This is my first computer

This is my first computer. Had a 12" orange screen, dot matrix 2 way printer, two 5½” floppy disks, DOS 3 and a keyboard. All plugged in as PS2 connections. NO hard drive! 16Kb RAM so it was limited to what it could do. I still have the original floppies!

Took 3 minutes to get the C prompt onto the screen. Thought that you may want ponder the speed of the modern computers.



I started with Basic programing language and then to COBOL. When I upgraded to my next computer that I built I went to WordPerfect and Lotus 123. It was the same then as it is today – new updates to everything. However, these updates had to be bought on floppies, no internet then.

Then onto my XT 286 with a 10 Mb hard drive which was great, now running bigger programs such as AutoCAD 9. Next step was the XT 386 with a 20 Mb hard drive. Still running WordPerfect and Lotus 123. Still had to load into the HyMem.sy as the memory was only 640 Mb.

The big jump then was to Windows 3.1. This was the thin end of the wedge from Microsoft. They started to grab every program that I used and was use to and pushed MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint and the massive Access. Mastering Access is a feat on its own. Win95 then Win98 increased our use of Access. Between three of us we itemised all the pumps, valves and various items in the plant and managed to put in their locations and service records. (Forgotten all that now.)

Now, with Win10, it is down to Photo Pad, Video Pad and MS Office. I was pleased when I managed to get my first computers working and doing what I (note I ) wanted.

It is nice to use Google to find almost everything you ever thought about but sometimes I go to the search box and type in CMD and then when the big black box comes up I type in and see all the operating system and programs that are filling up my computer. Oh dear, did say My Computer? The only thing that I own on this box is the plastic container that houses everything.

Note: Please read this as I have written it, my memory is failing a bit now.
Regards, Den.