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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Mar 12, 2023 23:37:06 GMT -5
It just dawned on me that it has been 32 years that I have been using desktop computers.
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Mar 13, 2023 10:42:00 GMT -5
It just dawned on me that it has been 32 years that I have been using desktop computers. They've advanced tremendously in that time as well. |
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Mar 13, 2023 14:23:14 GMT -5
It just dawned on me that it has been 32 years that I have been using desktop computers. They've advanced tremendously in that time as well. That is true, on the other hand they have greatly regressed in that time also. With the Macintosh Plus computer if you had a system folder with two files in it, you had a working computer and it would fun all of the original software, MacWrite, MacDraw and some other things with only those two files, in addition it would run Filemaker Pro (the most user friendly database ever) with just those two files. Those two files where called Finder and System and inside those two files were IIRC four fonts. The additional few files for the System folder, added mainly more fonts and support for a printer. It was all very intuitive. Someone could set down for the very first time at a computer and in minutes could be productive. These days nothing is intuitive, they have been made, by deliberate intention, difficult to use. But that computer proved that System Folder containing over 100,000 files and several GB of data are completely not necessary. An efficiently written Windows could probably be done with about 100 files total and less than a half a GB. If they wanted to and they could make it much more user friendly. So the advances have come at a price that is pretty high, with bloat and inefficiency. |
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Mar 13, 2023 15:18:21 GMT -5
They've advanced tremendously in that time as well. That is true, on the other hand they have greatly regressed in that time also. With the Macintosh Plus computer if you had a system folder with two files in it, you had a working computer and it would fun all of the original software, MacWrite, MacDraw and some other things with only those two files, in addition it would run Filemaker Pro (the most user friendly database ever) with just those two files. Those two files where called Finder and System and inside those two files were IIRC four fonts. The additional few files for the System folder, added mainly more fonts and support for a printer. It was all very intuitive. Someone could set down for the very first time at a computer and in minutes could be productive. These days nothing is intuitive, they have been made, by deliberate intention, difficult to use. But that computer proved that System Folder containing over 100,000 files and several GB of data are completely not necessary. An efficiently written Windows could probably be done with about 100 files total and less than a half a GB. If they wanted to and they could make it much more user friendly. So the advances have come at a price that is pretty high, with bloat and inefficiency. Just like everything coming after OD&D some might say... |
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Post by simrion on Mar 13, 2023 17:16:42 GMT -5
First I used were Sun Workstations at Eastman Kodak. First personal one was my Wife's little Mac with an amber screen!
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Mar 13, 2023 19:30:08 GMT -5
First I used were Sun Workstations at Eastman Kodak. First personal one was my Wife's little Mac with an amber screen! Macintosh Plus was the first one I used at work back in 1991. The first at home was in 1996 a used computer with Windows 3.1 which I immediately upgraded to Windows 95. |
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Mar 13, 2023 19:33:25 GMT -5
First I used were Sun Workstations at Eastman Kodak. First personal one was my Wife's little Mac with an amber screen! Macintosh Plus was the first one I used at work back in 1991. The first at home was in 1996 a used computer with Windows 3.1 which I immediately upgraded to Windows 95. Commodore VIC-20 was my first at home computer in the 1980s. We had old Macs in school but I honestly can't recall what they were. The first computer I bought as an adult was a Gateway with Windows 98 on it. |
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Post by El Borak on Mar 13, 2023 20:43:13 GMT -5
Macintosh Plus was the first one I used at work back in 1991. The first at home was in 1996 a used computer with Windows 3.1 which I immediately upgraded to Windows 95. Commodore VIC-20 was my first at home computer in the 1980s. We had old Macs in school but I honestly can't recall what they were. The first computer I bought as an adult was a Gateway with Windows 98 on it. I got a used computer in 2002 when I was 52, don't remember exactly what it was, but it was running Windows 98, later upgraded to Windows XP and ran that until I had to replace it with Windows 7. I skipped everything between XP and 7. |
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Post by True Black Raven on Mar 14, 2023 1:09:18 GMT -5
Commodore VIC-20 was my first at home computer in the 1980s. We had old Macs in school but I honestly can't recall what they were. The first computer I bought as an adult was a Gateway with Windows 98 on it. I got a used computer in 2002 when I was 52, don't remember exactly what it was, but it was running Windows 98, later upgraded to Windows XP and ran that until I had to replace it with Windows 7. I skipped everything between XP and 7. I had a home computer in 1992, but I was never part of the text based dial up community. I first got online with Netscape, (I loved Netscape) at the end of 1995. |
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Post by simrion on Mar 14, 2023 4:48:33 GMT -5
Indirectly I recall back int he 1980's assisting a friend compile programs on a Commodore? It had a cassette tape drive. I recall reading code from a computer mag as he would type it in. Then he'd say lets go play a boardgame as it would take hours for the system to actually compile the program. Were it not for him I'd have failed the coding class I took in high school. I just could not comprehend the logic involved in programming.
