Commodore 64 : 1985-1987
My take on the "fathers Oldsmobile". The C=64 was one of the coolest Christmas presents I have ever received. I spent many hours playing games like Temple of Apshai, Ultima II, F-15 Strike Eagle, and Airborne Ranger.
Commodore 128 : 1987-1989
Purchased with my second State of Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend Check. I don't think I stopped smiling for months. It was so cool looking and came with 128k of RAM! This computer helped me produce high school homework and finish Electronic Art's: The Bard's Tale III.
Packard Bell PC 286 : 1989-1989
Not really thinking, I bought this PC Clone from Sears but quickly took it back. EGA graphics suck.
Amiga 500 : 1989-1993
Ah, the golden years. The Amiga 500 has to be my favorite game machine of all time. Ever play Gods, Savage, or Shadow of the Beast? This was the first computer I owned to use the "so cool" 3.5 inch disks. I spent many of hours playing games, exchanging games, and going to Joey Bryant's place to get the latest warez. He had access to the only Amiga hooked up to the universities 'Inter-net' which turned out to be a treasure trove for pirate sites.
Apple IIc : 1993-1993
I traded my ultimate gaming machine for an Apple IIc with my long-time friend Mitch. He wanted to start animating stuff and, well I get bored easily. I'm also a little nostalgic and thought it would be cool to have the best designed computer of all time. The Apple IIc was designed by the same person who created the Sony Walkman.
Apple Macintosh LC : 1993-1994
Apple Macintosh LC II : 1994-1995
Apple Macintosh LC III : 1995-1996
Not too many memories about this period. I got my first Macintosh from a girlfriend who bought the LC but later could not afford it. Rather than return the computer, I just bought it from her. That led to my upgrading parade through the LC line. The pizza box was one of the better Macs created. So easy to get in and out of. Always worked and never crashed.
Apple Powerbook 165 : 1995-1996
My first Powerbook! I remember salivating over the ads for the Powerbook 100 (the one with the woman sitting on a mountain ledge) wanting so much to possess one.
Apple Macintosh IIci : 1996-1996
Not happy with the black and white Powerbook display, I exchanged my laptop for a IIci. The net had started becoming popular and browsing in black and white just didn't work. It was on this box that I also learned Photoshop 3.0.
Apple Powerbook 165 : 1996-1997
Back to the laptop because it was just too cool...
Apple Power Macintosh Performa 6116 : 1997-1998
... and back to another color Mac. The first of many Power Macintoshes to crash and crash and crash. But I did get to play Quake and that made it all the better.
UMax 500c - Macintosh Clone : 1998-1998
PC - Pentium II 233MHz : 1998-1998
A year in which I became pissed at Apple and left the loyalty tent for a more stable (and faster) environment of Windows. The UMax box was cool until it kept dying. I would later learn that you could only use one brand of RAM and thus everything that passed through the RAM was coming out corrupt on the other end.
CompUSA PC - Pentium II 233MHz : 1998-2002
Bliss. At the time my generic PC took a power supply dump and without tech support I tried to fix it. I actually got it to work but once I re-soldered the connections it just wouldn't live again. Confirming that I am not to be an electrician.
Apple Power Macintosh G3 350 Mhz Blue & White : 1999-2002
Did I say Bliss before? THIS is bliss. After using the PC exclusively for a year it was so nice to come back to MacOS. Just the way the mouse glides across the screen (and it does when compared to how Windows drives a mouse) says it all. As the LC was easy to access so is the G3 by a factor of 100. Excellent design.
Dell Inspiration 8500 : 2001-2002
A computer earned through work at an Internet start-up. The Dell was a pretty good laptop but the screen looked faded and who wants a 12 pound lap burning device? After using a Macintosh, it was hard to use the Dell for anything design related. Choppy mouse control and lack of free fonts hindered my ability to use it.
Powerbook G3 500 Mhz : 2001-2002
The second best computer I have owned so far. The Powerbook has to be one of the finest lines of computers ever built. What a joy it was to use this machine especially when combined with MacOS X and an Airport wireless connection, it's heaven on Earth until I saw Windows XP run in full glory.
HP zt1130: 2002 -
When talking about computers, there's best, better, and holy crap! That's what I found at Microcenter one fateful Monday afternoon at the local computer store. It has a comparable feel to the Powerbook G3 but 1.5 pounds lighter and ten times faster. I especially love the DVD/CD burner combo that came with this little 1299.00 wonder. Wasn't sure about buying a HP or even going back to Windows but I have no regrets...
Have you ever switched platforms? Did it make you happy or sad?
Join the fray by reading through and commenting at the end.
I was a die-hard MacHead from 1989 til last year, when my employer informed me that Macs were no longer welcome and I must use a PC, or else get used to using pencil and paper again. They got me a Dell Inspiron 8500, and now that I'm thoroughly ensconsed in PC-Land, I'm finding it hard to go back to Mac. Even though my PB G3 (Wallstreet) has more RAM, more HD space, and OSX, it is slower, more difficult to work on since I'm constantly having to switch between X and 9.2 for Photoshop and what-not.
I still use my PB to check sites I've built for Mac browser-friendliness, but that's about it. I really want one of the new iMacs - bad - but it's gonna be a little while before I can even consider it.
Just what do you see in WinXP?! I've got it and it's mostly useless. Maybe after MacOS... :)
(Ooooh, lets see if Greg goes into a defending-the-MacOS rant here...)
Spike: I like the default desktop background in XP, the one with the grassy hill and spring blue sky. I wasn't able to find it's equal with any other operating system and that alone was reason enough to make the switch. The quiet peace just floats out of XP and washes against my face.
when i met my geek-roommate, he mocked me for using a crappy wal-mart pc. he smugly showcased the features of his mac os at every opportunity, and it was only months later that i owned my first powerbook. fast-forward to his next job at a software company, where he had to use a pc. suddenly macs are poop. my poopy mac is a piece of poop. any time i ask for help he can't even remember how those poopy things work anymore. hm. i've got a dell inspiron now. i like it. he's got a new mac. you can guess, i think, how life has continued.
