This is a fact. I never had that. I was taught Linux.

At School or public library was totally lost till I found a browser.

This may sound dumb but I was totally lost when asked to use a Mac or a windows operating system.

I now use Windows 10 once in a while. I have a old Mac book Pro .
But using them is like going to outer space.
simple shell or a click of a menu in Linux seems to be so simple.

I have to use MACOSX And Windows OS now. but I use them in VirtualBox.

Interested is there more like me?
I hope so.

I never had one either, but then nor did anyone else when I was growing up. The idea of people having personal computers in their homes was sci-fi then.

The first computers I ever used were mainframes built by ICL and they were command line only. That was the way you talked to a computer. You typed words in and the answer was printed out for you onto paper. There were no screens and no one even imagined a graphical interface.

When I first saw Windows 3 in action, I thought it was too daft for words. I mean, why would anyone go through the hassle of learning what all those weird icons represented when you could just tell the computer in writing what program you wanted it to run.

My first experience with computers; I was a tech fixing online banking machines. I was hired by IBM. Does anyone one else remember walking into a bank and hearing the selectric typewriters banging away? Passbooks? BTW, that started a 32 year career.

My path to linux was long. The first computer I had was a Sinclair running basic. Next was a IBM-PC; cost $4K dollars ( Canadian ), 2 floppies, and no hard drive.

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I used an IBM with MSDOS at work in the 80s, but I've never had one with Windows. The Mac always seem to be a case of paying for the name and image. Like Linus, I used a Sinclair QL and graduated from that to a Linux PC.

I didn't have one when I was growing up, because there was no such thing.

My first home computer was a Tandy 386 with DOS v. 3.x and Windows 3.1 (Tandy was the Radio Shack brand, named after Radio Shack's parent company). Back then, you had to start Windows from the command line if you wanted to use it. I remember tinkering with the autoexec.bat file to make it run a bit faster for my son, the gamer. (Tandies were known for coming with excellent manuals back in the olden days.)

My first office computer was an IBM 286 that I rescued from the (figurative) office dustbin and got permission to use on my desk. It was shortly afterwards that management realized that computers were good for more than secretaries doing word processing. Before that, the first persons in many offices to get computers were often secretaries.

I have two young kids who only use linux at home. They've each had their own linux PC since 2 years old (my old PCs). And have FireOS tablets (thanks granparents). And use ipads at school.

But I find it unlikely they wouldn't be able to figure out how to use macOS or Windows. They've certainly managed to use library computers without being told anything, the ones in the kid section be loaded with windows and abc mouse.

I mean sure there's a difference admin and user, but all desktop GUIs are vaguely similar. There's differences between gnome and kde under linux or unix or bsd and macos and ms-windows but they have way more similarities than differences, the basic idea is all the same.

My first experience with any type of personal computer was Apple ][ at school. Those things been in schools in the USA since early 80s; every classroom had one, apple pushed them. Oregon Trail ftw. But my first pc was commodore vic 20 hooked up to tv. Linux experience wouldn't help you much with that thing, you gotta read a manual/book. My first "ibm compatible" was a 286, but I also later acquired a tandy-1000 which was my primary PC for a while when I had nothing else... 360k floppies... one with msdos 3.3, one with telix to dial into BBS and VMS/unix shells. Later got fancy 386 and ran OS/2. But, every time I did use a windows computer, somehow I wasn't confused, just thought "this is the slowest menu program ever".

So yeah if windows was hard for you to figure out, yer just not as tech savy as most people who end up running linux by choice. But I believe it is fairly easy for most people who've used any GUI desktop before, regardless of OS, to use another - and if its not, then that desktop sucks.

Cool Beans. Late in life for me.

I'm guessing I'm older than you, because the Linux kernel and all the tools wasn't created until aftr 1991-ish. But I'd say you're lucky. While I grew up in the early days of DOS, I recognize how limited it was compared to Linux, which I wasn't introduced to until 15 years later.

Getting used to Windows 3.1 wasn't a big deal to me, because it was just another program sitting on top of DOS, and I could still tinker with it's INI files via command lines. But when Windows 95 came around, I was lost. The GUI took some time to get used to. And so much of it's configuration was now housed in these registry files that required GUI tools, and took another few years to get used to.

The first computer that I ever had was a circuit board, which I still have and which still works. And, it's kinda funny to watch how things have gone full circle: today, people are again fiddling around with circuit boards ... Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and so forth. Of course, vastly more powerful than my little KIM-1.

My first exposure to Unix® was on an Amdahl mainframe computer running their "UTS." And it was great fun to see just how powerful that computer actually was, when it didn't have "MVS®" (nee, "Z/OS®") to drag around. Amdahl developed that system very much for its own use because it was far more efficient at running their simulators, although they also offered it as a commercial product.

Like most of the posters personal computers or the Internet did not exist when I was growing up. I did learn BASIC in high school using a console terminal and an acoustic MODEM dialed into the school districts HP main frame. The first desktop computer I got to play with was a HP 9826 which used BASIC and controlled automated test equipment.

Looking back I think the first computer I "played" with was a Timeshare system. We played ten pin bowling on an ASR 33 Teletype, you had to connect to the remote computer (No idea what it was, it was owned by a different company somewhere.) then call up the game and play giving a numerical location for where the bowling ball was to be thrown. The computer then gave a printout with Xs where the pins were. Next ball, hopefully less Xs as you took out the pins.