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Mar 14, 2023 7:26:19 GMT -5
I got a used computer in 2002 when I was 52, don't remember exactly what it was, but it was running Windows 98, later upgraded to Windows XP and ran that until I had to replace it with Windows 7. I skipped everything between XP and 7. I had a home computer in 1992, but I was never part of the text based dial up community. I first got online with Netscape, (I loved Netscape) at the end of 1995. Netscape - music to my ears. |
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Mar 14, 2023 11:28:54 GMT -5
Indirectly I recall back int he 1980's assisting a friend compile programs on a Commodore? It had a cassette tape drive. I recall reading code from a computer mag as he would type it in. Then he'd say lets go play a boardgame as it would take hours for the system to actually compile the program. Were it not for him I'd have failed the coding class I took in high school. I just could not comprehend the logic involved in programming. In college back in 1976 I had to take one quarter of programming using an IBM 1130 (about the size of a traditional office desk) using FORTRAN. Wrote the program by hand, typed up the punch cards, then fed the cards into the machine and then spent time debugging the program. It took water in a certain size pipe at a flow and pressure with 15 different outlets of different sizes and each different distances apart with the main pipe gradually getting smaller the further you went and you had have the program calculate the flow from each outlet. I got it to work, starting from equations in the book and making some assumptions. But that is when I knew I was not really interested in becoming a programmer. I enjoyed the experience, but I like to have ideas, get them started and let someone else do the fiddly detailed work, while I go to something new. |
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Mar 14, 2023 11:29:35 GMT -5
I had a home computer in 1992, but I was never part of the text based dial up community. I first got online with Netscape, (I loved Netscape) at the end of 1995. Netscape - music to my ears. I was sad when Netscape went under, I liked it. |
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Post by simrion on Mar 14, 2023 17:57:10 GMT -5
Indirectly I recall back int he 1980's assisting a friend compile programs on a Commodore? It had a cassette tape drive. I recall reading code from a computer mag as he would type it in. Then he'd say lets go play a boardgame as it would take hours for the system to actually compile the program. Were it not for him I'd have failed the coding class I took in high school. I just could not comprehend the logic involved in programming. In college back in 1976 I had to take one quarter of programming using an IBM 1130 (about the size of a traditional office desk) using FORTRAN. Wrote the program by hand, typed up the punch cards, then fed the cards into the machine and then spent time debugging the program. It took water in a certain size pipe at a flow and pressure with 15 different outlets of different sizes and each different distances apart with the main pipe gradually getting smaller the further you went and you had have the program calculate the flow from each outlet. I got it to work, starting from equations in the book and making some assumptions. But that is when I knew I was not really interested in becoming a programmer. I enjoyed the experience, but I like to have ideas, get them started and let someone else do the fiddly detailed work, while I go to something new. I remember punch cards and punch tape!!! |
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Post by restless on Apr 4, 2023 13:56:41 GMT -5
It just dawned on me that it has been 32 years that I have been using desktop computers. I've got some older than that in my garage.  |
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Post by restless on Apr 4, 2023 14:01:46 GMT -5
In college back in 1976 I had to take one quarter of programming using an IBM 1130 (about the size of a traditional office desk) using FORTRAN. Wrote the program by hand, typed up the punch cards, then fed the cards into the machine and then spent time debugging the program. It took water in a certain size pipe at a flow and pressure with 15 different outlets of different sizes and each different distances apart with the main pipe gradually getting smaller the further you went and you had have the program calculate the flow from each outlet. I got it to work, starting from equations in the book and making some assumptions. But that is when I knew I was not really interested in becoming a programmer. I enjoyed the experience, but I like to have ideas, get them started and let someone else do the fiddly detailed work, while I go to something new. 1976 was the first year I wrote programs, too, but I was a bored elementary school kid. I guess I was being disruptive or distracting and the teacher figured I would be better served by learning to write simple programs on the teletype in an empty classroom in the school that was connected to the mainframe off somewhere else. I guess it's probably a good thing, since I ended up as a software developer, although it was the career I absolutely didn't want, but you have to eat, right? |
