Our desktops of yore.

[depletedvespene]

Inspired by polecat's post of his 1999 desktop, I figured we could start a photo thread dedicated specifically to older pictures of the hardware we used to have and/or use.

Without further ado, photato of a photato:

14 March 1994: bearded git on an Ampex 220 terminal.

Bearded-git-on-an-Ampex-220-terminal.jpg (219.53 KiB) Viewed 14088 times

Those terminals were already old at that time (although, unlike the living dead Olivetti PCs on the room one floor above, those still had life on them, as if... preserved on amber).

[Muirium]

1994 is further back than I can go. My desktop was shared time on the household Amstrad PC-1512 or whatever we had by then. Maybe that was late enough for LAN sessions of Command & Conquer? It’s a pixelated blur before the internet!

Anyway, here’s my pic, from 2013:



2003’s hardware. But I really did use it as my desktop then.

[depletedvespene]

Another one, this time not as old:

23 October 2011: cluttered battlestation.

IMG_6365_th.jpg (290.02 KiB) Viewed 14022 times

The laptop on top of the Model M was my step-son's, who had brought it to my desk so I could fix the connectivity issues that were interrupting our online game. Of all the hardware in this picture, the only items that are still alive are the larger monitor (which was about five months old at the time) and both Model M keyboards.

Note that stack of CD-Rs, as well. At the time, I was in the process of moving all of their backup data to a single external 1TB hard disk (barely seen, behind the netbook).

[andrewjoy]

Do you still have that trinaton. Even after all the years ( it was even old in 2011) it still looks fantastic!

2003’s hardware. But I really did use it as my desktop then.

We used them as lighting controllers in our galleries up until about 1 or 2 years ago, they never failed and where on 24/7.

Back then apple could make robust hardware, oh how times have changed.

[mr_a500]

Before websites and threads like this existed, who would have been insane enough to take a picture of their computers? I've been programming since 1982, but I don't have a single picture of my computers before 2008.

Here's a rare "desktop" photo from 2001. (note the lack of computers)

consulting1.jpg

[depletedvespene]

Before websites and threads like this existed, who would have been insane enough to take a picture of their computers? I've been programming since 1982, but I don't have a single picture of my computers before 2008.

The very, very few pictures I have of my computers from back then are because they're pictures of me in my natural environment, so to speak Otherwise, shooting pictures of hardware (for reasons other than sales or inventory, when that became practical to do) was something that just wasn't done. Heck, even the 2011 photo I posted this morning... I took it because after working on fixing my step-son's laptop's problem, I realized the sheer absurdity (for what qualified as absurd only eight years ago) of the hardware clutter right in front of me and figured I needed proof of it for posterity'.

[kbdfr]

Before websites and threads like this existed, who would have been insane enough to take a picture of their computers? […]

Insane, hey?
As matter of fact, I have several pics of my working environment dating from… the last millenium.
Unfortunately, at that time photographs were usually printed on paper and stuffed in boxes,
so I am unable to post any at the moment

[mr_a500]

If I'd had friends or family who were interested in photographing me in my "natural environment", I suppose I would have had a few photos of me sitting at a computer, programming back then... or possibly I would have turned around and shouted, "What the hell are you doing?? I'm trying to concentrate, damn it!" (...thus abruptly ending the photography session)

[depletedvespene]

Before websites and threads like this existed, who would have been insane enough to take a picture of their computers? […]

Insane, hey?
As matter of fact, I have several pics of my working environment dating from… the last millenium.
Unfortunately, at that time photographs were usually printed on paper and stuffed in boxes,
so I am unable to post any at the moment

What do you think I did with that picture of myself in front of a terminal?

Today, with any luck, I'll find that one picture of myself in front of my 386, playing this newfangled game called DOOM. I may finally be able to confirm my suspicion that THAT Mitac-branded keyboard had Alps-clones.

[mr_a500]

Unfortunately, at that time photographs were usually printed on paper and stuffed in boxes,
so I am unable to post any at the moment

The picture I posted was printed on paper and stuffed in a box... but sometime in 2008 I took out the physical photo from 2001, lined it up and photographed it with a cheap 2008 digital camera to get it in the digital format you see it now.

Modern kids will never understand the early difficulties of getting film photos into digital format...

[Polecat]

Great idea for a photo thread! I was a bit ahead of the game, using a computer to publish a newsletter long before internet. Working at an electronic/recycling shop gave me access to all kinds of hardware for next to nothing, which is how I got the Leading Edge keyboard and most of the others I still have. The Sun monitor was a gift from a programmer friend. I found the old photo quite by accident, saved on a 1.44 floppy. From the odd resolution I know it was taken on my first digicam, an old Kodak with a serial interface. I labelled the photo "KBD", so that's what I was trying to illustrate or share, but I don't remember exactly why or who with. Anyway, the Leading Edge DC-2214 was my keyboard of choice at that time (and I had plenty to choose from).

[Polecat]

What do you think I did with that picture of myself in front of a terminal?

Today, with any luck, I'll find that one picture of myself in front of my 386, playing this newfangled game called DOOM. I may finally be able to confirm my suspicion that THAT Mitac-branded keyboard had Alps-clones.

I still have a Mitac here with SMK blue Montereys. Really a Chicony, but don't tell anyone! I kept it because it looks cool, and because it's the only board I have with SMKs. Yes, it needs a bath.

