download at 300 baud than 600 baud. monochrome monitor, then I upgrade to a Commodor 64 and my hard drive was a tape recorder with numbers on, It help me find my programs. Word star was my word processor with dos 2. After all that I was so glad when Windows came out. Although I do miss using the telephone to connect to other peoples houses. It was like trading comic books in the old days.

[skyguy79]

For my first computer I went to the hardware store and bought up all the light switches they had and had them order me a lot more. I then mounted them onto several boards then wired them all up. Unfortunately it took so long to keep changing the switchs to turn the bytes on and off that it wasn't worth developing it any further.

Actually my first computer was an IBM 360 back in 1969. It was a huge monster. Try fitting that baby along with it's 14 tape drives into your bedroom! (The part about the IBM 360 in 1969 it the truth but the bedroom part is... well... not exactly true! Ok, ok, not true at all)

Seriously, my first system was an Apple II+. Cost over $2000 at the time.

[natickdan]

It was an IBM PC Jr. OK, maybe the employee discount played a role in my decision. Nonetheless, the progress we've witnessed in technology has been nothing short of remarkable. I can't wait to see what the next 25+ years bring us.

[cybermuda]

Timex-Sinclair - cost $100+ in 1983
Membrane keypad so typing was a nightmare, but at least you couldn't spill coffee into it
1k of RAM - but I splashed out $20 for a plug-in extra 1k - which kept falling out and crashing the machine
Cassette for back up and TV for screen
Amazing what games it could run on that tiny memory

On to a Commodore 64, which was my favourite computer of all
Fun to program, rather than just going out and buying software
5.25in floppy drive was the size of two car batteries and loading rarely worked first time - writing to disk was even worse

Commodore 128 - lasted about a month before being destroyed by a hurricane

Commodore Amiga - huge potential as it was way ahead of its time, but few people bought one and the early Apple Mac stormed ahead, despite being more expensive and not color
Hard drive cost a fortune, was huge, and totally unreliable

After that, just boring old PCs :-(

[cherylncliff]

The first computer we owned was a Gateway 2000 (1991). Our most recent Dell I5 system cost about 40% of that first Gateway and does a whole lot more.

Intersting to note that today's high school graduates have probably always had a computer in the house and can't remember a time before the internet (or forums like this).

[jblum8156]

First was a Compaq. It was a horror. Then two Gateways. Then Dell.

[Don Wilson]

IBM -650 (1960) before that I wired program boards on IBM EAM machines including 407 machines