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Slashdot Asks: Did You Have a Shared Family Computer Growing Up? (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the show-and-tell dept.

theodp writes: "Long before phone addiction panic gripped the masses and before screen time became a facet of our wellness and digital detoxes," begins Katie Reid's article, How the Shared Family Computer Protected Us from Our Worst Selves, "there was one good and wise piece of technology that served our families. Maybe it was in the family room or in the kitchen. It could have been a Mac or PC. Chances are it had a totally mesmerizing screensaver. It was the shared family desktop." She continues: "I can still see the Dell I grew up using as clear as day, like I just connected to NetZero yesterday. It sat in my eldest sister's room, which was just off the kitchen. Depending on when you peeked into the room, you might have found my dad playing Solitaire, my sister downloading songs from Napster, or me playing Wheel of Fortune or writing my name in Microsoft Paint. The rules for using the family desktop were pretty simple: homework trumped games; Dad trumped all. Like the other shared equipment in our house, its usefulness was focused and direct: it was a tool that the whole family used, and it was our portal to the wild, weird, wonderful internet. As such, we adored it." Did you have a shared family computer growing up? Can you relate to any of the experiences Katie mentioned in her article? Please share your thoughts in a comment below.

200 comments

  1. How? by Narcocide · · Score: 1

    By not having an internet connection.

    1. Re:How? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I had one of the early ricochet RF modems, I consider my childhood awesome on that basis alone. MUD crawling without tying up the house line, whaaaat? #1994 Thug ly**ATTO***fe

    2. Re:How? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1994? We had a home computer in 1975. Well, dad had a home computer in 1975, and the same one was still running in the early 1990's. This one was, of course, an Altair 8080. We then had a ColorComputer II, followed by an Amiga 1000, followed by several differnent HP/Dell/Toshiba laptops.

      In college in 1989, I paid for a 2nd phone line at a friend's apartment so that we could keep his computer online 24x7 and not interfere with his two roommates' phone use.

    3. Re:How? by Q-Hack! · · Score: 1

      Computer? Hell we had a multi family single phone line...

      Now git off my lawn.

      --
      Some days I get the sinking feeling Orwell was an optimist.
    4. Re:How? by Cederic · · Score: 1

      We didn't even have a phone. Although I noticed that changed the day after my sister left home.

      Coincidence, I'm sure.

    5. Re:How? by tsa · · Score: 1

      We too. And later we had the family C=64, which was mostly occupied by me.

      --

      -- Cheers!

  2. Phone? by cwsumner · · Score: 5, Informative

    Sorry, I come from the time of the shared family phone. Hardwired to the wall, without even a connector. Sometimes shared with neibors as well... 8-)

    When I got a computer, no one else saw any reason to use it. Years later, yes, but not then.

    1. Re:Phone? by lgw · · Score: 2

      Yup, shared family phone, but my computer was gloriously mine. My Commodore 64 replaced my electric typewriter on my desk.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    2. Re:Phone? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      OK, this must be the old man thread, so here I am.

      When I was growing up, our family's shared computer was an abacus. When I got ready for college, my dad splurged on an upgraded abacus with a serial port so I could hook up a 300 baud modem.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    3. Re:Phone? by Gr8Apes · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Good grief what an insanely stupid question. PC or Mac? Try going further back a little like Atari/Commodores. Phones (with neighbors) 1 TV in the house (shocking, I know!!!) hell, even just 1 radio!!! (You know, the thing you have to listen to?) There's a whole host of other things that were shared in the past that aren't as often now (bathrooms, bedrooms, even beds)

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    4. Re:Phone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Like many others, shared phone, but the TI-994A was mine. Local BBS's and "The Source" via 300 baud dialup, until someone else picked up the other extension.

    5. Re:Phone? by quenda · · Score: 2

      My Commodore 64 replaced my electric typewriter on my desk.

      Electric? Luxury!
      We had to set type by hand whenever we wanted to send a letter.

    6. Re:Phone? by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      I didn't get a computer until I left home. I wanted a TRS-80 but my mother said I should save my money to get a used car instead as it would be more useful. (Apple-II would have been nice too but I only knew one person who had one and there was no store that sold one nearby, but I really wanted a Heathkit to be honest) Without disposable income, a home computer at the time was just too expensive.

      I got an S-100 based board as a freshman, but it burned out quickly with a puff of smoke a couple weeks after someone put on new voltage regulators! After that I always had computer access at the lab while at school. Again, no extra disposable income. So I didn't get another computer until after graduation whe I got an Amiga 1000.

    7. Re:Phone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My (my families) first computer was bought in 1983. No net, but everyone saw plenty of reasons to use it. It sat in the kitchen, being variously monopolised by dad (writing school reports mostly), my brother and I spending about 50/50 playing games and learning to program in basic (ROM), and mum writing letters of whatever.

      And the phone wasn't just hard-wired to the wall - it was physically bolted onto it.

    8. Re:Phone? by demonlapin · · Score: 1

      Until someone picked up? 300 bps almost never dropped carrier if someone picked up, 1200 bps only occasionally. I was into 14.4k before lost carriers really became an issue if anyone picked up. Before that, it was just extra noise on the line, which I was used to dealing with because we lived in an old neighborhood with above-ground lines. If it rained, you'd get staticky lines - even worse when the neighborhood squirrels decided to run and jump on said lines.

    9. Re:Phone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My slide rule, and my use of it in the thermodynamics final exam at MIT, had the teaching assistants flocking around and staring and asking questions. See, it was a *circular* slide rule. I found that it helped me keep track of my margins of error and orders of magnitude for my work. I drove the chemistry teaching assistants *nuts* because it revealed where students were fudging their original measurements to make things come out "correctly", instead of actually rounding off to the limits of precision of their equipment and their resulting calculations.

    10. Re:Phone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I had to share an IBM709 with my mum.

      Networking was sneaker-net over punched cards.

    11. Re:Phone? by johnw · · Score: 1

      Sometimes shared with neibors as well... 8-)

      I don't know if it's what you mean, but when I was young the "party line" was quite common. Two houses would share a single phone line, with a bit of magic used to control which phone rang for an incoming call.

      You could pick up your phone to make a call, only to find that the line was already in use. You weren't blocked out or anything like that - you were straight in to their conversation. At that point you were meant to put the phone down, wait a few minutes, and try again.

