Windows 10 Pro.

[rockits]

LOL...plenty of life left & lots to offer the world for us oldies. I fancy a change soon....wasted what I currently do most of the time.

 

[Deleted96908]

I’m so old that when I started using computers a Winchester drive was down the A33.

And a floppy?

 

[rockits]

Yup, 3.5 inch. Single sided single density 360k....massive.

 

[Deleted member 65149]

And a floppy?

Didn’t have access to such luxuries for a few years. My earliest programming and data was all stored on punched tape then transmitted across the Atlantic via standard phone lines to the nearest capable computer.

 

[rockits]

Gees....I'm not that old!

 

[Chrishazle]

I am - program writing at Uni was punched cards, one card per line of program, then take the pack of cards across to the computer and try running the program using an error-finding compiler!

 

[AMGeed]

^So am I. I wasn't bright enough to become a programmer, so had the tedious operator job of hooking up the banks of reel to reel tapes on a huge IBM computer at B(ritish) D(rug) H(ouses) back in 1966. The computer stood 7ft tall and was 30ft long. How we have progressed.

 

[gIzzE]

Sorry, I thought the thread was about Windows 10 and then went on to compare it with other operating systems. I introduced iOS to the discussion just because it’s far more widely used than Mac OS (but not as popular as Android which I never really got on with). If the discussion is intended to be just about operating systems for desktop PCs then I’ll bow out because my knowledge on that platform is limited to Windows.

Sorry, it was only a passing comment in response to you saying you didn't really like what iOS did with files compared to Windows. I agree, I don't like iOS at all, well, that is not true, it is great on a phone as it just works, but I don't understand why anyone would use an iPad as a replacement for a laptop, as many seem to do. Same way as I don't get why someone would use an Android tablet either, they just all feel too closed in to me.

 

[Deleted96908]

The old boys computer club.

New forum section please Mods

 

[John]

Not sure if I fit in with that OBCC or not.

I started in 1990 (or 1982 if you count our first home computer which was a C64).

My uni in the early 90s was still running a VaxVMS mainframe with orange dumb terminals (nice). They also had Unix and NeXt workstations as well as a very old Mac.

 

[Deleted member 65149]

Not sure if I fit in with that OBCC or not.

I started in 1990 (or 1982 if you count our first home computer which was a C64).

My uni in the early 90s was still running a VaxVMS mainframe with orange dumb terminals (nice). They also had Unix and NeXt workstations as well as a very old Mac.

Whippersnapper. My SON left uni in the early 90s (with a degree in Quantity Surveying) and went to work as a systems analyst in BT’s Cardiff computer department. He was later headhunted by Oracle where he’s now something very senior in database stuff that I don’t understand. His first computer was a ZX81 I bought him for his 10th birthday. Years later he commented on how he was getting very well paid to do what he used to stay up all night doing as a hobby.

 

[John]

Something like that is great because you are not really working for a living!

I'm not really gutted not to be in that club though...

 

[rockits]

Seems like the holy grail that many miss out on....myself included. The be well paid for doing something you love doing....one day [emoji6]

 

[Chrishazle]

My program writing was in 1970 - PC's had not even been invented! My late father bought a Sinclair ZX (or whatever it was called), his data storage was on an external casette recorder and he used our B&W 625 line TV as a monitor! IIRC the first PC we had was given to our son, it had Windows 3, a 256 processor, 40Mb HDD, 128Kb of RAM, 3 1/2 and 5 1/4 floppy disc drives and was slower than the second coming of Christ!

 

[Deleted96908]

I'm not really gutted not to be in that club though...

Just added you as an honorary member John, besides, you'll qualify naturally sooner or later.

As for me, I went to the Shetlands as a 19 year old, then to Egypt, Sudan, Saudi etc in my early 20s. Mostly government work, embassies etc. Then, came home tanned and aimless and very luckily landed a dream job in HK, as Chief Commissioning Engineer on the Hong Kong Bank. It was here, aged 25 (I'm now 58) that I got involved in computers with regular jaunts across to the hackers Mecca (whoops ) of Sham Shui Po. Built my first PC, 8088, ST238 Seagate, 640k, Dual Floppy - and then soon got the bug upgrading to NECV20, 1Mb (384 assigned to VDisk) and so on. Mountain RaceCards, hard wired mods to pin 20 of the V20, to reset the chip, causing a reboot - and away I went. Wired all my own kit and remember to this day the thrill of connecting up my first modem and crossing over TX and RX and getting an OK as I typed in AT. And from there I was hooked. (became known as ChrisDcoda in hackers circles, but that's another story). Next computer officer at the Central Excavation Unit - writing archaeological finds databases and reading in 3D theodolite data into AutoCAD and rotating a virtual model of a hecatomb. This eventually landed me the role as Product Manager at AutoDesk for Animator, Animator Pro and 3D Studio. (It was here that I met my wife who at the time was Director of the London Animation Festival, and went on to become director of LEAF and the BBC's procurement advisor for graphics and VFX - and is consequently credited on dozens of BBC productions. She now runs a high end broadcast graphics studio in London.) I've also started 3 Fintech companies. 2 Made me quite well off, one made me very poor . Full list companies and technologies on LinkedIn for anybody interested.

 

[Deleted member 65149]

My program writing was in 1970 - PC's had not even been invented! My late father bought a Sinclair ZX (or whatever it was called), his data storage was on an external casette recorder and he used our B&W 625 line TV as a monitor! IIRC the first PC we had was given to our son, it had Windows 3, a 256 processor, 40Mb HDD, 128Kb of RAM, 3 1/2 and 5 1/4 floppy disc drives and was slower than the second coming of Christ!

My first experience with anything that could be called a PC was in 1975 when I bought an IBM 5100. I’ll hasten to add that it was for work use and purchased with the company’s money, not mine. It cost £18,000, a lot of money then when you consider that two years later I sold my 4-bed detached house for £16,000. I can’t for the life of me remember any technical details of the IBM machine because then, and still now, computers were just tools for me. Despite my MSc in microprocessor design, I have as little interest in my computer’s RAM size, processor speed or disk capacity as I do in the tensile strength of the 13mm ring spanner in my toolkit. All I’m interested in is how well they do the job I ask of them.

 

[Deleted member 131833]

Mid 70’s Elliot 920b computer, may even have had a pilot light, used in traffic lights and military for gun control.