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Happy Birthday Windows 95!

2K views 33 replies 17 participants last post by  Tim Lones 
#1 ·
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1851769,00.asp

Wow, I can't believe it's been 10 years!

My first computer was ordered just before WIN95 started shipping with new PCs. It was an IBM so it had WIN3.1 as well as OS/2 Warp. Eventually I had Windows 95 installed on it.

A decade ago, I couldn't imagine doing much with a computer besides typing a letter and playing solitaire. I remembering my mom and I hooking up the computer and it the box there was a piece of phone cable. Looking perplexed I asked my mom, 'what this for?' And she said she thinks the sales guy said the phone line would be needed to go on the internet. I looked at my mom and said why would I ever want to go on the internet and threw the phone line in the garbage. I also almost made my mom take the computer back and exchange it for one with out a CD-ROM drive. I wanted nothing to do with CD-ROMs.

Now 10 years later I'm on a 5MB (soon to be 8MB) internet connection, communicating with people all around the world, playing games like Halo and Grand Theft Auto, downloading music, making my own CDs and DVDs, have my own wireless network going, etc. Back then I wanted nothing to do with computers, now I live on one.

It's amazing how much things have change in the past decade, I can't help to wonder about the future which I see there being two major improvements.

1) The widespread in-depth convergence of the internet, TV and digital media as a whole. One central box in your home provided by a cable or phone provider that serves out all of your entertainment needs to your entire house hold in an on demand type environment and 2) what I can't wait for, AI.

I almost want to stat humming that song, In the Year 2525 :)
 
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#28 ·
The Tandy 2000 had a 80186 and two dual sided 720K floppy drives. I never had one but wanted it real bad when it was introduced.

At the time I had a TRS-80 Model 4P which was slightly less (only $2499) expensive. Before that a TRS-80 Model III with 16K and a cassette recorder.
 
#29 ·
Richard King said:
I have run into very few people who have ever heard of much less owned a 186 based machine in the past. Most people when I tell them that I had one say that there was no such processor and that I am mistaken. I just dumpstered mine about 6 months ago.
I did the same with my Amstrad not long ago. Later I ran across an outfit that would have really liked to have gotten their hands on it, they collect very obsolete stuff like that. The Amstrad was neat in that the monitor stand sat in a small well on the top of the computer case. Under that was a well that took (I think) C batteries. This was the battery backup for the computer. About once a year you just changed the batteries. Very handy, batteries very available, didn't even have to take the cover off.
 
#30 ·
My old boss still has a full set of Windows 1 diskettes. :)

Of course, I started a bit before that - over 30 years ago. Was a beta-tester of the 8086 when I worked for Siemens. That was a couple of years before I built my first PC - an S-100 machine. The FDD controller issued seek pulses too fast for those IBM 8" drives I got surplus, so I had to design and build a speed-matching buffer for it. :)
 
#31 ·
This was in my Clean Laffs email this morning. It has to have been one of the very early Windows, Since it came on floppies.

An unfailingly polite lady called to ask for help with a
Windows installation that had gone terribly wrong.

Customer: "I brought my Windows disks from work to install
them on my home computer." Training stresses that we are
"not the Software Police," so I let the little act of piracy
slide.

Tech Support: "Umm-hmm. What happened?"

Customer: "As I put each disk in it turns out they weren't
initialized."

Tech Support: "Do you remember the message exactly, ma'am?"

Customer: (proudly) "I wrote it down. 'This is not a
Macintosh disk. Would you like to initialize it?'"

Tech Support: "Er, what happened next?"

Customer: "After they were initialized, all the disks
appeared to be blank. And now I brought them back to work,
and I can't read them in the A: drive; the PC wants to
format them. And this is our only set of Windows disks for
the whole office. Did I do something wrong?"
 
#32 ·
I still have my Atari 800 computer in its original box. I also have the printer, external 5¼" floppy drive and lots of disks. I also have the cassette tape drive. I think I also have several game cartridges too.

The computer box has a sticker on it proudly stating, "Now with 48k memory!"

See ya
Tony
 
#33 ·
And this is our only set of Windows disks for the whole office. Did I do something wrong?"
:D Pirates get what they deserve. :lol:
 
#34 ·
My first computer was a used ACER with Win 95..Dont remember what the memory was but it had I think it had an 800 MB HD. this was about 1997-98. My first new computer was an Emachines ETower 533i with Windows 98SE which I bought in 1999. With all the discounts and rebates at Best Buy I ended up paying about $25 out of pocket for it. It had 8GB HD which I thought was huge. I just this spring upgraded to the EMachines T2894 wth Windows XP, 512 Ram and DVD Combo Drive..with a 60GB Hard Drive..should be the last computer I have to buy for a long time
 
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