      It was just bad luck if you shared your line with a heavy user - although the cost of calls (even local calls were metered) did tend to restrict their length.

    12. Re:Phone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I remeember mechanical calculators. Still got one.

    13. Re: Phone? by prefec2 · · Score: 1

      And the phone could be locked to limit usage.

    14. Re:Phone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Hah! Young people these days! We had to carve our letters in the hide of a mammoth with a sabertooth tiger's teeth and then carry the mammoth to destination on our backs! Uphill in the snow both ways with a barrow wheel hanging from our necks because common decency dictated that! And we didn't even had barrows! And we didn't complain, no sir!

    15. Re: Phone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You had it good!

      We used to dream of carrying mammoths across the plains to get word to our friends and families!

      We had to climb the highest mountain tops to shout our message to the next.
      Of course,there was no one at the next mountain top, so after we shouted we had to run really fast down the valley and climb the next mountain top so we would not miss the message.
      This, while carrying our villages, crops, and livestock at the same time.

      Just catching sabretooth tigers and mammoths wouldâ(TM)ve made our lives so much easier.
      But kids these days......luxury!

    16. Re:Phone? by tsa · · Score: 1

      It's not insanely stupid. Young people just can not fathom that there was a time not long ago that there weren't any computers in houses.

      I spent my youth in the 1970s and I remember that my dad brought the first calculator I saw with him from work. That was the first digital device we had in the house. The next one was our colour TV with Teletext, 10 years or so later. two years later we got our Commodore 64.

      --

      -- Cheers!

    17. Re:Phone? by jareth-0205 · · Score: 1

      Good grief what an insanely stupid question. PC or Mac? Try going further back a little like Atari/Commodores. Phones (with neighbors) 1 TV in the house (shocking, I know!!!) hell, even just 1 radio!!! (You know, the thing you have to listen to?) There's a whole host of other things that were shared in the past that aren't as often now (bathrooms, bedrooms, even beds)

      You had a house? Luxury! We used to live in hole int' ground!

    18. Re:Phone? by methano · · Score: 1

      They were building Eniac when I was a kid. I asked Dad if we could get one and he told me to go play in the dirt.

    19. Re:Phone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Good grief what an insanely stupid question. PC or Mac? Try going further back a little like Atari/Commodores. Phones (with neighbors) 1 TV in the house (shocking, I know!!!) hell, even just 1 radio!!! (You know, the thing you have to listen to?) There's a whole host of other things that were shared in the past that aren't as often now (bathrooms, bedrooms, even beds)

      You had a house? Luxury! We used to live in hole int' ground!

      A hole in t'ground would have been a palace to us!

    20. Re:Phone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It was a shared phone at first, and eventually that phone line had to be shared with the computer also...

    21. Re:Phone? by CharlieG · · Score: 1

      Yep. There are those of us old enough to remember the TRS-80, The Apple ][, the Commodore PET etc coming out. Grow up with a shared computer? Ahahahaha. I was just into my teens when the articles on the IMSI 8008 hit the electronics magazines

      --
      -- 73 de KG2V For the Children - RKBA! "You are what you do when it counts" - the Masso
    22. Re: Phone? by cwsumner · · Score: 1

      You had it good!

      We used to dream of carrying mammoths across the plains to get word to our friends and families!

      We had to climb the highest mountain tops to shout our message to the next. ...

      C'mon, you skipped right over the quill pen. (That means using a bird feather with the end trimmed for ink.)
      8-)

    23. Re:Phone? by cwsumner · · Score: 1

      OK, this must be the old man thread, so here I am.

      When I was growing up, our family's shared computer was an abacus. When I got ready for college, my dad splurged on an upgraded abacus with a serial port so I could hook up a 300 baud modem.

      When I was in school, some of the eastern students were actually using a type of abacus. Well, I was using a sliderule, but I still thought it was strange.
      One day we had a race to see which could work a math problem faster... the abacus won!

    24. Re:Phone? by cwsumner · · Score: 1

      They were building Eniac when I was a kid. I asked Dad if we could get one and he told me to go play in the dirt.

      Ha! ... I guess you would have needed a much bigger house! 8-)

    25. Re:Phone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, remember those days. Over here in India, we lived in a building which had 12 apartments. One neighbour had a phone whose number we used to give out (with their consent) to our friends and relatives with (PP) written on it. For those who are not aware, PP stood for Particular Person or Private Party, meaning that the phone number was not owned by the person handing it out. Isn't that something ROTFL ? Just for completeness, some rules:

      1. Unless in an emergency, the time when people could call was restricted.
      2. Only messages would be taken down and conveyed unless in an emergency.
      3. Free incoming calls.
      4. Rupee 1 per outgoing call for 3 minutes; max 6 min.

    26. Re:Phone? by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

      It's even worse: indoor plumbing and electricity are both relatively recent additions and relatives I knew well added one or both to their houses when they became available, in first world countries no less. I shudder to think what things smelled like at the beginning of the 20th century.

      And I still maintain it's insanely stupid for these "young" people to have their heads that far up their own arses that they are completely ignorant of how even their own parents lived a mere 30 years ago. Perhaps a year in a rustic Appalachian "resort" would reset their world view a touch.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    27. Re:Phone? by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      We got a phone when I was about 10. I learned the number when I left home at 18.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  3. Thanks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now I fell really old :(

    Does Pong count?!?

  4. Probably not by avandesande · · Score: 0

    There was a very small window of time where computers were so expensive that a family could only afford one and where there was the internet. Yeah my cousin and I used to play nethaq on his dad's kaypro but I don't think that is what you are talking about here.

    --
    love is just extroverted narcissism
    1. Re:Probably not by thesupraman · · Score: 1, Informative

      I assume you mean nethack, and why dont you still play it? ;)
      https://www.nethack.org/
      3.6.1 is out these days ;)

    2. Re:Probably not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I still play Angband now and then, it'a a continuation of Moria.

    3. Re:Probably not by cdsparrow · · Score: 1

      I spent many a late night hour playing Moria and Trade Wars 2002.

    4. Re:Probably not by Monster_user · · Score: 1

      That was right before Windows 95 came out. Windows 3.1 was king of the affordable desktop. Then Windows 95 came out.

