Post your computer experience timeline - what machines you used.

[noahjones12]

I just reading so new stuff for me..,

[hrsetrdr]

In the mid '70s I was attending CSULB and writing FORTRAN programs and feeding them via punch cards to the University's CDC 3150 mainframe. My interest was piqued, but due to life's twists and turns, I did not purchase a computer for the home until 1999. Then things changed.

In addition to using computers for the usual business purposes, I got interested in Stanford University's Distributed Computing effort, known as Folding@Home.

Now I'm making up for lost time, building numerous computers for the Folding@Home effort. BTW, it was Folding@Home that got me started with Linux.

Dealing with the myriad of Windows issues evaporated, once I became aware of Linux.

First build was a Socket 423 P4, with an expensive 1024gb of RDRAM memory. Then, many many AMD Socket A machines. The dual socket AMD caught my attention, built six systems on that platform.

Then the dual core D820 / socket 775 processors brought me back to Intel.

At present my server, a Supermicro X9DRD-7LN4F-JBOD | (2) Xeon E5-2670 | 128GB DDR3( ECC Registered) machine keeps me company.

[QIII]

Punch cards were such fun...

I don't miss that.

[SantaFe]

Punch cards were such fun...

I don't miss that.

But making Christmas Wreaths out of the old ones was fun!

[makitso]

Punch cards were such fun...

I remember having a punch card case about 3 feet long to hold a huge program on punch cards. In the data center I dropped it and the cards went all over the floor (

[galacticstone]

It was the late 80's and punch cards were already fading out, but I recall our computer class teacher brought in a bunch from his old job prior to teaching. He just wanted to show us what they were like firsthand. I remember they were already yellowed with age and had old pre-font typeset printing on one edge.

I imagine floppy disks will provide a similar antique-feel to computer students now.

[lighthousebeacon]

My addiction began in the early 80's with a vic20, then a commodore64, then various intels (386, 486, pentium 4, core 2, i7), then I jumped ship and next came my amd phase (opteron, phenom), to today where my main rig is a Intel Xeon E3 1230.
Into gaming for a long time, so better not get me started on graphics cards.
Was a Windows fan boy that entire time (approx 30 years). Only end of last year did I try Linux. For me has been like those heady teenage early years of discovering your first pc all over again.

[eoore]

A couple spare ASUS motherboards, couldn't tell you which.
Bought some stuff to get said motherboards working.
Curiosity being my next machine, it was very effective at breaking all of the previous competitors.
Then, I got a nice little Raspberry Pi. Still have that in my project room.
My project room is also called my stuff-I'll-probably-never-have-time-for room.
Got a C55 Toshiba Satellite for school. I slotted a new RAM into that one!
And it broke. (@Curiosity) (@Gravity)
But wait, I had a warranty!
Got another C55.

Started from /home and now I'm here!
Where am I?

[SeijiSensei]

Punch cards were such fun...

I don't miss that.

Me, neither. I'm an inaccurate typist, and punch cards allowed no errors. You had to type it again.

My non-PC experience goes back to the IBM 7090, 1401, and S/360. In those days we had a three-hour turnaround time on jobs. What fun it was when your FORTRAN program failed because of a typo on card 237.

[lisati]

My first experience with FORTRAN was on port-a-punch cards at school, the kind of punched cards that you stabbed with a paper clip or pen. The deck was dropped off at one of the local banks, and the results picked up a day or two later. It was great fun when you submission came back with errors because one of the cards got snarled in the reader. I'm not sure what system was in use at the time, but a few years later the company which would have processed the jobs was using assorted models from the S/370 (and similar) range.