put ... ers
I started with a 286 computer and an XGA monitor-no green monitors for me although I did use them in the office. From the green it became black and white but the very first one I had all to myself was a 286. I upgraded to a 386SX with a CGA monitor that I mail ordered from ZEOS in NY. When it arrived, I set it up in the family room with the technical person on the other end of the line giving me instructions which part to plug and unplug to make it start up. It gave me the groundworks, I suppose in understanding what actually is inside the casing and how it's connected. Prior to ownership, I enrolled in a computer school for a 6-month course of which I must admit did not really comprehend anything. It was BASIC programming and to a certain extent, I do have a vague idea of a little of history, a little of this and that.
From the 386SX came a HP deskjet printer (I believe the model to be the 500c) which of course I also imported from NY. And with this computer I did a lot of stuff. I managed to input all the songs in all of my music collection of cassette tapes, record albums and compact discs from my highschool years. So, at a certain phase of my existence, I was a very proud owner of a database that I could actually say how many versions of a certain song I have in my collection. That was of course the highlight of what I accompished with that computer.
So from the 386SX, I migrated to 386 166MHz, to 200MMX and to 266 MHz jumping onwards to the 400's and the 450's. I also owned two IBM Thinkpad 700 series for reasons of getting stuck in traffic and forsaking driving a car in favor of a chauffer-driven one. In-between the PC upgrades, I also toyed around with Amiga 500's, 2000 series and the 4000 bundled with Newtek's Video Toaster which I miss very much. I learned a lot from the Commodore line and I still feel that it was about the best computer I ever used. It was comparatively cheap to the branded PC's and the Apple's. The softwares were simple and yet they do the work. The devices were compatible and they do deliver. Prices were fairly reasonable.
So now, from the GHz-puters I have turned my attention to the Macs of which actually I don't quite fully grasp why. I don't think I will completely switch though. Here's one for switchers:
"I can live without a Mac as I have lived for almost 15 years without it. Mac softwares are really expensive; pirated copies are hard to find and if ever you find them in the alleys, they don't really work either which is actually a total waste of money. Not too many people use Mac because one, the hardware itself is really expensive compared to the PC's. That's probably one reason there aren't too many pirated copies too because there are actually less people and developers and hackers for the Mac. Macs too run slower. Probably the only reason why I am trying it out is to be cool cause cool people use Adobe. LOL. Mac PC's do look cool. Innovative. I am pulling hair out trying getting used to the OS as I am so used to Windows since it's birth. Mac OS is very similar to Amiga's Workbench, so ... so much so for originality. It's just sad that honest people do not really get a fair share of the market which of course why Commodore went bankcrupt. They weren't so greedy. No, don't get me wrong ... I'm not all for Bill Gates' takeover of the world either."