    5. Re:Probably not by Octorian · · Score: 1

      There was a very small window of time where computers were so expensive that a family could only afford one and where there was the internet.

      Remember, however, that "could only afford one" and "doesn't see it as important enough to justify owning more than one" are both factors at play here. This is especially true when none of the adults are really computer literate, and sometimes brag about this.

      When I look at what people gladly pay for certain consumer electronics devices today (especially smartphones), I think back to when I was growing up... Back then, the same prices would have *never* been considered a justifiable expense in the same way.

    6. Re:Probably not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was born in the mid-80s. I remember we always had 2. But it was a family of 4. There were two shared family computers. Later on, one of them had Internet.

      Kind of like there were two shared family cars.

      All my friends growing up had access to a computer in the home. Only one had a computer of his own before going to university.

      This very narrow window is a couple decades old. This notion of children having their own computer is relatively recent. I think the time of the personal-laptops-for-each-in-the-family is narrower so far, though it is growing for sure.

    7. Re:Probably not by Stormwatch · · Score: 1

      When I look at what people gladly pay for certain consumer electronics devices today (especially smartphones), I think back to when I was growing up... Back then, the same prices would have *never* been considered a justifiable expense in the same way.

      Maybe you got that backwards. True, back then the expense of getting your kid a computer was hard to justify... because computers were extremely expensive. The original IBM PC, at its most barebones and useless configuration, launched for well over $4000 (adjusted for inflation). You can get a perfectly satisfactory PC or smartphone right now, for one tenth of that.

      --
      Circumcision is child abuse.
    8. Re:Probably not by Cederic · · Score: 1

      Hmm. My first computer cost £70, including the tape drive, a physical musical keyboard overlay for the computer keyboard, a stencil for creating flowcharts, a book teaching programming and various bits of software.

      Sure, that was a lot of money back then, you could rent a caravan in Wales for the week for about that much, but if owning a computer made sense to my parents we'd have skipped a family holiday and they'd have bought themselves one.

      As it was, I moved out long before my parents had a computer of their own.

  5. sort of by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    We didn't have a shared family computer, but we had a rock and some sticks. After hauling water 50 miles from the nearest creek, eating our small meal of dandelion roots, and sweeping the dirt floor to clean up, we would then sit cross-legged in a circle and roll our family rock back and forth with the sticks for a few hours on end. Such fond memories. Those were the good ol' days.

    1. Re:sort of by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We didn't have a shared family computer, but we had a rock and some sticks. After hauling water 50 miles from the nearest creek, eating our small meal of dandelion roots, and sweeping the dirt floor to clean up, we would then sit cross-legged in a circle and roll our family rock back and forth with the sticks for a few hours on end. Such fond memories. Those were the good ol' days.

      Luxury!

  6. Yes I did. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, my family and I shared a Pentium 4 computer with 512 MB of RAM AND 80 GB in HDD, running Windows XP.

  7. Yes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, we had a 'shared family computer'.

    You bet your ass I still watched porn on it when I was home alone...

  8. Family computer.... by Pitawg · · Score: 2

    No one, and I mean NO ONE touches my floppies! They could have the computer, though.

    1. Re:Family computer.... by Pitawg · · Score: 1

      Alright, I'll come clean...

      I trained them properly when I got them to NEVER TOUCH MY CASSETTE TAPES!

    2. Re:Family computer.... by msauve · · Score: 1

      Paper punch tapes were much more fragile.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    3. Re:Family computer.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      After much begging, I convinced a girl to touch my floppy once.

    4. Re: Family computer.... by that+this+is+not+und · · Score: 1

      If the code was important, you had a copy on mylar punched tape.

    5. Re: Family computer.... by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 1
      If the code was important, you had a copy on 1/2" mag tape at 556bpi

      FTFY

      --
      Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
    6. Re: Family computer.... by that+this+is+not+und · · Score: 1

      You're kidding. Is that polyester tape? In any case, the oxide will eventually break down and the data be lost.

      The punched data will last almost indefinitely, and is even non-machine readable.

  9. Computer? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh, I grew up with a computer for myself. No one else wanted anything to do with it. However, whenever I monopolized the TV needed to run it, battles ensued.

    1. Re:Computer? by weilawei · · Score: 1

      We had a shared computer, initially a Commodore 64, then an IBM clone. I also had an IBM PS/2 and Tandy 1000 to myself (salvage/hand-me-down from my grandfather who worked for Digital). Started at 4, with the BASIC reference manual (PET BASIC), and went from there (library books at first).

      The best parts were the phone line battles with my parents. We had two phone lines, so I'd secretly wire an extension from one, down in the basement, and run it aaaaall the way upstairs. Then, it'd be discovered by phone or ISP logs or physical search... and we'd do it all over again. I'd use any sort of free ISP when I couldn't use Q-link (later AOHell).

  10. Re:Trump had one he shared with Russia... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You don't see to get hashtags. Why am I not surprised.

  11. From before that time... by pubwvj · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm from before that time of shared family computers.

    I bought and hacked and built my own computer equipment. My electronics hobby was considered odd and too expensive. So I worked, saved, scrimped and scrounged. The first 'real' computer I bought was one of the very early Exidy Sorcerer computers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exidy_Sorcerer). I had used a KIM-1 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KIM-1) and a Apple I (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_I) at school. I went to college during high school where I used punch card computers and PDP-11. In some ways when I bought my first one, the Sorcerer, it was a step down, except I got the whole thing to myself and I could open it up and hack it, which I did, adding memory, more I/O, tape data storage (my own version, not the bought one). It was great fun.

    Later after I left the house my parents started buying family computers and then still later computers for each of my seven siblings as they went off to college. Prices came down and the computers became more mainstreamed.

    1. Re:From before that time... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I'm from the before times, as well. My first computer was an Apple ][e, and my second was an Amiga 1000 (best computer of its time that I ever owned).

      It wasn't a family computer, because the rest of my family didn't know about computers and didn't want to know. Even now my parents own just a flip phone for emergencies on the road, and my siblings do everything on smartphones. Anything on a computer, I have to do it for them.

      Keeps them from murdering me in my sleep, I suppose.

    2. Re:From before that time... by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 0

      I'm from before that time of shared family computers.

      I'm from that time of shared families.