You needed to pay to use the system, the Teletype's ID being the thing you needed to "Login"; The system would interrogate the Teletype to see who was using it to see who to charge. We discovered that you could go "Off Line" when the system was checking for this ID, wait a short time, then type in the code you'd already collected from a different users Teletype who had an account, there was a "Who am I" button, I seem to recall, which typed out the ID. We were using an early version of spoofing I suppose without knowing what it was. What apprentices used to do with their lunch hour back in the day, Tsk! Tsk!

Play Bonny!

I was rather grown up when I first interacted with a computer, at college, using punchcards and green bar paper. My first PC interaction was at work, with an IBM PC-AT and 20MB CMI HD. Also at work we had a Corona XT portable, which I could take home to experiment with DOS and batch programming. My first owned PC was a 386SX-16 with 4MB RAM running DesqView on DOS, vastly superior to Windows 3. I was unhappy with the SX, so sold it shortly after building it, replacing it with a 386DX-25 and 8MB RAM. I dabbled with OS/2 2.x, but remained comfy with DV until realizing I needed Internet. For that I built a Pentium 75 to run OS/2 Warp 4, which remained my primary OS until switching to openSUSE only after Windows users had begun embracing Win7. I'm still using SVGA text mode DOS apps via OS/2 on one PC that runs 24/7, which I can't do on Linux due to absence of proprietary DOS video mode support my DOS apps depend on.

Hi,

My first computer was using IBM 1103 and punch cards along with unit records devices. My first personal system was a home brew Intel 8080 with 256MB with a ASR-33 programming in machine code. Hand coding was the way at that time. I bumped the memory too 512MB and thought I was in heaven. When I bumped to 1024 it was very happily used! My next computer was a Tandy TRS-80 Zilog Z-80 based computer and cassette storage. I wanted an expansion unit but the near $1K was way too much. So I designed and home built my interface to provide floppy and Hard disk storage. I designed into my expansion unit a 44 pin interface buss for expansion experiments.

I worked at a local newspapers IT for make up and we used DEC-11 to support news room and make up with production support. Our main dual DEC used a shared memory buss along with SMD storage along with tape backup. So UNIX was mandatory both at production level and machine support/repair. Our text processors used large screen terminals working with DECs interfaced to the Harris DEC based photo processor text production machines to produce the make-up pages/materials. After make-up the pages were then sent to the plate machines. Our presses used both analog and digital computer controllers to produce the printed paper. Analog computers were used for the color control of the presses. Digital was more for internal press control. I had a lot of fun working intrinsically with the electronics through out the processes. We did start to use IBM/PC' to use as terminals/word processing interfaced to the Harris systems.

I then purchased another system, Zenith 8088 (8Mhz) based DOS/Windows compatible desktop. I did use DOS quite a bit but wanted to work with C/PM to allow better control of my devices and allow more machine work. I had moved to the University as a Lab Director and our College wanted to get PCs' to allow more data acquisition and control along with word/spreadsheet data work. So that was my major start with Windows based units but I had already used the Zenith based unit for sometime. We had been granted several AT&T 3B1 and 3B2 based units to get departmental based UNIX machines. We were at the mercy of University Computer Dept so it was a must to get our departmental systems. We used IBM throughout the LAB for both machine control and data acquisition. Our Fluids LAB had a laser Doppler velocimetry(LDV) that we interfaced a IBM with to allow better Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) with modeling. We used the IBM to preprocess for the Sun based systems.

In our Mechanical LAB we used IBM/Compatibles to interface with Robotics control, materials testing (Strength/stress) or even vibration testing using a shaker table.

Instrumentation LAB we used IBM/Compatibles Desktops for Data acquisition or experiment control for temperature, velocity measurements, emission measurements were just a few of the student LAB experiments. We even had a simulated heating/cooling system controlled by student written programs via IBM based interface. Hands on was a must. Not just learning basic instrumentation experiments but device interface experiments in real time use. A lot of breadboard wiring of different devices such as interfaces for velocimeters and accelerometers to be used in the Instrument Lab along with the Mechanical Lab. Of course we would use different temperature measurement devices such as thermal couples or solid state devices within different experimental settings. Our digital sensors were setup for student experimentation to allow real use experience while using IBM/Compatible systems.

I have been very fortunate to have exposure in many different computer facilities or usage in a real world sense. For someone who started out in software programming and moving to the computer hardware environment it has been very exciting for me.

Sorry for the long rant but looking back over it is very abbreviated to me.
I really like hearing others experiences and exposure to computers.

I got a laugh at the Terminator Rise of the Machines when the Terminator used audible sounds from its mouth to connect over a phone to the network.

My earlier jobs were with modems. Leased line ones actually and when we did dial up, in the lab we would sometimes whistle answer back tone to cause a modem to go into training.

Needless to say, my life predates most personal computers.

Stands to reason that over time some people grow up where their only computer is their phone.

Even for our household, the house personal PC is very old and slow, no one likes it, I haven't made any priority to commission it as Linux, the rest of the family would not use it anyways. So I use my work laptop for when I need (mainly prefer) an actual screen.

We had some DEC PDP-11's where I worked. They were used as laboratory minis because they weren't particularly fussy about having dust-free conditions. I have no idea whether they ran UNIX or something else, but someone must have been using UNIX because I remember a book on it coming into the library for accession. I skimmed through the first chapter, learned that "root" could do anything, including wiping the whole system, and thought that that was a bloody stupid idea.

Our mainframe computer was a British ICL machine. Later the library got its own mini, a Prime, which kept halting and having to be warm-booted. It's amazing how unreliable those early computers were.