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Post by hengest on Sept 22, 2023 13:15:41 GMT -5
Agree with The Perilous Dreamer here. Had a hand-me-down PC in the 90s, 2 mb hard disk or something. Did everything-- went online, word processing, never froze or had to be rebooted. |
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Sept 23, 2023 0:00:10 GMT -5
Agree with The Perilous Dreamer here. Had a hand-me-down PC in the 90s, 2 mb hard disk or something. Did everything-- went online, word processing, never froze or had to be rebooted. Now my main computer has 8GB of RAM and I am upgrading to 16GB, 128GB NVMe SSD boot drive, upgrading to 256 once I figure out how to clone the boot drive. And I have 3TB storage drive that I back up to a 4TB external drive. What used to be 20 MB of text files, now would be about 1TB of pdfs. |
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Sept 24, 2023 10:11:12 GMT -5
Just out of curiosity, can anyone weigh in from the Mac or Linux side? It's always been said that both of them are more reliable and stable. Is there any truth?
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Post by hengest on Sept 24, 2023 22:49:36 GMT -5
Just out of curiosity, can anyone weigh in from the Mac or Linux side? It's always been said that both of them are more reliable and stable. Is there any truth? Hardly a professional here, but yes, in my experience, both are more stable. I was a PC guy for years, assumed only PC was the way to go. MS-DOS, then various iterations of Windows. I understood there were flaws, but figured the "other guys" were worse. Got a cheap PC, wiped it, put Linux (Ubuntu) on it on a whim. Worked for me great for nearly ten years, did everything I wanted, zero problem ever (until the PC got busted by hitting the ground when the strap on the carrying case broke...hardly the fault of the operating system). Now my wife and I share a Mac laptop. Basically no problem and very stable. If I had my own computer, I'd do another Linux cheating and probably be set for much of the rest of my life. Also use a Mac at work, no real problem there. Backup computer is a PC laptop, kind of unstable and wonky. YMMV... |
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Sept 25, 2023 1:09:56 GMT -5
Just out of curiosity, can anyone weigh in from the Mac or Linux side? It's always been said that both of them are more reliable and stable. Is there any truth? Hardly a professional here, but yes, in my experience, both are more stable. I was a PC guy for years, assumed only PC was the way to go. MS-DOS, then various iterations of Windows. I understood there were flaws, but figured the "other guys" were worse. Got a cheap PC, wiped it, put Linux (Ubuntu) on it on a whim. Worked for me great for nearly ten years, did everything I wanted, zero problem ever (until the PC got busted by hitting the ground when the strap on the carrying case broke...hardly the fault of the operating system). Now my wife and I share a Mac laptop. Basically no problem and very stable. If I had my own computer, I'd do another Linux cheating and probably be set for much of the rest of my life. Also use a Mac at work, no real problem there. Backup computer is a PC laptop, kind of unstable and wonky. YMMV... I used a Mac on the job back in the late 80s and early 90s. Never had a single problem of any kind ever. I asked my boss once why we were the only ones that didn't have problems, he said it was because we didn't load random internet stuff and pirated games on ours. |
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Sept 25, 2023 2:53:45 GMT -5
I've been thinking about switching off and on for years. I think it's time
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Post by hengest on Sept 25, 2023 21:12:05 GMT -5
I've been thinking about switching off and on for years. I think it's time Linux machines can be cheap. Macs run pricier but (as it seems to me) are much less frustrating in the long run. |
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