The Computers

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Netscape 1.0

For anyone who's interested, here are some technical tidbits on the various computers I've used, past and present...

Gateway 2000 4DX2-66

Vintage: 1994
Acquired: Summer 1994 (new)
Case: Desktop
CPU: 66MHz Intel 486DX2
RAM: 16 MB (upgraded from 8)
Hard drive: 324 MB
Floppy drive: 1.44MB 3.5"
Operating system: MS-DOS 6.21 and Windows for Workgroups 3.11
Noteworthy software: WordPerfect 6.0, Microsoft Works 3.0 for Windows, a number of period "multimedia" CD-ROM titles, Netscape Navigator 4.08.
Disposition: Given away.

Ah yes, my main computer for the better part of a decade. This was actually the first computer we had in our household, and I inherited it as my own several years later when my parents bought a new Pentium III-class PC for themselves. I did a LOT of work on this computer...typing up dozens of papers for school, playing computer games, and maintaining this website for its first seven months of existence. It had its frustrations though: The hard drive was always filling up (at one time I got to the point where there were 0 bytes free!), and later on the sound drivers in Windows got all messed up. Oh, and Windows 3.11, in retrospect, wasn't much of an OS (even though I used it to some degree for close to a decade!) In summer 2008 I made the decision to finally clean out my horde of underutilized computers and computer parts, and this (partially-gutted) system now resides in North Carolina.

IBM PC AT

Vintage: 1985 (case); 1987 (motherboard)
Acquired: Fall 1997 (used)
Case: AT Desktop
CPU: 8MHz Intel 286, with 287 math coprocessor
RAM: The addition of an AST Advantage Premium board rounded it off to a full meg.
Hard drive: 20 MB
Floppy drive: 1.44MB 3.5" and 360K 5.25"
Operating system: DOS 6.0
Noteworthy software: TurboTax 1992!
Disposition: Given away (in pieces).

I always had a liking for this computer, which I acquired from a relative about ten years from new: Its case was large and easy to access; it was solid as a rock; and it simply had a lot of character. I probably had more fun tinkering with this machine than I did any other, but unfortunately it also provided a great deal of frustrations: Many of its original parts had been replaced before I got it; the hard drive had a pittance of a capacity and sounded like a jet taking off; the battery soon died (and a replacement proved impossible to find); and the BIOS was too old even to recognize a VGA card by default. Although I always held out hope that I'd get it up and running to a satisfactory degree, a lack of time and enthusiasm resulted in my admitting defeat. Like most of my other computer junk, this system now resides in the hands of a vintage IBM enthusiast in North Carolina.

IBM PS/1

Vintage: 1992
Acquired: Spring 2001 (used)
Case: Very slim desktop
CPU: 20MHz Intel 386SX
RAM: 2 MB
Hard drive: 40 MB
Floppy drive: 1.44MB 3.5"
Operating system: MS-DOS 6.22
Noteworthy software: Not very much to speak of...
Disposition: Given away.

A cute, if underpowered system, the small and light PS/1 was something I probably would never have gotten if I hadn't been hitting the yard sales around town one day. Although it was far too compromised to either use for demanding tasks or hope to upgrade, it did prove its utility in portability once or twice: I even set it up in a corner of the laundry room once when the need arose. Ultimately it proved a compromise, though, and not a compromise I regretted ultimately divesting. This particular PS/1 (model 2121-C42) didn't seem any faster to me than the IBM AT I already had, which was more than five years older.

Generic 486(es)

Vintage: 1994
Acquired: Spring 2002 (used), plus some earlier bits and pieces.
Case: Mini-AT Desktop
CPU: 100MHz Intel 486DX4
RAM: Usually between 8 and 16 MB, depending on what SIMMs I had stuck in them.
Hard drive: 213 MB
Floppy drive: 1.44MB 3.5"
Operating system: Windows 95 (original version)
Noteworthy software: Microsoft Works 3.0 for DOS, other odds and ends.
Disposition: Given away. (Yes, all of them.)

Is more better? I shouldn't have asked. One spring day a number of years ago, I decided to attend the school board's surplus equipment auction, and when a half-dozen 486 computers hit the block for a song (the exact same computers I had used in a high school class a year earlier), I couldn't resist bidding on them. One guess at who won the lot. Not willing to let my investment go to waste, I initially pooled the best parts into a "test bed" computer with a sound card, modem, CD-ROM drive, and Windows 95. Unfortunately I suffered from computer-tinkering burnout almost immediately after getting my hands on the hardware, and as a result I had a half-dozen 486 computers stacked in the guest bedroom closet for the next six years...

Compaq Deskpro EN

Vintage: 2000
Acquired: Summer 2003 (used)
Case: Desktop
CPU: 600MHz Intel Pentium III
RAM: 128 MB
Hard drive: 10 GB
Floppy drive: 1.44MB 3.5" and 1.2MB 5.25"
Operating system: Windows 95 OSR2
Noteworthy software: WordPerfect 7.0, Microsoft Office 97, Sim City 2000, some pitiful attempts at Visual BASIC, Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird, and SeaMonkey; Opera, and various minor applications I couldn't stand to do without.
Disposition: Still owned.

Like it or not, this remains my main machine to this day. Although relatively modern by standards of past experience, it's thankfully "antiquated" enough to contain a full roster of legacy interfaces, and it's in a desktop case as well: Hard to find those nowadays! It's hardly perfect, though: The form factor is overly proprietary; the cards lie horizontally; there's no reset button, and my settling on this model of computer was more out of convenience of circumstance than anything else. Attached to it are a Dell monitor and 124-key Gateway 2000 keyboard. (With sarcasm:) I'm very brand loyal, aren't I?

Apple iBook G4

Vintage: 2004
Acquired: Fall 2004 (new)
Case: Notebook
CPU: 1GHz Motorola PowerPC G4
RAM: 512 MB
Hard drive: 30 GB
Floppy drive: Suspiciously absent.
Operating system: Mac OS X 10.3
Noteworthy software: Microsoft Office 2003 Student & Teacher Edition, AppleWorks, Camino
Disposition: Sold.

This computer marked both the first and last time I made a major electronics purchase partially on impulse. It may have been an Apple, but it was also a lemon, breaking more than once without explanation (familiar with the "fan of doom?"). The time I used this machine was a month marked by frustrating incompatibilities, maddening uncustomizability, and decreased productivity. I ultimately managed to sell it off (though unfortunately, not before Apple's inexplicable "Intel transition" announcement depreciated the value to a pittance). At least their service was decent...

Dell Inspiron 2600

Vintage: 2002
Acquired: Winter 2008-09 (used)
Case: Notebook
CPU: 1.2GHz Intel Celeron
RAM: 256 MB (upgraded from 64...sort of)
Hard drive: 20 GB
Floppy drive: 1.44MB 3.5"
Operating system: Ubuntu 8.1 Linux, for now
Noteworthy software: Just the usual bits and bobs.
Disposition: Still owned.

After a sorry experience with my last portable computer, I didn't dare touch a laptop again until a cousin of mine indirectly passed her "old" Dell into my hands. When I received it, there were two outstanding problems with the system: a) Only one of the two RAM slots was being picked up, and b) the computer ran Windows XP. Fortunately, both problems were easy to remedy; the former with the addition of a larger DIMM into the "good" slot, and the latter by wiping out the system and using it as a test bed to try Linux on. Not all is perfect...I had to jump through dozens of loopholes in order to get the display to work properly and to get file sharing set up, and the system runs slower than it ought to...but for the most part, it works fine for now.

The Network Netscape 1.0

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©2003-09 Andrew Turnbull.
Last update February 22, 2009.