25 Random Facts About Old Computers:

oldcomputers.net ^

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The Apple Lisa (1983) was the first successful computer with a graphical user interface (GUI) and a mouse. It cost $10,000.

• The GRiD 1101 is the grand-daddy of all modern-day laptops. It cost over $8000 in 1982.
  
  
• Their new VIC-20 (1980) was so embarrassing to parent company Commodore, that they considered giving them away. Instead, it sold over 1,000,000 units within just a few years, making Commodore hundreds of millions of dollars.
  
  
• The first portable Macintosh computer, the Macintosh Portable (1989) weighs 16 pounds and had a 16MHz processor.
  
  

• The first-ever handheld/palmtop MS-DOS "PC" was the Portfolio, sold by --- Atari, in 1989.
  
  
• The first "IBM" computer to run on batteries was the IBM Convertible PC from 1986.

[skeeter]

Meaning you retired it in 2002?!

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

I still have my tapes.

They sound cool in a tape player :-)

[domenad]

Pahahahha! Yes, I remember that sound, and I remember the sound of a disk read error on a 5.25” disk. I think if I every get Alzheimer’s that’s one of the few things memories I’ll retain even as the rest of my brain goes to pudding.

[Mygirlsmom]

the phone I carry in my pocket has far more computing power than those that took us to the moon and back.

[Monkey Face]

The phone you carry has far more computing power than the first manned space capsule.

[lowbridge]

Got my first computer about 1997. An IBM PC with windows95. It cost 1600 bucks, on sale, and the hard drive had about 2GB of space. Top of the line back then, almost junk now. It still works though.

[skeeter]

It sounded like the “wrong” buzzer on Jeopardy, if I recall correctly...

[dfwgator]

LOAD “*”,8,1

[Snickering Hound]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMzgp7xTp1k

Browsing the internet with an Apple II.

[Miss Conservative]

I had a Timex-Sinclair in the early 80s.

I learned BASIC on it. Now I have trouble keeping up. Somedays I'm lucky to get "plug 'n play" to work.

[ryan71]

In the early 80’s, the first computer class in my high school used Radio Shack TRS-80’s. There was no software, they had 64K of memory, we wrote programs in Basic and moved them back and forth to a cassette tape recorder.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

I can still fire it up anytime.

I even have a spare for it’s limping power pack (when opening the case and jiggling one of the bits stops working).

[Billthedrill]

My first one was a Wang 2200VP word processor. I recall hooking up a Diablo 630 to it and getting a call from Wang asking how I managed it. "Uh, you mean it isn't supposed to work?" sez I. Still don't know how they found out.

Wrote a database app for it and the local mainframe guy sez, "why don't you just use a computer?" For that? Like I'm gonna waste valuable CPU time running a database? What was he thinking?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Focusing on the IBM PC:

IBM PC

Model:

5150
Released:	September 1981
Price:	US $1,565 ~ $3,000
CPU:	Intel 8088, 4.77MHz
RAM:	16K, 640K max
Display:	80 X 24 text
Storage:	dual 160KB 5.25-inch disk drives
Ports:	cassette & keyboard only
	5 internal expansion slots
OS:	PC-DOS v1.0

	****************************************

[IronJack]

I’ve still got my IIc.

[dirtboy]

I had one of those. I learned PCs on multi-user CPM machines.

[556x45]

‘The first-ever handheld/palmtop MS-DOS “PC” was the Portfolio, sold by -— Atari, in 1989.’

Oh, I thought it was the Times Sinclair.

[svcw]

We still have our Sinclair. In 1976, my husband and a bunch of his engineer friends decided to build PCs. By the time they finished their project, we bought one for half they price they had already spent. The first HP we bought had 87 megs, people laughed that we thought we should have so much memory.

[Cyman]

I remember playing with the wife’s school computer in 85-85. It was some kind of Apple with the 5 1/4 disk drive. My first office computer in 1987 was an IBM PS2 model 60 with a 20 meg hard drive, just because “you are never gonna fill up the 30 Meg optional drive”

[battlecry]

DEC Rainbow with dBase and 10MB Winchester drive ex-owner here. Paid too much for it. Should have bought a car instead...