Ash, that sounds like potential for a really good story for the Fray.
Ash, there's no shame in admitting that you and your roommate may benefit from counseling.
The quiet peace just floats out of XP and washes against my face.
As much as a Domo-Kun background (for the un-initiated) would make you want to eaty cute Japanese spaghetti-hoops? When I'm not using a custom wall-paper I'm using Domo-Kun. The lickle monster fella.
Instead of using Apache why not use IIS, the version that comes with Windows XP (and NT)? I use it and aside from being awkward it has basically the same features as Apache. Except it won't let me run movable type. Serves me right, 6 months learning PHP and then not using it.
i've always meant to submit something to the fray, greg. this could be it. i will have to ask my roommate if he minds our possibly dysfunctional life being exposed in this fashion. and then we will have to argue about whether the story should be produced on the inspiron, ibook, thinkpad, or imac.
Spike, I would rather run a web site via carrier pidgeon before turning on an IIS server. That's not only bad karma, it's just asking for the devil to take your soul.
But you admit the Domo-Kun background is from Heaven? :-)
IIS hasn't done me any harm. Except it won't run Movable Type. Rocket Powered Pelicans are now my web-server of choice.
"Rocket-Powered-Pelicans?"
I heard that Atari was doing research in 1987 with animals from the sourthern hemisphere. I always wondered what came of it.
:P You said the a-word.
It's just a title for my PHP script I use to weblog. It's only v0.3 at the moment; I'm having problems with it - I can't decide whether to have a user login so people can login and post on a public log, and have mine separate and non-commentable, or have mine commentable but by anyone? Does that make sense?
By the way, what time offset is this? I guess I could work it out but... :-)
Is it me or is everyone writing their own blogging software these days.
I think my Geek Resume goes back further than yours. I had a TRS-80 with 16K EXTENDED RAM than ran pure BASIC. I remeber my next door buddy come over to play a game, but he got bored because I had to program it from the book first. It was hooked up to our TV.
i also had a trash-80. i saved my programs on a portable cassette recorder.
Anyone remember the Coleco Adam? Along with the TRS-80, Commodore Pet, Commodore Vic 20, and Atari 400, it featured a tape drive and a CPU that was housed in the printer, of all places.
I think writing your own blogging software is becoming too common. Soon people who use blogger will be considered elitist.
Geek resume goes as far back as the Vic 20 but really "began" when the family purchased an Amiga 500. By the way Cinemaware had some kick ass games but the ultimate was those 3D arcade games you could play on an amiga and the entire program would run off of a FLOPPY. My folks still use the Amiga. *sigh* Well, I mostly stayed on the Windows side because it was "inexpensive" but was always a pain in the ass. I hear there was a new OS written for the C64 so you can hop on the web and revive your old machine's use.
I don't even own a computer game anymore. I'm a recovering computer game adict. I miss Jumpman for C-64. I would cheerfully surrender to the joystick once more if Jumpman came out on PC. I would switch if it came out only on a Mac.
All is forgiven :-) I recently switched back
to the Mac after ten years on DOS/
Windows. I only have a lowly clamshell
iBook though, so it's not as fast as my
old Inspiron 3800. But I can hack Perl,
and I may wind up running Movable Type
or Graymatter on it. At least until I get
the TiBook :-)
Bob, you got an Inspiron 8500?? How do you like? I just saw those comps at dell and am crying since I just ordered my 8200 about 3 months ago.... Have fun with it. I also agree with you about OSX. I use it at my school and they buy the latest and best from apple. (Duel GHz machines with cinema displays) ... anyways... OSX just is too slow. I click a button and it takes five days for it to happen. And also, I will never use a computer that doesn't utilize the Alt+Tab function like winxp does!!!
alt+tab? that's been around since win95... possibly 3.1 but i didn't use that for long. my first computer was a tandy back in good ol' mother russia. i had a black and white tv and a color tandy with frogger (only the best game ever). times were weird as u can tell.
My best friend had a Coleco Adam. There was a mean version of Donkey Kong for it. I had an Atari 400, and I spent lots of time building crumby drum machines with it. It also had a mean version of Donkey Kong. At school, it was TRS-80s. For me, it was Macs from 1991 until sometime in 2000. Then it was a hellish trip through Win98. Now I'm using Win2000 (after nearling switing to Linux + KDE, which I use on some machines at work) and am happy with it. I have an OS X box here too, but I don't use it much.
I say use whatever hardware and software works for your budget and goals. I've personally been a Mac kid since the early 80s. From Mac OS 6 to X, I've enjoyed and suffered through some trying years with the Mac. Two years ago I received a IBM ThinkPad T22 with Windows 2000. At first, it was such a clunky and foreign experience. Within a few months, I grew to appreciate some aspects of the Windoz experience, but most of all I gained respect for my trusty ThinkPad, which is the tank or Humvee of a laptops; A super tough little beast that looks like it's government issue for sure. But alas, after using Mac OS X on my 15" PowerBook Titanium (1 GHz/DVD-R) I really appreciate a stable, UNIX-based OS and simply the way the mouse glides across the screen. ;.) Windows XP? I've used it on my girlfriend's ThinkPad T30, and frankly wasn't too impressed with it's MSN-centric world. One friend who has owned far more computers than I summed it up well: Windows XP = same old MS cack with a new shine... LOL! At least we all have choices. I'll continue to use my ThinkPad that my consulting gig supplies me for work and my TiBook for personal computing. Cheers!