Throwback Thursday: Remember the PC of 1984? What was your first computer?

My first two books were released in early 1984. And with the small advance I got upon publication, plus a bank loan for $5,000, I bought my first personal computer and set it up on a card table in a corner of the bedroom.

It was an IBM clone. No hard drive. Two 7.25″ floppy drives. A monochrome display (mine was black with orange type). Along with the computer, I got a daisy-wheel printer that…

As I began college in 1990, I knew I needed to invest in a "real" computer.  My sister's boyfriend and I decided to pitch in and get a computer.  Our budget was tight.  $500. We bought an IBM XT clone at Sears  (yes, that Sears).  This machine had 640K RAM, CGA graphics and two 3.5" floppies.  No hard drive.  None.  The machine ran MS-DOS 3.3.  We used it for Lotus 1-2-3 and WordPerfect 5.1. A year later my parents got me what is probably the best gift of my life, a 40MB hard drive with an IDE controller card. They paid at least $300 for these 40MB.  Not GB, kids....40 megabytes.   The hard drive brought a new world of possibilities.  This was the second big upgrade I experienced.  I could run more and more complex software.  I learned DOS inside and out.  I became a computer person, a geek.

I declared my major as Information Systems.  This was in the business school at my University.  It was the perfect major for me.  I didn't feel I had the math background to handle a Computer Science degree.  In addition, I didn't want to design compilers or new languages.  I wanted to use computers, and to help others use computers to solve problems. I purchased GeoWorks Ensemble and ran that on my little 10Mhz XT.  I had a full GUI, multi-tasking and near laser quality printing on a dot-matrix printer.  GeoWorks is still somewhat alive today as Breadbox Ensemble, Check it out.  Again, multi-tasking and a GUI on an 8086 processor with 640K RAM! I later purchased a VGA card and VGA monitor at a computer show in the Marriott hotel.  Remember these computer shows?

Before we can move forward together I think it would be good to give my background.  Hopefully, having this information can help you understand my POV.

I am in my 40's.  I have been using computers for over 30 years.  I inherited my technology and gadget love from my father. 

Our first computer was the Atari 800.  This was one of the lower cost home computers of the 8-bit era.  My father purchased the Atari computer, a  monitor and the Atari cassette drive and my computing life was underway.

My dad used to copy BASIC programs--line by line--from the back of Antic Magazine.  After a few hours of work, you'd have an American Flag made from ASCII dancing across the screen.  The National Anthem would play in all it's 8-bit glory.

We later upgraded to the Atari 130XE--complete with 128K of RAM and a 5 1/4" floppy drive.  Having the floppy drive was the first major upgrade I experienced.  The speed improvement of loading programs from a floppy vs the old cassette tape was incredible.

I used these computers to play games, write school papers and create banners and flyers with The Print Shop.  I created a very nice science fair project using this machine to create all the write-ups and graphics.

The 130XE served me well thru high school.  But, I do remember typing my high school term paper on my sister's dedicated word processor, not on the 130XE.