I was reminiscing about my "tech" journey...

[oshunluvr]

High School, 1978-80, 16-18 yrs old, programmed an IBM 360 mainframe using Fortran IV w/WATFIVE and punchcards.

University, Mainframe (don't remember the model) via paper punched tape, Assembly, COBOL, RPG II, also got my hands on early desktop PCs: Apple ][, IBM, and Radio Shack/Tandy.

...ended up in a different career...

For home use had Apple ][c, Timex Sinclair (used a cassette tape to load the OS!), IBM PC w/8-bit processor, and many, many others later.

At 46 retired from career and got my first "real" tech job. Became a Simulation Expert running, repairing, upgrading, and training on networked simulation systems with 27 or more PC's running Linux and Windows. Learned Postgresql and wrote hundreds of queries to make my job easier. Managed 60+ systems all over the country and had 70-80 employees.

Retired again.

I saw, punch cards, punched tape, multi platter hard drives the size of washing machines, tape drives as big as a refrigerator, cassette tape storage, 8", 5.25", 3.5" floppies, the first Apple released personal desk top hard drive that cost about $1500 in the early '80s.

Now I just doom scroll here and reddit and a couple other forums looking for good questions to answer and problems to solve.

[Snowhog]

Now I just doom scroll here and reddit and a couple other forums looking for good questions to answer and problems to solve.

Such is the life an aging Linux geek!

[TinyTim]

"High School, 1978-80, 16-18 yrs old"
We are the same age, but you played with bigger floppies.

[oshunluvr]

I have no "family friendly" comments...

[claydoh]

High School, 1978-80

Dang, I hate feeling like the youngster here sometimes.
I only went to high school for two and a half years, plus "home schooling", for reasons, graduating a year late in 1985.
Our tiny school had iirc 4 trs-80s, which I did use for a few weeks.


I got my first home PC in 1998, so for my age, I was a latecomer.

[die.boer]

goddamn ya'll OLD lol , and i thought i'm to old for this techy geeky sh|t
i'm a young 55 yrs btw
i only got my hands on a PC when i was about 20 , i think , (my RAM is going lol) had win98 on ...
that's about the extent of my tech journey

[claydoh]

i'm a young 55 yrs btw

I am still in the 5's here, for a few more weeks at least
My first PC was when I was 32

[Snowhog]

My first PC was a Leading Edge Desktop with a 386 CPU running at a whopping 8 Mhz! That was a LONG time ago. I followed that PC with a 486 Desktop PC, also a LONG time ago. The first operating system was Windows 3.1, progressing up through Windows 98, and then to Linux in 2007.

[Schwarzer Kater]

A picture of my first computer model, bought second hand in 1981 (and I still have it ):



It has a full 1 KB of memory and painted-on ventilation slots!

Later on I had e.g. a Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Sinclair QL and Atari ST.

As I have had wet dreams about an Apple Macintosh computer for some years, I bought one sometime around 1990 (a Macintosh Classic) and also switched to computers as a career for the first time.

…

[Snowhog]

painted-on ventilation slots

Virtual cooling! How advanced.

[Qqmike]

First home PC, in 1981, a brand new "IBM PC."
What I felt was the cost:
the new PC, like $1500, plus Windows OS, plus Windows Office Suite, plus A-V software, etc., and a good printer.
Jeez!!! Lots of $$$. Repeat every so many years, too.

Back in the day ... As a grad student previously (Mathematics, Operations Research), used CDC mainframe (with punched cards), and programmed stuff -- Pascal, Lisp, Basic, Fortran IV.
Windows user until ...Linux-Kubuntu 2006/2007?

As for reminiscing ... Geek? Never thought of it that way.
I just figured it was "The Way"!
I mean, you need food, right? and a PC, and some math, and some kind of software ... just to exist.
And now add to that list, DIY PC building, because you can't always find one off-the-shelf that's right for you for the money.
It's not being a geek, it's just ... well ... common sense, isn't that right, guys?

[oshunluvr]

I remember a literal "hack" for my Apple ][c - The processor was a 1.4 MHz 65C02. Apple's best offering in 1984. Much later - the thing ran well for a very long time - someone had documented a way to nearly quadruple the CPU speed! It took it to 4 MHz or thereabouts!

I had to pull the processor out, bend a specific pin out so it wouldn't go into the socket when reinserted, solder a wire to that pin, then solder the other end of the wire to the frame of the PC - which I assume was to ground it.

The funny part was, all the graphical games (F15 Strike Eagle, Railroad Tycoon, etc.) I played were programmed to run at 1.4 MHz so were totally unplayable! The solution was to solder a small toggle switch into the wire so I could choose the CPU speed when I powered on. The word processor and spreadsheet flew!

