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Poll: When did you learn to use a computer? Name the OS and Software.
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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Sep 2, 2008

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "When did you learn to use a computer? Name the OS and Software.".

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A forum topic will appear each time a new poll is run. For more information, see: http://proz.com/topic/33629


 
R. Alex Jenkins
R. Alex Jenkins  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 10:41
Member (2006)
Portuguese to English
+ ...
Way back...... Sep 2, 2008

The Sinclair ZX81, later followed by the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k and the Commodore 64.

Neither of them had hard drives, floppy drives - ANY sort of drive whatsoever.

I still have yearnings for the sound of the ZX Spectrum tape loader 'screech'.

Those were the days, but thankfully well and truly gone by now


 
Andrea Riffo
Andrea Riffo  Identity Verified
Chile
Local time: 10:41
English to Spanish
+ ...
Late 80s Sep 2, 2008

Atari 800 XL.

The word processor was a blue screen with white letters... I can't remember its name (the OS was BASIC, I think). I do remember Logo and the endless strings of instructions I had to type in order to make the darned turtle draw!

And the tape. Oh, the tape. You could start loading a game, have lunch, take a nap, and come back just in time to start playing.

[Edited at 2008-09-02 16
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Atari 800 XL.

The word processor was a blue screen with white letters... I can't remember its name (the OS was BASIC, I think). I do remember Logo and the endless strings of instructions I had to type in order to make the darned turtle draw!

And the tape. Oh, the tape. You could start loading a game, have lunch, take a nap, and come back just in time to start playing.

[Edited at 2008-09-02 16:46]
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JaneTranslates
JaneTranslates  Identity Verified
Puerto Rico
Local time: 09:41
Spanish to English
+ ...
Early 1980s Sep 2, 2008

It was a Commodore 64. If I recall correctly, it used the large 5" floppies. And my friend Gordon programmed it with Spanish characters, so I thought I was incredibly state-of-the-art!

I take it back; just remembered I had a TRS-something-or-other before that. (Tandy Radio Shack). I had to buy a special Spanish daisy wheel for the printer.

No Internet until 1997.


 
S_Angel (X)
S_Angel (X)  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 14:41
German to Italian
+ ...
1994 Sep 2, 2008

I think it was a 386, and the OS was Windows 3.1.
Before that I was still playing with dolls


 
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 14:41
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Nothing compares to... Sep 2, 2008

...my first computer: the wonderful, amazing, smashing Amstrad CPC 464 and a cassete recorder/player as its sole storage device.

BTW: The "64" in "464" meant the incredible RAM of 64 KB!!!! But we could not afford luxury at that time and I got the monochrome screen, not the colour one. I nevertheless thank my parents for spending a pile of money (of
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...my first computer: the wonderful, amazing, smashing Amstrad CPC 464 and a cassete recorder/player as its sole storage device.

BTW: The "64" in "464" meant the incredible RAM of 64 KB!!!! But we could not afford luxury at that time and I got the monochrome screen, not the colour one. I nevertheless thank my parents for spending a pile of money (of which they did not have much in the mid-80s) to get me such wonder of technology.

[Edited at 2008-09-02 17:02]
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Yaotl Altan
Yaotl Altan  Identity Verified
Mexico
Local time: 07:41
Member (2006)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Me too Sep 2, 2008

JaneTranslates wrote:

It was a Commodore 64.




 
Patricia Rosas
Patricia Rosas  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 06:41
Spanish to English
+ ...
In memoriam
1979 ... t Sep 2, 2008

On a VAX (?) mainframe running UNIX, something called "Cat" if I remember. A REALLY rudimentary word processing software.

Also on a product from DECUS -- I can't remember the name of the software, but I used it to develop ways to do basic office accounting. When they held conferences, the users were called WOMBATS. I still have my WOMBAT T-Shirt!

Thanks for the walk down memory lane (now I know how lame my brain is!)...


 
Parrot
Parrot  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 14:41
Spanish to English
+ ...
Blush Sep 2, 2008



DOS on a 5 1/4" floppy and the working file on another.

I think I've seen the range of word processors, starting from WANG and WordStar

Oh, yes: in-house there was a mimeographing machine (can this get any worse?)


 
Phillippa May Bennett
Phillippa May Bennett
Portugal
Local time: 13:41
Portuguese to English
On a school computer... Sep 2, 2008

Were they Acorns or BBC? All I remember is that we played "educational" games.. so I guess that's probably when I first started using one!

Then.. later on my parents bought one of the really early Apple Macs...

[Edited at 2008-09-02 17:16]


 
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 14:41
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Will it load??? Sep 2, 2008

Andrea Riffo wrote:
And the tape. Oh, the tape. You could start loading a game, have lunch, take a nap, and come back just in time to start playing.

[Edited at 2008-09-02 16:46]


Yes, I know that feeling. I confess that in those years I used to take the train to Madrid and spend my weekly pay in illegal copies of tapes with games purchased at El Rastro, a big Sunday flea market. I could not wait to get home (it took me 2 hours to return from Madrid all in all, and it is just 65 km away) and load the tape. I always had my small flat screwdriver at hand in case I had to tweak the cassette player's head to make it load properly.

Oh my. It sounds ridiculous I know! But it's the plain truth!


 
Eleni Makantani
Eleni Makantani
Greece
Local time: 15:41
English to Greek
+ ...
Blush even more Sep 2, 2008

In 1998, I was a freshman at university and I had an IT class. I had never even touched a computer before and I was confronting it with the kind of panic "Oh my God, I touched this, what's going to happen now????"

It was a Windows PC and I used MS Office (at the time I didn't know that there were other OS's, too or that there were different versions of them, too)!!!


 
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 14:41
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
You lucky one!!! Sep 2, 2008

S_Angel wrote:
I think it was a 386, and the OS was Windows 3.1.
Before that I was still playing with dolls


So you did not need a screw driver to load your software! You lucky one!


 
Maria Löfving
Maria Löfving
Sweden
Local time: 14:41
Member (2008)
English to Swedish
+ ...
1999 Sep 2, 2008

It wasn´t until high school that I learned properly how to use a computer. Windows (not sure about the number of that one) and Word 6.0.
My brother did however have a Commodore 64 about 10 years earlier where I would assist him with the tapes for playing games. I can´t really understand today how the connection between computer and tape recorder worked, but that was sweet.


 
mediamatrix (X)
mediamatrix (X)
Local time: 10:41
Spanish to English
+ ...
IBM mainframe word-processor // BBC computer Sep 2, 2008

At the placed I worked in Brussels, in 1979, they decided to do away with magnetic card-readers for IBM golfballs (reserved for a few exec secretaries and off-limits to 'mere translators') and instead they installed an IBM mainframe system running a rudimentary centralized word-processor software for all those who could justify getting a dumb terminal installed in their office.

My first computer at home was a BBC computer (Model B), launched in 1981. I guess I got mine sometime in
... See more
At the placed I worked in Brussels, in 1979, they decided to do away with magnetic card-readers for IBM golfballs (reserved for a few exec secretaries and off-limits to 'mere translators') and instead they installed an IBM mainframe system running a rudimentary centralized word-processor software for all those who could justify getting a dumb terminal installed in their office.

My first computer at home was a BBC computer (Model B), launched in 1981. I guess I got mine sometime in 1982. Until quite recently I was still using it to control my model railway (it has some very useful interface ports, originally intended for use in school science projects).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Micro

MediaMatrix
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Poll: When did you learn to use a computer? Name the OS and Software.






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