      Does that count . . . ?

      I went to college during high school where I used punch card computers and PDP-11.

      IBM 3084 . . . and an HP 2100.

      "The Family", in the Charles Manson sense of the word . . . were the other Neander-Geeks in the terminal and punch card room . . .

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    3. Re:From before that time... by DCFusor · · Score: 1

      PDP-8 here, I was lucky. Dad got an 8S in a stunning surplus deal "it fell off the truck" - then later a "straight 8" - and we sneered and jeered at those later 8 bit chip junk machines. Predicting is hard...we were wrong, but the experience did serve well when I later applied for a job at DEC and they were stunned to find I already had plenty of experience with their stuff (as a then stereo repairman).

      --
      Why guess when you can know? Measure!
  12. Remembered the shared family TV? by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

    Remembered the shared family TV? I barely can.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    1. Re:Remembered the shared family TV? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Remembered the shared family TV? I barely can.

      I can remember that I was the remote control.

    2. Re:Remembered the shared family TV? by jrumney · · Score: 1

      Remember waiting until there was no sports on the TV so Dad would get up and work on his project in the shed, and you could plug in the computer to play some games?

    3. Re:Remembered the shared family TV? by thesupraman · · Score: 1

      And you call yourself tough love?

      I can remember the shared family tv, its the one in the living room, where the family still watch tv together at times.
      There are no other TVs, why waste life on that shit? really.

      And no, they have not been replaced by streaming on to devices - that would be even worse.

    4. Re:Remembered the shared family TV? by Alypius · · Score: 2

      And the rabbit-ear antenna booster!

    5. Re:Remembered the shared family TV? by Darinbob · · Score: 4, Funny

      "The picture looks great, now just hold it there and don't move for an hour!"

    6. Re:Remembered the shared family TV? by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      To be honest, I don't know anyone with two televisions that isn't rich. Phones don't count. My parents did get a second TV as they got a portable 5" black and white for attending a time share presentation. They gave it to me though, and it was the TV I used in grad school to watch Star Trek Next Generation.

    7. Re:Remembered the shared family TV? by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      Right - the shared family TV was the monitor for my C=>64 I eventually found a really bad 15" color set at a yard sale for $12 bucks and became liberated.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    8. Re:Remembered the shared family TV? by Cederic · · Score: 1

      I don't know anybody that doesn't have two televisions, unless you don't include the ones with projectors.

      That includes the single mothers I dance with, the friend that went bankrupt, the friend with three failed businesses (but she's getting by, just about) and the friend that never actually watches TV (and doesn't have a TV licence).

    9. Re:Remembered the shared family TV? by Calydor · · Score: 1

      The thing is that it's entirely possible to upgrade your still working but old TV to a much newer and better model on a good sale, and that old TV gets moved to the bedroom while the new one gets the 'prime' spot in the living room.

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
    10. Re:Remembered the shared family TV? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The C=>64 could be connected to the family TV - for playing games in color. That wasn't always an option, so a cheap small b&w thing was used when the TV was occupied. The C=>64 was shared and used in turn. There were no priority system, for it had no "serious" uses. No homework, no word processing. It was all pirated games, and learning programming in 6510 assembly (after seeing that basic wouldn't go very far).

      Oh, not all the games were pirated. A few were typed in from listings in magazines. See if you can find a game so small these days, that the full source (including graphichs & sound data) can be printed over 2-4 pages.

    11. Re:Remembered the shared family TV? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I grew up in a VERY wealthy area of Minnesota so lots of families in my are had two or even three TVs. They also had one or two boats, multiple cars, vacation homes, etc. This was well before personal computers were even thought of.

      My parents were both teachers so we had one TV all my life, a 17" (I guess) Zenith color floor console without remote control. We also had one couch (where my dad lay) and one nice chair (where mom sat) so us kids stretched out on the floor when we watched Wonderful World of Disney. Scooby-Doo was watched from the couch, of course, since my parents slept in on Saturdays.

      Our next door neighbors had a TV in their living room and another in the den so the man of the house could watch sports in peace. I remember sleeping over there and sneaking into the den with my friend to watch a very schlocky local late-late-night movie show hosted by one Charle Bush, local radio legend and nice guy. That was where I saw Mothra and Bride of Frankenstein for the first time. No VCRs back then. You watched what was on TV and you were grateful to see it.

      We had one phone (dial) until I was eight and my grandmother moved in with us. She brought her phone up from Winona, Minnesota and my brother wired it up in her room. That was a big secret and I wasn't supposed to tell anyone. four years later and it didn't matter. Food was heated in a pot on the stove top because no one had microwaves. If you couldn't find what you wanted in a local store you drove out to Southdale or into Minneapolis to hunt it down. If you were very lucky you could order things through the US mail from catalogs, but that was really expensive and very, very slow.

      Now Get Off My Lawn.

    12. Re:Remembered the shared family TV? by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      Ok, that's unusual in my experience. The only time I remember seeing two TVs was when someone had a "den", or there was a very tiny one in the kitchen so someone could watch the soaps while cooking.

      Maybe it's just the time that I grew up. When I was in elementary school TVs were BIG, they were often furniture. Wooden cases. You needed a rooftop antenna to pick up stations. You watched what the family watched or you didn't watch anything. Later more portable TVs were showing up. It's possible that people I knew had TVs in their bedrooms and I just don't remember it. I'm probably naively assuming that parents don't give their kids TVs to watch secretly late at night, but probably TVs have turned into babysitters.

    13. Re:Remembered the shared family TV? by Cederic · · Score: 1

      Ah, historically nobody had two televisions. Shit, colour television was "one per street". I'm talking about the current state of things, as that's how I interpreted the person to whom I replied.

    14. Re:Remembered the shared family TV? by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      True. But in the past the "old" TV was generally large and bulky and you usually used it until it broke. For new TVs, I also waited until the old one broke, but presumably if it hadn't, a good enough TV is good enough. You don't need 3D TV, you don't need curved screens, you don't need 4K.

    15. Re:Remembered the shared family TV? by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      So current state of things, where everybody eats meals at a different time and telling the kids to shut off the mobile phones is considered child abuse?

