Greetings From the New Kid on the Block

Ted Foster

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Have used Linux computers for a long time now, since they're more private than Windows machines. The very first computer I used was an IBM PC XT, back in the 80's; it had 256(?) K of memory, a 10 MB hard drive, and it ran some version of PC-DOS; technology has come a long way since then. Thank you for letting me join the forum, and I look forward to communicating with you. :)
 


Would that have been the model 5160, with the 8bit intel CPU ?. I had one before I got my 286, it ran IBM dos developed between IBM and Microsoft

Welcome we have a predominance of over 65's in our member list
I don't know what the model number was, but it had an 8088(?) CPU.
 
Hey Ted, WELCOME
Welcome we have a predominance of over 65's in our member list
Where do all these young guys come from? HA!:cool:

My first IBM had one, 5-1/4" single sided floppy (what's a hard drive???) Came with an ID card issued with the first run from the IBM Boca Roton plant. Mine was #256 off the production line. Now, I wish I could find that ID card.

Looking forward to following your threads!
 
Was working at an insurance software company when I was using the XT. There were others who were working on Quay PC's; they had 64K of memory, and they had only 8(?)" floppy drives. Good company to work for. Thank you for your welcome! :)
 
Salutations! my first rig was a beigebox 386sx-33, early 90s. cut my teeth on msdos5. I agree, it's rather amazing how far tech has advanced just in my lifetime.
 
Hello @Ted Foster
Welcome to the linux.org forum, good you have you here, enjoy!
 
Welcome aboard!

My first access to a programmable computer was in the last 60s and was an HP 9100 Compuer Calculator. It would output to an LED screen, a TV, or a plotter. You could enter data in manually, via punch card, or by a magnetic card that was like a modern credit card. Needless to say, they didn't contain a great deal of data.

I was a scholarship kid at a fancy private/bording school. We even had our own observatory, private ski slopes, ice arena, etc...

For the record, I thought the computer was a pain in the butt - and that it took more effort to use it than it was worth. I'd continue this love-hate relationship with computers until well into the modern age - when I no longer had to program everything I needed and when computers were fast enough to not irritate me.

They were a necessary evil and knowing about them was a requirement for my career. Without them, I'd have not had the same career path. Things got easier in the 80s but computers were still slower than I'd like. I was much happier when we got into the more modern era of multiple cores and GHz processors.

The computer I'm using is no longer the fastest computer I can buy. It's finally fast enough. I no longer need bleeding edge computing.
 
Welcome aboard!

My first access to a programmable computer was in the last 60s and was an HP 9100 Compuer Calculator. It would output to an LED screen, a TV, or a plotter. You could enter data in manually, via punch card, or by a magnetic card that was like a modern credit card. Needless to say, they didn't contain a great deal of data.

was that this thing? https://www.hpmuseum.org/hp9100.htm looks like it used core memory!
 
the graphing/plotting aspect of that calculator was neat, though it was hard to see in the black & white video. the classroom setting reminds me of geometry class back in high school - of course, we all had Texas Instruments graphing calculators, dont remember what model.

thanks for the video link, @KGIII!
 
Welcome to the Forum.
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G'day from DownUnder, Ted - we are close to contemporary, I am a 1957er, as is David @KGIII above.

Enjoy the atmosphere here.

It's Friday in Oz, so

Avagudweegend

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz
 

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