Old computers

[lexin]

In the comments of my last entry, the question was raised about whether I remember not having computers - and I do.

I bought my first computer in 1986, and it was an Amstrad 8512, it had two disc drives and an integral printer, which was the reason I'd bought it. The word processing program was called Locoscript, and was a total bugger to learn, though I did get quite adept at it in the end. I can't imagine I paid for it myself, my husband and I largely lived on welfare benefits, so I think it was either a Christmas or birthday gift from my parents.

At the time, I lived in Scunthorpe, in Lincolnshire and was married. All that was to change pretty quickly.

So, yes, I do remember what it was like before computers.

Comments

[oursin]

I had the single disc drive version! must have been around the same time. I wrote my PhD thesis on it (or possibly after upgrading to the 2 drive version), in Locoscript, which did not have any built-in footnoting capacity. It was still a massive improvement over having to type the thing up.

[lexin]

Oh, yes, even Locoscript was a step up from a typewriter, which was what I'd been using until then, at least once I left University and had no access to a computer, even one I could book time on.

[gattagrigia]

That's funny - my third PC was an Amstrad that we bought at Costco, but a later model than yours, I guess. It had the two disk drives, But no printer. It had ROM onboard, and I used it to program in DOS. Oh, right, it ran a graphical interface called GEM, which I preferred to whatever MS offered a bit later. Good times!

[lexin]

Your third PC was an Amstrad? Wow, that's cool.

[isis]

You are all early adopters! I bought my first computer in 1987 - it was a Macintosh Plus. I was tired of writing my grad school papers on my boyfriend's Kaypro.

It had zero disk drives so you had to buy an auxiliary disk. I remember I got a Jasmine 40MB. Kind of astonishing to remember the days of MBs and not GBs, and meanwhile as part of my job I'm transferring about 45TB from a computer in California to one in Wyoming over the internet.

[lexin]

Macs always seemed to be massively expensive, I remember looking at them in the early 1990s and envying them, but couldn't afford one. Couldn't afford anything at that time as I was very poor what with one thing and another going wrong with my life then.

[sollers]

The first computer we as a family owned was a ZX Spectrum in about 1982; we got a single floppy disc drive Amstrad some time in the mid 80s. Which means that I had been married for 12years before we had our first one.

[lexin]

My father bought one of those early things that played a sort of 'tennis' on the TV. I remember being so thrilled with it, and these days it looks utterly simple and almost ridiculous.