    16. Re:Remembered the shared family TV? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yep... that was me

  13. Protect from what? by psychic_bacon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I had a shared family computer, way back in the 90s (not old enough to have cool hacking stories about 80s era tech). But what was protected? Everything that is nasty about the internet was true then, just in lesser form. It's just the case that everyone is online now, rather than a smaller subset of people who were more aware of technology. The irony is that the more anonymous the internet was, the nicer and safer it was. My thought is 90% of what is nasty online is because everything is less anonymous. Back in the 90s, when you were cooldude69 and talking to a guy pretending to be coolchick98, what harm could come of it? It's only when it becomes real life and you start giving real addresses that problems start creeping in. Doxxing and harassment isn't relevant when you could disappear and start again. Like on slashdot, my UID is 9 billion, but I could have been UID 42, get in trouble, delete the account, and disappear. Of course, a fully anonymous net will let a lot of fringe views, conspiracies, and nasty stuff fester, but that stuff will always be present.

    1. Re:Protect from what? by Oxygen99 · · Score: 1

      It's only when it becomes real life and you start giving real addresses that problems start creeping in.

      Heh. I have national computer magazines from the 80s and 90s full of wanted ads for pen-pals, trades, sales and the like which always published people's real names and addresses. More striking is that it's likely these were teenagers. I'm not sure that'd happen much anymore...

      --
      I had a dream, bright and carefree, but now there's doubt and gravity
    2. Re:Protect from what? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      The internet was less anonymous in the early days. Most people got access through an academic institution or work, with a fixed IP address. In fact my first dial-up ISP only offered fixed IP addresses... And most of those institutions would use your real name for things like mail addresses or in the URL of your homepage.

      Of course there was no wifi or other easy means of getting semi-anonymous access, and commercial VPNs/Tor didn't exist. If you registered a domain name the whois data had your address and phone number on it.

      What did help was that there were fewer online services for doxing people. These days you can look up all sorts of public records.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  14. Yes, we had a shared computer growing up by blindseer · · Score: 2

    It was an Apple IIc. There wasn't much concern of things being snooped on since we each had our own floppy disks and we could take those from the computer and hide them. There was no "online" with that computer. At the time it was technically possible to get connected to the early internet but phone charges and the cost of a modem made that not feasible.

    --
    I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    1. Re:Yes, we had a shared computer growing up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple ][+ for me. I remember the sales guy trying to talk my dad out of paying extra to get 48k of ram. They didn't have floppy drives in stock yet, so we were stuck with cassette tapes for a few weeks. Air Traffic Controller was the first game I played on it.

    2. Re:Yes, we had a shared computer growing up by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Even then, aftermarket RAM was much cheaper. The sales guy was trying to help.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    3. Re:Yes, we had a shared computer growing up by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Apple ][+ for me as well. My dad bought it before I even knew what a computer was. Man was I jealous when my buddy got an Apple IIc. He could play Airheart and I couldn't.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    4. Re:Yes, we had a shared computer growing up by antdude · · Score: 1

      Ditto with an Apple //c back in the 80s. Before that, was a Texas Instrument 99/4A since my folks wanted me to learn how to use a computer. Funny, I was scared of it until I found out it could do video games. ;)

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  15. Oh dear. by thesupraman · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Feels old while thinking about the clone-286 he used running DOS and then desqview/286 after having upgraded his apple-II..
    Then feels a bit sorry for the kids these days who missed out on such a golden age :)

    1. Re:Oh dear. by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 2

      Then feels a bit sorry for the kids these days who missed out on such a golden age :)

      You know, I always felt like I missed out on a golden age because I didn't grow up in the 1950's. But the 1970's and 80's really were a golden age for technology. In a lot of ways it felt like you could do just about anything tech wise as the circuit boards from then were still something that I could follow and modify. With today's boards being multi layer circuit boards it's just not possible to do anymore. Plus everything as gotten so small, and my eyesight isn't what it once was either.

  16. Slow Internet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The reason we weren't so obsessed before was that the internet was slow, and Windows was garbage and crashed all the time. If we had fast internet back then, I would have waited until late at night when everyone was asleep before using the computer.

  17. Who didn't? by Freischutz · · Score: 1

    Did You Have a Shared Family Computer Growing Up?

    Yup, tucked away in a special room on a special computer desk like a statue of the Buddha in one of those little temples in the Japanese countryside. Who didn't? Most gamers I know still have a little shrine in their domicile where they keep their 'gaming rig'.

  18. Shared timeshare computer for whole school system by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In junior high, we had Teletypes and Decwriters with acoustic coupler modems (300 Baud) for access to the DEC TSS-8 system shared by my whole school system. The TSS-8 had sixteen dial-in ports. We had to reserve time on a terminal a week in advance. Even then, all of the phone lines to the system's computer might be busy and we might never connect during our sign-up time. We had to store our assembler, Fortran, and Basic programs on paper tape. The 128kB of disk space was reserved for teachers.

    Home computers? I was almost out of college by then.

  19. Shared family TV with voice remote by asackett · · Score: 2

    We had a shared television, one of the first color models on the block. When the parents wanted the channel changed or the volume adjusted they called out "Hey boy! Channel Two!", usually followed by "You make a better door than a window. Move your ass!"

    On the up side, I learned to work the tube tester at the drug store and went on to have a career in electronics before it got moved to Taiwan.

    --

    Warning: This signature may offend some viewers.

  20. No by AndyKron · · Score: 1

    I was a teenager when the MIT Altair 8800 came out, so no shared computer.

  21. Yes...ancient by 110010001000 · · Score: 1, Funny

    I still remember our first computer. Core Duo with DSL. Only 2GB of RAM. Didn't even have a SSD. Pathetic.

    1. Re:Yes...ancient by Scarletdown · · Score: 1

      The few remaining '99ers would like to have a few words with you...

      --
      This space unintentionally left blank.
  22. Re:Phone? PARTY LINE!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Farm kid, did not have a shared family phone LINE until '68 Before that we were the 6 ring pattern. My neighbor was 5.

    Shared computer? No. Mine. Built by wire wrapping IC together and $400 Z-80A 4Mhz. Switches and LED. Buuld my own hex display panel and keypad. Later added burned out HP keyboard - the system key was stuck... drilled it out. And using "TV Video Cookbok" added a 24x80 screen. All code was hand entered. You learn ASM to Hex conversion in your head. That was REAL programming. Later IBM XT, then got wife 486dx33 4MB and the network started.