[depletedvespene]

…
I still have a Mitac here with SMK blue Montereys. Really a Chicony, but don't tell anyone! I kept it because it looks cool, and because it's the only board I have with SMKs. Yes, it needs a bath.

Woah, this DOES look very much like my old Mitac keyboard! The only difference is that it was an ISBAE variant with the Spanish (Spain) layout laid on top (with a worthless pad printing that started wearing off quickly, I must say). It seems that I indeed used Monter(r)eys back then without knowing.

[Polecat]

Woah, this DOES look very much like my old Mitac keyboard! The only difference is that it was an ISBAE variant with the Spanish (Spain) layout laid on top (with a worthless pad printing that started wearing off quickly, I must say). It seems that I indeed used Monter(r)eys back then without knowing.

The model number on mine is KB-5181. According to the wiki those came with many different switch options:

wiki/Chicony_KB-5181

[depletedvespene]

Woah, this DOES look very much like my old Mitac keyboard! The only difference is that it was an ISBAE variant with the Spanish (Spain) layout laid on top (with a worthless pad printing that started wearing off quickly, I must say). It seems that I indeed used Monter(r)eys back then without knowing.

The model number on mine is KB-5181. According to the wiki those came with many different switch options:

wiki/Chicony_KB-5181

The DTwiki page shows an ISBAE keyboard with Monter(r)eys and an UK layout... so that's what I'm going to assume my keyboard had, until I get evidence that might suggest otherwise. Thanks!

[kbdfr]

Photo taken probably 1996 or 1997.
Notice early ergonomy attempts: a document holder (made of wire mesh) between keyboard and monitor
and of course my beloved G80-2100
.

[mr_a500]

You look just like a guy I knew at work!

computer guy.jpg (58.56 KiB) Viewed 13592 times

The resemblance is uncanny.

[Redmaus]

You look just like a guy I knew at work!

The resemblance is uncanny.

Is that an RT?

[mr_a500]

Is that an RT?

Yes, it's an IBM RT 6151 Model 10, a RISC IBM PC. I'd never even heard about it or seen one before.

[andrewjoy]

I dont have any pictures of me with my A3010

[ollir]

Here's me. The year is probably 88 or 89.
The computer is Amstrad PC1640 with monochrome display and a single 360kB 5,25" floppy drive. No HD in that machine.
It ran MS-DOS 3.2. The GUI that is showing is GEM (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_ ... nt_Manager).
And a dot matrix printer on the side of course!

[andrewjoy]

You look so young !

I had a dot matrix printer in about '90 it was slow as hell but quite nice for the time , colour too.

Dont remeber the model , i think it had acorn branding on it and the style matched to A3010 . It looked a bit like an image writer 2 i think . Not exactly the same but a similar style.

[Muirium]

Cool! Similar to our setup of the time. I liked GEM better than DOS, too.

[depletedvespene]

Cool! Similar to our setup of the time. I liked GEM better than DOS, too.

Who didn't?

I got to use GEM on an Atari ST machine. It was stellar!

[ollir]

Cool! Similar to our setup of the time. I liked GEM better than DOS, too.

Who didn't?

If I remember correctly I liked DOS as much. Not because it was awesome, but because there were things to discover. I was 6 or 7 at the time, max. 8 years old on that photo. Sometimes I started up GEM just to draw something silly or play around with turtle graphics to see if I could (by accident) come up with a cool graphics.

I didn't know english or anything about computers but little by little I learned how the thing worked. I wrote some simple .BAT-scripts but I didn't learn real programming until later on with another machine, a 80286 system, somewhere around at 12 or 13 years old. Around that time the first mechanical keyboard I used also appeared from somewhere (Acer 6012 or kb102-a - probably 6012). Of course at the time I didn't know anything about keyboards other than that it was bigger and louder than my other keyboards - which I had several, because I liked variety)).

After a brief period of playing with QBasic I learned C and then Assembly and that was probably the most fun I've had programming. I thought assembly was hard but it turned out to be quite simple (at least on 16bit real mode, I never continued to write anything in asm after moving on from DOS to Linux where C was the king).

Those were the days - but these are too, so I'll stop the nostalgy trip here

[Polecat]

One more, also from 1999, showing the black Focus FK-2002 that I recently rebuilt. It was already showing some shine on the spacebar, so I guess I used it quite a bit early on.

[depletedvespene]

One more, also from 1999, showing the black Focus FK-2002 that I recently rebuilt. It was already showing some shine on the spacebar, so I guess I used it quite a bit early on.

What is the legend on that extra key between LSHIFT and Z?

[Anakey]

One more, also from 1999, showing the black Focus FK-2002 that I recently rebuilt. It was already showing some shine on the spacebar, so I guess I used it quite a bit early on.

What is the legend on that extra key between LSHIFT and Z?

viewtopic.php?p=446448#p446448

[vometia]

Oh, I recognise those terminals! Never could figure out who made them, they were rebranded by everyone. This one had a Philips badge on it.



My desk in about '91-ish, complete with thoughtful observation about the meaning of life from one of our ops. Quiet as I'd turned up at 8am to avoid the traffic: the more local the staff, the later they arrived!

[mr_a500]

My office looked similar - except we usually had those typical fabric dividers so you didn't have to stare at the ugly faces of co-workers (a considerable improvement).

It's strange that we're now at a time where desktop computers and CRT monitors are considered "vintage".