Ask HN: What was your first computer?

My first was a homebrew of my own design hand wire-wrapped on perfboard. Components were a Signetics 2650A CPU, 6KB of 2114 (1024x4bit) static ram, and a handful of 7400L series TTL glue logic. I got most of the parts from salvage or donations.

Someone burned me a 2KB eprom copy of the Signetics rom monitor and into memory assembler. As that did not include documentation I wrote a disassembler in FORTRAN using works Univac 1108.

The first time I hooked it up it did nothing, but replacing the RC oscillator with a proper crystal for the clock fixed it. Serial IO was bit banged in software at 110 baud to a Teletype ASR 33. The RC clock was not good enough to sync the serial rate. Programs could be typed directly into memory a line at a time or read/punched from/to paper tape.

It took months, but I was poor and a pre-built computer would have cost thousands. I never really used it for much, but I did learn a bunch about digital logic, assembler programming, hardware and software debugging etc. Probably the most educational thing I ever did.

I remember many evenings sitting up in bed wire-wrapping, quite content except that my girl friend complained about the tiny itchy bits of insulation stripped from the wire ends getting into the sheets.

First computer I used: original Macintosh in elementary school. Number Munchers

First computer I programmed: Apple IIgs, the following year. Logo, the turtle. Also, Oregon Trail

First home computer: x86 running MS-DOS, later in elementary school. WordPerfect 5.1

First computer I programmed understanding that it was programming: Macintosh II, middle school. BASIC

First computer I went online with: x86, MS-DOS, middle school. 3600 baud. Prodigy

First computer of my own: x86, MS-DOS (hand me down former family computer), high school. Still WordPerfect 5.1.

First new computer of my own: Pentium, Windows 95. College. MS Word and Netscape.

I have a few answers to this question.

The first computers I used:

Several Pentiums and i486's running MSDOS, Win95, Win98, and Win2000 are what I grew up with.

First computer I built:

A socket 426 motherboard I got from a large dumpster, an Athlon XP 2600+ (2ghz) from ebay, and an ATI All-In-Wonder 2006 Edition (a Radeon 9600 256mb with built-in RCA input) my dad couldn't get working in his system.

That video card is why I passionately hate closed-source drivers. As of ~5 years ago, the free Radeon driver has been up to snuff, but alas, too late.

In this span of time, I built several PCs with second-hand parts, and installed many a GNU/Linux distro (roughly in the order Ubuntu -> Linux Mint -> Debian -> Archlinux -> NixOS with Gentoo, Debian, TinyCore, Fedora, etc. scattered between). I even got a 2011 Macbook Pro secondhand, and learned how to deal with the abuse that is Apple's EFI (not UEFI) - especially when the CD drive stopped working - right up until it melted.

The first system I bought parts for (I finally had real money!):

ASUS M5A99FX Pro R2.0, AMD FX-8320E, 2x 4gb 2133 cas10 dimms, 500W semi-modular PSU, NVidia GeForce GT 720.

Still my main system, but with a couple of AMD RX 480's instead of NVidia, and a beefier PSU, SSDs, etc.

My first computer (technically it was my dad's) was an IBM XT 5160. With its blazingly fast 8088 CPU running at 4.77MHz and 640kB of RAM and 10MB of disk, it was actually pretty fast and fun to work on.

I remember as an 7-year old I wondered what was "boiling" inside the computer. I found out a bit later it was just the hard drive doing its thing, retrieving files and such. My dad wasn't technical enough to really explain what it was doing, but it sure was "thinking hard", he said. We still have that IBM and it works, 30 years later.

Then later on I managed to save up enough money from working as a paperboy at 12 years old, to buy an Amiga 500. Later to be followed up with an Amiga 1200.

I've gone through so many computers of different makes and architectures; from Commodore 64, to Sun workstations, SGI workstations and of course PC's mostly running either FreeBSD or Linux.

Fast forwarding to 2017 and I have a MacBook Pro Retina, and quite frankly I think it is the best computer ever built.

TRS-80 Model 1. I still fondly remember soldering in a chip to enable lower case. Yep that's right -- lower case required a hardware mod via a soldering iron.

First was an IBM mainframe at Mærsk, circa 1978

Second was an Olivetti BASIC workstation (not listed on Wikipedia!) at Bang & Olufsen, circa 1979

The real time sink arrived with a Nascom 2 kit [1] (to be soldered) circa 1982.

Later a Commodore 64 which had the curse of great games and thus didn't encourage programming as much. I'm glad I started with a computer where the entertainment was getting it to do something and I feel sorry that kids today miss out on the wonder of the whole thing.

