The death of Steve Jobs has me browsing articles on old computers.
Technically my very first computer was a Timex Sinclair 1000. I say ‘technically’ because it was the first computer I bought. But I never used it. It didn’t come with any software, and all I could do was write a bit of BASIC code. I never did get any peripherals, and I think I only hooked it up once or twice.
The next one was an Atari 520ST. I chose it over the Commodore Amiga because (as I recall) it had better graphics and was slightly faster. I was a ‘kid’, and had visions of doing some totally awesome computer graphics. Not so much. I played with a Mandelbrot program and made some really cool fractal images, but it took forever to render them. I played The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy on it; ironically enough, since that was a text game. It turned out that I used it mostly for word processing.
It was probably 1997 before I got a computer I could ‘use’. I had it built at a computer show in L.A., and it had a 133 Mhz processor. And dial-up Internet. There was a 166 Mhz laptop, which I still have, and which still works. I had to upgrade to Windows 98 when Windows 95 wouldn’t let me check my email online. (I only used it when traveling.) In 2001 I got a Gateway computer and used it until 2006. Blood, three or four Tomb Raider games, Red Baron, Redneck Rampage… Good times.
Then I got my PowerBook G4. And I’m on it now. I no longer play games, except for the occasional web-based time-wasting ones. I’ve done video editing on it, but the studio is no more so now I don’t. With a full-time job and other things going on, I don’t have the time to play with it. (Anyway, it’s pretty slow. Not as bad as drawing pictures on the old Atari, but compared to the quad-core G5 at the studio… 
) This computer is used for surfing. If I’m awake, the computer is awake. Roomie makes fun of me because I’m always looking things up – anything that strikes my fancy at any given moment. Like looking at old computers after being prompted by current events. And I use it for work. In less than an hour I’ll log onto my PC 110 miles away, and start chugging away. Eventually I’ll get a MacBook Pro, or whatever comes after. But that will have to wait until this computer dies, or else I get back into video.
There’s one other computer here: a 2001 Apple iMac G3 Indigo with a 450 Mhz PowerPC processor. I picked it up after the PowerBook because I liked the PowerBook so much. I’ve upgraded the OS to Tiger 10.3.something (as far as I could go with it), and put in a wireless card. It’s my ‘guest’ computer – or was, until roomie moved in, and I use it when the PowerBook is in the shop – twice so far, for new keyboards. It’s hard to believe the iMac was the ‘latest and greatest’ just ten years ago. Ten years. Wow.
Oh, there’s one more computer here. My employer gave me my old desktop PC when they replaced it with a new one. It’s not hooked up. There’s one program on it that I need, and I’m glad to have it here. But the program is on my work computer, so I have no need to use the PC. I have it for emergencies.
Compared to many (most?) people, I haven’t had many computers. The first two were mistakes. I would have done better with a Commodore 64, Amiga, or even a TRS-80. The others have been adequate for their times or better, but I’ve never been much of a gamer. In the '90s I was flying regularly, and that’s better than any video game. In the first half of the 2000s I was struggling and couldn’t afford, nor had a need for, a new computer. I tend to use things until they wear out, or else use them until they are no longer useful. There are no Joneses to keep up with. So I’m still using my PowerBook that’s more than half a decade old. I keep running into software issues, as the new programs require an Intel chip. Those came out on the PowerBooks six months after I bought this one. But the longer I can use this machine, the more I’ll get for my three kilobucks when the time comes to replace it.
