How long have you been using computers?

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I've been using them pretty much my entire life. My Dad loves computers (works with them too) so I've always had them around... I believe I was first taught to use them when I was 2. So that's... almost 19 years now. I'm not a 'computer geek' or programmer anything but I could turn that way pretty easily, I know a lot more than I let on to people hehehe!!

Ours was the first class ever in our school to work with a computer.

That was about 1973

I dont think any of us bothered with it for long, you had a card with holes in it that you put in a slot, then a ream of paper came out with some "X's" printed on it.

We soon got bored.

Idiots that we where!

I've been using them since 1983 or 1984, when I was 4-5 years old.

Tim

Well, when I was four I was poking around on my dad's IBM looking for a chess game. That makes it about fifteen years. I remember playing games in black and white. On huge floppy disks. (I also remember going into Circuit City and looking at a game that came on CD-ROM and thinking "Who has one of those fancy things anyway?")

ive been gaming since the age of 5. i remember playing games such as lands of lore, and warlord 3. i am now 16

It's wonderful to read all these experiences of computers!

Since I always was a bit odd in family, it started with my parents on a trial or error thingie when I was about 8 years old and closing myself into myself as many people with authism do. They rented a computer for me. Kabam! I was sold.

I wasn't unfamiliar with computers, I had already in my mind built a KIM-1. For those young enough to not knowing what a KIM-1 is it's about 10% of your cellular phone CPU capacity.

It just gave me a lot of recoils on things i've done that should be blacklisted like not bothering to defuse sockets since it's more efficient to short them out. Don't do that unless you're a experienced electrical engineer that knows what you're up to.

My dad bought us a computer in 1988, but we sold it before we came back to the States in 1989.

My brother bought his in 1999, Compaq Presario 5000. I've replaced most of the parts once they went bad(HD, RAM, Op Sys, Monitor, keyboard, speakers, mouse) and am now in possession of it.

LOL. same. I'm 16 too, and I played with my moms computer when I was two. I can't remember a time when i didn't use a computer. My mom says at times i was better than her, and I was just little!

Yes, I programmed on IBM 1130's, as well. FORTRAN and assembly on 80 column punch card input. Used to swap the light bezels on it just to bug the operator, at times. I remember using 8k drum memories -- had to kick them once in a while to get them back working. I also remember mercury delay line memories, for example, but mostly in seeing what folks used a little before my time.

Hmm. Anyone recall Bell System's 1969 Cardiac computer??

I guess I should add that I built my own Altair 8800 computer, back in the 1974 timeframe. See:
A page of mine on some of my earlier history

Jon

Using, since 1993. Family owned one since 1996. I've had one since 2006.

I started seriously using computers 5 years ago when I started high school.

well, I feel better now. Was afraid it was going to be everyone started in '98...
I started in '78 with one computer class, had to type in a simple COBOL program (Completely Boring and Obsolete Language...the stuff of Y2k.. and forgot the periods. Shortest bug list knowm (4 missing sections..

got a Computer Programming degree starting in '82 (COBOL...yes, again, on Punch Cards), finally got to a school with 3270 terminals (what the interface cards were later based on.., so I could mess programs up even faster...

Got a Leading Edge Model D in '85, upgraded the memory to 640k (yes, that was the 'max' then..
and used that for a few years, until I started building my own, starting with a 286... (My Dad's still using the Leading Edge..

Been working in PCs, printers, etc., since '87...

I started computers in 1982 with a home-built Sinclair ZX-81 (Z-80 8-bit, cheap video on your tv), used it for designing & debugging I-8085 hand-compiled MC for tech school, where there were only 4 Intel SDK-85 microprocessor development boards in the lab for a class of 30 students; I paid attention before I reached 6th quarter & MC-level micros, to a friend, (bet he was aspie, now I feel back then about it) who had built a ZX-80 and said "Get you a ZX-81 so you don't have to rely on the school boards, and you can use it for your TRS-basic".

We had learned "PC" of the day on Tandy TRS-80's with cassette tape, only two machines out of 10 in the lab had 5" floppies. I got one of those later, picked up a 1MB HD discarded when my Company upgraded to the new XT & AT IBM's, and used Tandy's excellent Z-80 Assembler to customize an old 8" floppy based OS to add 3" floppy support to my ZX-81.

Learned IBM-PC on a dos-based XT at first job out of tech school at the age of 41, after 10 years as a late-blooming "hippie". Learned Win 3.1 when a friend pirated me a copy, bought a new 486 MB to install Win95.

Experimented with FreeBSD 3.3 on a spare computer and learned basic networking by hooking that up to my AT Win95 box and making them talk to each other, was fun, especially when I could make my FreeBSD desktop appear in an X-Windows server on my Win95 desktop.

But, FreeBSD is weak on X-windows apps, and depends on Linux compatibility layers to provide more of those.

One day, I got a copy of RH6.1 Linux to try out for a daily-desktop, and the rest, as they say, is history ...

I started on ncr mainframes in the mid-70s and had my first degree in computers by 77 (at the age of 7). I've been in it ever since. From timex to apple to TSR-80 to vic-20, C-64, Atari 800, XTs, RTs, ATs, clones, you name it... I've had my hands in it.

Started with an IBM 1620, around 1976. Re-wrote a few games for it, played a lot of Trek and Hammurabi.

I was 2 years old, so 1988, the story goes my dad was trying toget computers in to his school but a lot of people where protesting they where difficult to use, so he got me in (...damn I feel used...lol) to open up an application and say if a 2 year old can, anyone can.

Been using them ever since