[1] http://nascomhomepage.com

Apple ][ (not ][+ or ][e, this one predated those)...The keyboard on the ][+ was slightly sculpted to match finger travel and had a slight bit of texturing on the keys. The ][ had slick, glossy keys and a less ergonomic keyboard. This thing had:

  * 16kB on-board memory
  * 48kB memory on add-in riser card 
  * floppy disk drive (this was as expensive as the CPU, iirc)
  * output to a amber-screen monitor

Mine was a used Commodore SX-64 with a tiny 3" monitor. I bought a few apps for it. One was a Spreadsheet app and that's what I first learned the very basics of programming with. I didn't it have very long though. I talked someone into selling me their Mac Plus that was collecting dust on a desk in their house and sold the Commodore to help pay it off.

From there I bought my first new computer, a Mac PowerPC 6100, then and 8500, then a used G3 and G4, and now I have late `09 Mac Mini that I bought new on sale just before they released then next model of those. I've upgraded it with an SSD and 8GB of Ram and it's still a great little computer. Best I've ever owned.

Tandy TRS-80 model 1, 4k RAM. Saw it in a shop on way home from school, jaw dropped, had no idea what it could do but needed to find out, worked arse off in summer job, & bought one. Programmed via hand-assembled Z80 using instruction table photocopied from a library book. It was some years before I knew of anyone else actually owning a computer.

TRS-80 Model 1, Level II. Taught myself BASIC then assembler. Hacked the electronics to provide lowercase and inverse screen. A few years later I interfaced it to an Amstrad CPC464 via the parallel port so I could store amstrad programs on the TRS-80 disk drives. Happy times and my entry into the industry.

IBM 1130, 1970-ish, high school sophomore/junior, programming Fortran in an Explorer post (wasn't a Scout) after hours, Teledyne Ryan, San Diego.

Great machine. Single user. CPU drove the printer hammers as each print position wheel turned one notch. Ran the disk drive and card reader in a similar micro controller fashion.

I was about 9 and my dad brought home a Commodore-64. Every Saturday morning I would wake up to find some powdered doughnuts and chocolate milk waiting for me. I would type in and debug programs from "The Gazette" magazine. When they ran I was so excited. This was the only time I was allowed to eat an entire box of doughnuts in a day.

We also had a VIC-20 after that sometime. Then a Tandy Color Computer. Schools had Apple II. When I reached 7th grade we had IBM PC's in a lab and then by 9th grade we had a full on Macintosh lab with various models.

Timex Computer 2048 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timex_Computer_2048).

First used: Univac mainframe, Fortran IV programming class, 1973. Second programmed: DG mini, probably MV/4000, self-taught assembler, ca. 1987 First owned: XT clone, 1989

A Zenith Z-241 (80286, 6MHz, 0 wait states, making it a bit faster than the 8MHz IBM AT with wait states), bought through their academic discount program and shipped to me.

It came with one 1.2 MB floppy drive, and I added a 360KB. Imagine running C compiles and MASM links with no hard disk!

It shipped with 256KB of memory. I soon filled out real memory to 640KB. I later added 1MB of extended memory so I could experiment with DOS/16M-capable databases.

I saved and bought a 30MB hard drive the next year. Par-ty!

But at night, I got to run mainframes!

A Commodore VIC-20.

My dad picked it up at Crazy Eddie's for my fifth birthday, mostly so I'd shut up and not hassle him when he was on his big, multi-kilobuck Tandy computer.

First used: Comet (A Danish CP/M computer with tape storage) First programmed: Comet (using COMAL and Pascal) First owned: ZX Spectrum 48K

Commodore 64, though we used TRS-80 Color Computers and Apple II+ at school. I even had it decked out with the 1702 monitor and the 1541 floppy drive!

Power Macintosh 5400...

Reboot at least once a month holding down the command and option keys to rebuild the desktop files and prevent death!

Tandy 1000:

"The Tandy 1000 was the first in a line of more-or-less IBM PC compatible home computer systems produced by the Tandy Corporation for sale in its RadioShack chain of stores"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandy_1000

First Home Computer: C64 Still remember sys 64738 First Used: TRS-80 programming class in grade school.

My first encounter with a computer and programming was the SWAC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWAC_(computer) at UCLA.

Compaq Deskpro SFF

I think. Like that: http://www.stuff.za.net/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/DSC00402-...

Sinclair ZX-80 with ZX-81 ROM - Dad got the kit and put it together for us.

Then an original IBM PC (5150) as Dad was an IBMer.

First computer I purchased myself was a Mac SE30 for Mathematica.

Got the Imagewriter printer with it, which I later traded straight up for an Amiga 500. Best deal I ever made.