  23. no family not allowed to put filthy mitts on it by iggymanz · · Score: 1

    My SWTP 6800 was for myself alone. Ditto the Capital E 286 that came after it. And the NeXTStation after that....

  24. Re:Yes, and it was so gross by Scarletdown · · Score: 1

    You try telling the kids that these days, and they'll never believe you.

    --
    This space unintentionally left blank.
  25. Arpanet, Usenet, Internet by Old-Claimjumper · · Score: 2

    Leaving work systems out of it,
    First home computer was my PDP-11/73 running BSD Unix 2.8/2.9. Dialup on a 1200 Baud modem and could connect through the TAC to the arpanet for FTP and telnet access. Never did configure email. This was shared between my wife and me. Then came usenet with UUCP. Now I had email and bunches of newsgroups on netnews and easy connection to the university's Vax. Finally, TCP/IP came along and the 11/73 gave way to a sequence of Intel PCs running Windows initially and then Linux as it became available. By then we had multiple PCs, one for each family member sharing the now-56Kbaud modem through my machine. There were a few moves into Windows for example as the youngster seemed to need something special for school. But Linux/Unix has always done what I need better than the offerings from microsoft. So now I am posting from a Fedora-based system running on Intel. A low-power system does gatewaying, local DNS, firewalling, etc through the DSL line for a variety of desktops, laptops, Ipads, Rasberry Pi's for playing...

    I wonder what I will be running tomorrow?

  26. Are you asking if we were rich? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Do you know what a computer costed, back then?
    There where periphery devices in the four figures range!

    You more likely had more than one car, than you had more than one computer!

    What's the point of this stupid article anyway? Pure nostalgia? Because that's so fashionable with the loser hipstards nowadays?

    1. Re:Are you asking if we were rich? by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      That's one of the reasons I wanted a TRS-80 when it came out. The was only $500. Still a small fortune but at least it was in sight.

  27. I feel old. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Wow I feel old. I had two Televideo 910 terminals given to me when I was a kid. I had a Tandy 6000 M68K based machine running Xenix (yes, Xenix, on an M68K) and I used short-haul modems to get the terminals in the house to work on my Tandy 6000. You could log in to the Xenix box from the console or either of the terminals.

    A screensaver you say? I guess I could have hacked up something when cat'ed to the tty produced some ASCII art. Just get off my lawn.

  28. Pc junior by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Pc junior baby! Kings quest! Also IBMs bbs shareware ftw!

  29. Timex, Commodore, PC by JaxDefore · · Score: 1

    I have 3 brothers. Our dad got a little timex that we all messed around with - stored everything on audio cassettes (which he likely found funny because he had a bunch of old computer tape reels from work that we used the cases to store hot wheels and such in). Not too long after we had a commodore 64 which was incredibly awesome. We programmed (really) basic BASIC stuff on that (and played a lot of games). Then we finally got a PC - the first of which was "dad's" but we could use it. I clearly recall installing doom2 on it - and having to uninstall it each time - because 15 MB was too much space to take up. That was followed by the specifically "family" pc that sat in the most public spot possible and was to be shared by all with "homework" always having priority.

  30. Re:Phone? PARTY LINE!! by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    Copy con program.exe

    Enter the bytes with Alt-keypad.

    Klingon coding.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  31. It was a point of contention... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Back in 2003 I installed Linux on the family PC. I was 14 years old at the time and my 12 year old sister damn near had a mental breakdown because the MSN Messenger client looked different and she couldn't post the same stickers or emojis as her friends. I had to explain to my parents that I was just trying to learn more about computers and not trying to destroy my sisters social life.

    These days I've got a decent paying IT job and my sister doesn't do much except wallow in misery about her life peaking in high school.

    1. Re:It was a point of contention... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Funny..... Apparently my life peaked in college back when I was earning computer science degrees and I was still naive enough to believe the blatant lies of liars like you who claim that IT jobs exist in the real world. You are a liar. I earned my computer science degrees and I made my contributions to open source and I continue to keep my skills up to this day and out here in the real world I still do not have an IT job. You are a liar.

      I could give you the benefit of the doubt and say maybe because your family was filthy rich enough to own a computer when you were growing up that is why you got the IT job and I got nothing. I am not going to give you the benefit of the doubt. I am calling you a liar.

    2. Re:It was a point of contention... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds more like its your attitude except i highly suspect that you are a troll

  32. Re:Yes, and it was so gross by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    Too soon. You were supposed to top it with a story of sitting in Mom's puddles and returning her massive and diverse toys to their storage boxes.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  33. This place is full of millenials by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Good grief no..

    I bought my first computer when I had just barely graduated from college. (TRS-80 model I) No one else in my family even knew how to turn it on or what to do with it. My nephew came over and wrote a "game" - i.e. a random number generator that determined whether you survived a WWII bombing mission. Now he is a System Admin for a hospital and still can't program his way out of a paper bag - er - wet paper bag with a sharp knife.

    My son had his own computer since we decided to use my bonus money to buy a off brand 486 box, he inherited my 286. Once he got enough money he bought all the components and has built out several fire breathing monsters that leave my boxes, seven of them, in the dust. (He is a artist/trouble shooter for a game company).

    I still have the TRS-80 model I with its monitor, expansion box and a "flippy" drive out in the garage.

    1. Re:This place is full of millenials by coofercat · · Score: 1

      Yeah, TRS-80 here too. Then replaced with an Acorn BBC B (then a Master, but by then everyone else had given up on it by then, and so it was as good as just mine).

    2. Re:This place is full of millenials by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My first was the TRS-80 Model I also. :-) Although I was a bit younger than you; still in middle school at the time. Technically, it was a "shared family computer", but in practice it ended up being "mine" because Dad really didn't use it for much (I think he just kind of lost interest in it, although I'm not sure why), and Mom had no interest in it to begin with.

  34. Family Sharing is Caring... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, we did have a shared computer, but it was annoying to due to the fact my dad liked cream-pie threesome porn, mom enjoyed BBC, sis preferred gonzo Double Penetration stuff, and I was more into your standard black midget genre. But you know what they say, the family that snacks together jacks together.

