[masraum]

I'm similar to many of you. First PC was a C64. We bought the C64 when it first came out before a floppy drive was available, so used a cassette deck for a few months until the floppy drive was released. It mostly ended up being a game machine. I did not get into programming and although my dad did type a program in, I was thoroughly underwhelmed by the results of days of typing.

I got my first "IBM compatible" (running MS-DOS) PC in the fall of 1988 when I was in college. It was a Tandy 1000 TX with 640k RAM and "Tandy Graphics" (16 colors, but CGA resolution). I did learn a bunch about computers and making it run as efficiently as possible, and loved "computers" with that. I upgraded it by adding a "hardcard" (HDD on a HDD controller card that plugged into an ISA slot) IIRC. My next upgrade was a VGA card with a meg of RAM that I upgraded (via individual chips) to 2meg. I added a soundblaster card. When I moved out of the dorms, I got a modem (probably 9600 or 14400). I spent a lot of time on dial in BBS'.
I've built a few computers from scratch over the years, but the last two have been all-in-one purchases (HP running MS Win, and now a 27" iMac).

I've dabbled with various OS over the years including various flavors of Linux, and had access to Solaris Unix at work. Now at work, I have access to servers running Redhat, and still enjoy working in the CLI. For work for the last 25+ years, I've supported various types of network equipment, mostly via CLI.

I haven't tried running Linux for a home PC in years. I enjoyed learning and tinkering with it in the past, but I prefer something that does what I need and is stable which I have been getting for the past 15+ years. And now that I'm on Mac, I also have a *nix style CLI if I want/need it.