TRS-80 Model 1 or the Atari VCS, both were purchased around launch. So, whichever came first.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80

ZX81 with 16K RAM pack. Slightly less computing power than the fishcakes I had for tea.

I'm not exactly sure, but I remember using those pretty iMac G3s in elementary school. Later on dell desktops, then linux on desktop, and then back to mac land in late high school. My first memory of Google is around 3rd grade.

TRS-80 Color Computer 2.

Wish I had some interesting hacker stories about it but my family and I did nothing with it except read and enter Basic programs into it from the manual sometimes.

My first at home was avTimex-Sinclair 1000 (which my parents got in a special bundle with the 16kB memory expansion and thermal printer.)

A bit earlier started using Commodore Pet and TI-99/4s and /4As at school.

The first one I paid for myself: Powerbook 100, and I still have it! The hard drive died years ago but never got around to throw it out.

My first machine was a Tandy with 16k of RAM. I think it was a 1000 series, but I was too busy picking my nose and pretending that I was a Jedi to know for sure...:)

First computer I used and programmed: Apple IIe

First computer I was given: Vic 20

First computer I purchased: C64

First computer I went online with: Amiga 500, 300 baud.

First BBS computer: Amiga 3000

90's kid. First computer was a slicked-up gateway machine. The only think cooler than the computer was the spotted-cow-style box it came in.

I still wish I had the box.

Mine was a Sinclar QL with a Motorola 68008 and standard 128 MB (extended to 640 MB) and two of those tape drives that support tape cartridges with an endless tape.

I think mine was an eMachines but close after that I built my own. Parents had an Epson Equity when I was very young but I don't think it was my first.

Ah, the memories. Here are my first few:

Sinclair ZX81 with 16k RAM add-on

Rubber-key Sinclair ZX-Spectrum

ZX-Spectrum +3 with 3" (not 3.5) disk

Commodore Amiga (I can't remember the model) with an 85MB hard-disk

The first computer I owned was a Nascom 2: http://www.nascomhomepage.com

Vic 20 with no way to store any programs entered. Upgraded to a C64 with a datasette the following summer. Stacks of RUN and COMPUTE magazines.

A Dell desktop with Windows ME. It wasn't until university that I realized that some people hadn't grown up with computers as I had.

Compaq Presario CQ45 I think. Bought on sale at bestbuy for $300. Everything prior to this one had been someone else's.

A ZX Spectrum +3, connected to an audio cassete player. But my first PC was a 386DX 33Mhz with 130 MB of hard disk, msdos 5.0..

After reading this I think it's fair to say we're not all whippersnappers here.

Tandy 1000 HX. 7.16 mHz 8088, 256k RAM, 720k floppy, MS-DOS 2.11, 320x200x16, and 4 glorious sound channels.

Vic-20 (Though we used Pet's at school).

Homebrew SBC using a MM57106 calculator chip as a processor (1980). Later another homebrew SBC using a 6502 (1985).

Radioshack TRS-80, later an Apple IIC Plus that was the computer I first really started learning on.

Tandy Color Computer with 16K of memory. I did my Numerical Analysis homework on it - early 80s.

The first one I owned: 486dx4 100 mhz with 8mb ram, a 14.4 modem, a 600mb hard drive, and windows 3.1 ;-)

TRS-80 Color Computer w/ 4K of RAM

Timex-Sinclair 1000, Radio Shack Color Computer, Apple IIe, original IBM PC (floppy drive!)

Pentium II ... awesome for Doom :P

Osicom 386-SX @ 17Mhz. I used it to work on portuguese medieval texts.

Commodore 64

TI-99/4A at school, then a Commodore 128 at home a few years later.

ZX Spectrum 32k at home, IBM S/360 with MUSIC/SP at school

Atari 130XE, with a bunch of fun game cartridges like Star Raiders

Tandy 1000RLX, the X meant it had a 40 mb hard drive.

BBC Model B (Acorn). Learned BASIC then 6502 assembly!

Commodore 64, still have it at home under a bed :)

386 win3.1

I remember swapping in my 100mb "Games" hdd

DAI Indata, 1980. Too good for that time.

vic-20 and a stack of Byte magazines with programs to type in. then a C-64 and 300baud Hess modem.

ZX Spectrum

A C64.

IBM PC 286. Am I ancient?

Commodore VIC 20!

it was a 486dx 33 purchased in Germany and made in Taiwan.

Sony MSX HitBit 75D

Commodore VIC-20

ZX Spectrum +2A

TRS-80 Model 16

A Commodore +4.

Atari ST 520

Olivetti M24

Heathkit H89

Atari 800XL.