  35. No, I had my own by filesiteguy · · Score: 2

    My TRS-80 model I was in my room. I spent hours learning to program on it and playing games before the Apple II came out. That had a modem and I was able to connect to BBSs and Compuserve. Then I went downhill.

    --
    The Kai's Semi-Updated Website Thingy
  36. Both by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    We started with a shared computer, but when I discovered BBSes and became a total addict, I got my own so the rest of the family could play Where in the World is Carmen San Diego unmolested.

    When I had the 4th phone line installed my parents started to worry...

  37. Asks IT forum if they had a computer? by Peter+P+Peters · · Score: 2

    WTF is this Cosmo magazine? Is it a homework assignment?
    This place is going to shit....

    1. Re:Asks IT forum if they had a computer? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      WTF is this Cosmo magazine? Is it a homework assignment?

      This place is going to shit....

      Slashdot used to advertise subscriptions to Cosmo, Redbook, & other tomes-of-trash on every article page. It was nasty.

  38. I love that BBSes are still mentioned by EmagGeek · · Score: 5, Informative

    I ran a large BBS in upstate New York with tons of door games, file areas, message boards, and FIDOnet. It all started with our Tandy 1000 PC that had two floppy drives and no hard drive. In 1988 I managed to trade some stuff I had for an ENORMOUS hard drive - 40 MEGAbytes, that miraculously worked in the Tandy. IIRC it was a Miniscribe 8450. The actuator made the coolest sounds.

    g=c800:5 and a few keystrokes later, I had space for my first BBS. I ran a piece of software called Phoenix RCS at first, but transitioned to WWIV later as the BBS grew. I ended up on Wildcat, because all the BBSes in that time ended up on Wildcat. I had 4 incoming lines at the height of it all in 1989, but pared it back to two as the 90s rolled around and BBSes started falling off in popularity. I finally pulled the plug in 1994 when I was only getting a few calls per day and there was clearly no more interest in BBSing in the area.

    I often think about setting up a terminal BBS again, but it's just not the same without... that sounds.... screeeeeeeeeeeee .. beeeeeee .ksshhhhhhhhhh... CONNECT 2400

    Those were an incredibly fun and enriching 6 years though, and I met some of the coolest people. I will always have fond memories of growing up in the BBS age. You young whipper snappers are really missing out on the earliest dawn of the age of communication and data. I would encourage you to see the BBS documentary. It's a great watch.

    I hope this has been a fun, reminiscent story for a lot of you slashdotters. Take care.

    NO CARRIER

    1. Re:I love that BBSes are still mentioned by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are still BBSes you can telnet/ssh to these days. No more of the modem sounds though

    2. Re:I love that BBSes are still mentioned by Strider- · · Score: 1

      Fond memories of operating my own bbs for 5 years as well. That said I went to a couple of the local Sysop meets and let's just say that... Well... Hygiene wasn't always the top priority.

      --
      ...si hoc legere nimium eruditionis habes...
    3. Re: I love that BBSes are still mentioned by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah but what's the point, other than nostalgia? The goodness of BBSs was not its format, it's how you could connect to other people in a way that you couldn't otherwise. That isn't true anymore.

    4. Re:I love that BBSes are still mentioned by vampyretech · · Score: 1

      I ended up on Wildcat, because all the BBSes in that time ended up on Wildcat.

      My Renegade BBS software would like to have a word with you...

    5. Re:I love that BBSes are still mentioned by EmagGeek · · Score: 1

      Sorry I meant to say "in that area," not "in that time." I was a frequenter of a couple of Renegade BBSes and I liked them a lot!

  39. Shared computer pif by BrookSmith · · Score: 1

    Shared computer pif, my mum has a saying "first up, best dressed"

  40. Packard Bell Navigator by Monster_user · · Score: 2

    Yep. First family computer was a Packard Bell, it came with the Packard Bell Navigator GUI. I remember playing Chex Quest on it. A few years later I got my own personal computer, a used IBM of some sort, running Windows 95 if I remember correctly. Some time after that I got my first Macintosh. At one point I had a PC running Linux, a PC running Windows, and a Macintosh running side by side. I think that was around the time I got a Diamond Monster 3D II branded, 3DFX Voodoo 2 graphics card.

    1. Re:Packard Bell Navigator by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      My first PC was an Amstrad PC1512. It was a deluxe model with 640k RAM and a 20MB hard drive, as well as a 5.25" floppy.

      It dual booted DOS 3.3 and DOSPLUS. It also had the GEM windowing system with a rather slow but fun version of BASIC by Locomotive software.

      The first Voodoo card I owned was a Voodoo 3 which went in my Amiga that had been upgraded with a Mediator PCI backplane.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  41. Umm,no. by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 2

    When I was growing, up?

    I was grown up and going to college before the first PC saw the light of day.

    I did share a comp with my wife after college, for a few years.

    --

    "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    1. Re:Umm,no. by Oligonicella · · Score: 1

      Right? It's like younger people can't think past their own "youth". I was around before them too. I built my first from a kit.

    2. Re:Umm,no. by MikeS2k · · Score: 1

      Lots of oldies on Slashdot still. :-)
      I am from the "Era" when people had just 1 shared family PC, connected to a dial-up phone line. I am 32 and don't consider myself particularly old. I have been reading Slashdot since about 2001 so I remember all the oldies talking about programming old mainframes, building hobby computers, getting their first AT PC etc.
      My first PC was a Cyrix M2 300 which makes me a virtual newcomer, or so I thought.

      --
      120 characters should be enough for anybody
    3. Re:Umm,no. by Serif · · Score: 1

      I used plenty of shared computers at college / university prior to owning one. My first shared family computer was an i486 box running Linux that I put together and hooked up to a couple of VT100 style terminals (green on black FTW), one for my wife and one for me. So shared in the sense of multiuser time sharing.

      --
      I ain't dead yet.

  42. and yes, we still do by qinglong · · Score: 1

    my family pc is at the living room, right beside the tv so that everyone knows what everybody is doing with it. helps to keep some filth off the net, but great too when you see my son doing stupid things in fortnite.