Later, I think the first IBM I had ran at 8 MHz - an 8088 processor IIRC.

[Shibblet]

I had just turned 14, and my first PC came in 1990. CompuAdd 212 (286, 12mhz). Came with a copy of DOS 4.0, with the DOS Shell, and the "Toolworks Office Manager" which was a dime-store version of Microsoft Works.

First thing I did was bring home a copy of GW Basic from my school so I could start programming. Eventually I got a copy of a Pascal Compiler by telling the teacher I needed one of the tools of the master discs...

Started using DOS 6.2 when we upgraded to a 386/33, and stuck with DOS with my 486/50. Got Windows 95 when I got my First Pentium 200 in 1997.
Got my first K6 AMD Processor with 3DNow! in 2000, running Windows ME.

Couple of years later, I got a Pentium III 500, whole new Motherboard, Ram, etc. Complete Upgrade. Around 2002. This was the last one. Got a copy of Windows XP, and loved it.

Then in 2008, this little Netbook came out called the MSI Wind. No one had ever seen one of these before. Very small, very portable, mini-laptop computer. Low specs. 1024x600 screen resolution, 1.6ghz Intel Atom, 2g of Ram... nothing "impressive" per-se, but was a great little portable PC. Came with Windows XP, and worked "well-enough."

Well, the booklet that came with the MSI Wind, had a blurb in it that I had never seen before. It said "Supports Windows XP and SuSE." I thought to myself... WTF is SuSE? So, I looked into it. Turns out that this little PC would run all kinds of recently released Linux distros, and I got me a copy of Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron), right about the time 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) was coming out. This was the Gnome2 (Mate now) interface at the time. I was blown away at how much faster my little laptop was running! Along with extended battery performance, and not having to screw around with drivers just to make things work!

I stuck with Ubuntu until 11.04, and was not impressed by the Unity interface... I really liked Gnome 2. Then decided to jump over to the KDE derivative of Ubuntu, Kubuntu (Natty Narwhal), which was running KDE 4.6 at the time. All I can say, is the rest is history. I have been running Kubuntu for 15 years at this point. I have distro hopped for time to time, but always come back to Kubuntu.

In my opinion, KDE / Plasma is the best Linux Desktop Environment, bar none. It does everything I need it to do. All of the "upgrades and improvements" made over the years all seem to be reasonable and usable, unlike the crap people keep getting through Windows/Microsoft. The PC at my workplace runs Windows 11, and i've been watching how that fiasco is "evolving."

Anyway, Kubuntu, to me, feels like home. Comfortable, usable, doesn't get in the way, and just works. My current PC is a Minisforum AtomMan G7Pt. Kubuntu runs GREAT on this thing.

[oshunluvr]

The mention of DOS 6.2 reminds me about many of the OS's I used.

DOS 3.1 was my first, which rapidly progressed to higher versions. "Windows" ran as an application back then, not an OS. At one point I used whatever Timex had on the Sinclare. DR-DOS, Then Windows OS, UNIX on a Sun Spark workstation, OS/2 Warp, then finally Linux - Mandrake w/KDE 1.0, others followed. I did get Windows again on a new PC I bought for the family, but the third time one of the kids download a virus I wiped it and installed Linux, and never looked back.

It did take a significant effort to get the kids' educational Windows games running on Linux but I eventually figured it out - something to do with Arthur and reading, it's been quite awhile. The kids are in their late 30's now.

[Shibblet]

The mention of DOS 6.2 reminds me about many of the OS's I used.

DOS 3.1 was my first, which rapidly progressed to higher versions. "Windows" ran as an application back then, not an OS.

I liked it that way. DOS Was still the primary through Windows ME, if I remember correctly. It was an app running on top of DOS. Then XP changed it up.

It did take a significant effort to get the kids' educational Windows games running on Linux but I eventually figured it out - something to do with Arthur and reading, it's been quite awhile. The kids are in their late 30's now.

My son just turned 29... I didn't start Linux until he was 10 or so... I will never forget when he was about 14 years old and just JAMMIN' in the terminal. He and I had a real discussion about "point and click" vs. "terminal," and which one is actually faster. ;-) He had some REALLY good insight.

Gaming on Linux has been a challenge, until Proton and Steam/Valve. They really have made a major difference.

[Qqmike]

A bunch of little things we went through, details.
I remember DIY-ers not liking to pay the premium prices for Windows OS -- XP at the time.
This was around 2005-2007 (?).
But at Newegg, if you bought certain key PC components (like motherboard and X and Y parts),
you could buy an OEM of XP for $99.
It felt like a big deal back then!