I was a teen in the 80s. I was lucky enough to hang out at the local university and got to use their terminals that had a printer instead of a display.
School had an Apple II but wouldn't let students use them. Instead they forced them to use punch cards so I didn't take the class. Instead I used a Commodore PET that was on display at a department store.
Eventually owned an Apple II clone and and IBM PC clone. First work computer was a Compaq Luggable with an amazing orange phosphor monochrome display.
Before the Internet was available we used BBSs, and Compuserve. BBSs were horrible little fiefdoms run but basement dwelling trolls.
Networking was still a toss up between Ethernet and Arhnet. I liked Arcnet. You had to configure interrupts, ports, buad rates, stop bits, and parity for the IDE network cards. It was a pain.
Most business LANS used Novell Netware or Lantastic. I loved Lantastic, it was easy and even had a voice over network feature. Still have a t-shirt from them somewhere.
The Internet arrived before Windows was usable and Microsoft wasn't ready. So you had to use a SOCKS client.
I made a lot of money in those days simply by hanging out in the computer section of the big book store. Managers would wander in like Bambi on a highway. When they saw me reading a book on computers they inevitably asked questions. It turned in to consulting work.
Fun times but also very frustrating. No real multi user, buggy products and operating systems, Linux was still very much 'assembly required'.
Now we have non-typed, high level, abstracted languages, and agile methodologies which are possibly a step too far in the other direction.
Comments
I was a teen in the 80s. I was lucky enough to hang out at the local university and got to use their terminals that had a printer instead of a display.
School had an Apple II but wouldn't let students use them. Instead they forced them to use punch cards so I didn't take the class. Instead I used a Commodore PET that was on display at a department store.
Eventually owned an Apple II clone and and IBM PC clone. First work computer was a Compaq Luggable with an amazing orange phosphor monochrome display.
Before the Internet was available we used BBSs, and Compuserve. BBSs were horrible little fiefdoms run but basement dwelling trolls.
Networking was still a toss up between Ethernet and Arhnet. I liked Arcnet. You had to configure interrupts, ports, buad rates, stop bits, and parity for the IDE network cards. It was a pain.
Most business LANS used Novell Netware or Lantastic. I loved Lantastic, it was easy and even had a voice over network feature. Still have a t-shirt from them somewhere.
The Internet arrived before Windows was usable and Microsoft wasn't ready. So you had to use a SOCKS client.
I made a lot of money in those days simply by hanging out in the computer section of the big book store. Managers would wander in like Bambi on a highway. When they saw me reading a book on computers they inevitably asked questions. It turned in to consulting work.
Fun times but also very frustrating. No real multi user, buggy products and operating systems, Linux was still very much 'assembly required'.
Now we have non-typed, high level, abstracted languages, and agile methodologies which are possibly a step too far in the other direction.