  43. An IBM 5100 For The Weekend by that+this+is+not+und · · Score: 1

    When I was growing up, a useful 'home computer' was not something that existed. But my father worked for IBM. I was in high school in the late 70's and on a number of occasions dad brought home an IBM 5100 for us to play with. The 5100 was a portable computer that had BASIC and APL built into it. There was a toggle switch on the front and you could switch it from BASIC to APL before powering it on to have it be a machine running either language. It had tape cartrige mass storage.

    We played 'Star Trek' on it among other things. It was definitely a family experience.

    Incidentally (or not) the first IBM PC was designated the Model 5150.

  44. Acoustic coupler by AHuxley · · Score: 1

    With a message from the UK, one word at a time slowly displaying on a CRT.

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  45. Hahahaha by linuxwrangler · · Score: 1

    What a relatively recent first-world "problem".

    I had a shared slide-rule. Literally. Till I got my own. https://www.flickr.com/photos/...

    Then I advanced to programmable calculators and punch cards.

    Seriously, where do these pundits come from?

    --

    ~~~~~~~
    "You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
  46. Re:Remember the shared family TV? by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

    I can remember the shared family tv, its the one in the living room, where the family still watch tv together at times.

    For some it's still not completely gone, but nearly. Lifestyle changes, everybody has their own schedule, technology changed, network TV is fading fast. The living room itself is fading out as real estate continues to outpace wages. Today the biggest screen in the house (for those fortunate enough to have one) is in the family room, not the living room, and most probably spends more time running console games than network TV. Couples watch TV together, sometimes, maybe. Everybody else splits up and does their own thing.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  47. No by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The only computer available when I was growing up was a Chinese calculator.

  48. Is there a name for...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You creeps, many families still use shared computers. What world do you thing you live in?

  49. Famicom by tepples · · Score: 1

    Does Pong count?!?

    No, but a Family Computer does. (In the west, it was called the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES for short.)

  50. Re: Obama messiah? Has nothing on Trump treason by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Hash tags on Slashdot is a war crime.

    You get to spend life in prison with Trump. But since you're obviously in love with him it is a happy ending.

  51. No. by Lord+Kano · · Score: 1

    I was the only one in my family who ever used the computer. It was mine.

    LK

    --
    "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    1. Re:No. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was like Ferris, my parents bought me a computer, back in 1982, didn't have to share it much and by the time it was an issue for my brother we'd got a collection of computers, along with all our other close/immediate friends, and having an engineering leaning I was the one buying parts, soldering, repairing and upgrading things.

      The family computer is an alien concept for me

    2. Re:No. by Lord+Kano · · Score: 1

      I got mine back in the summer of 1983.

      I was the only one who used it. When I got my next computer in 1990, I was the only one who used it. When I was an adult, I had my own computers. My children have a bank of family computers to use. They have their own accounts but I'm the admin and I respect their privacy unless they give me a reason not to.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
  52. Re:Orwellian GARBAGE... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There is no such thing as "alpha", "beta", or any other Greek letter in human societies. It's not even all that applicable to wolves. The entire purpose of alpha/beta is to make you disaffected. You can't fake actual wealth or status, and can't fool people into thinking that they're wealthy, respected, or influential. You can tell them they're an "alpha male" though, and they'll either worry that they're not, or be upset that society doesn't recognize their worth, or both. Once they have you hating yourself and everyone around you, you're anyone's tool.

    Have fun with the cognitive dissonance, "alpha".

  53. Yes and no by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We did in the late 80s (I was too young to use it then) and early 90s. We didn't have Internet until the mid 90s and I wasn't allowed on that until the late 90s by which point I had my own computer in my room.

    I'm glad for it. I enjoyed programming in high school and I don't think I could have gotten into it the way I did if I didn't have my own private screen time.

    I think the author of this romanticized the shared computer a bit more than it deserved.

  54. Family computer when I was growing up? by Mike+Van+Pelt · · Score: 1

    Seriously? The IBM 360/50 mainframe was introduced when I was 10. A computer that a family might own wasn't a thing until I was out of college, or almost out.

  55. Re: Phone? PARTY LINE!! by sg_oneill · · Score: 1

    I remember my uncle and his Altair. Apparently it was fairly common with the computer students (at the time considered a stream within the maths program) to build their own. Later he got an Apple II and a year or two later my folks got an Amstrad (English competitor to the Apple II and C64)

    --
    Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
  56. No. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Altairs were't even available until I was in college.

    We were a multi-computer household by the time the kids were born. They had to share one.

  57. Chinese Calculator by fibonacci8 · · Score: 1

    One of these perhaps?

    --
    Inheritance is the sincerest form of nepotism.
  58. Three Generations by Akili · · Score: 1

    The first family computer I can recall was a TI 99-4a, but I was perhaps five years old and I really only knew about the cartridge games. TI Invaders, Early Learning Fun, a racecar game, and maybe one or two others. My older brother using the ROM BASIC to prompt me to type in my name, and then to print my name over and over again was something I still remember feeling astonished about. Ahh, the days of 40 GOTO 20 loops...

    My elementary school had TRS-80s, and I don't remember much except we played boring math games on them, and we were warned to never ever press the orange button.

    Later on we upgraded to the Apple IIgs (after the school got a set of Apple IIe systems, no coincidence there), which was a beautiful little system for its time. We even had the color dot-matrix Imagewriter II printer, and we printed our own birthday and holiday cards, and even some family newsletters. I had a pretty decent set of software, and it got a lot of use. We were all very disappointed that the hardware line was discontinued not even a year after our investment, but it meant we were soon able to get a lot of discounted software that was pretty decent. Space Quest I & II, The Print Shop, The Newsroom, Silpheed, Kings Quest 3, Wings of Fury, Pinball/Adventure/Music Construction Set, Final Assault (there's an easter egg in there for a unique sound track I've never found on Youtube), so many others I'm forgetting....

    The next family PC was a Packard Bell 386SX in the early 90s, my entry into the MS-DOS world and away from Apple. That's the time when I first used BBSes, then Prodigy, and eventually Internet access between that and the Pentium 133 we got several years later. They were always situated in the shared room, though once we got the Pentium system I was allowed to have the 386 in my bedroom. Not that I could really get up to much mischief; a 130MB hard drive 1MB of RAM, a hand-me-down 9600-baud modem, and its inability to even play MP3s severely curtailed what I could do on it. I remember the sales guy saying we'd never fill up 130MB. Took me about a year. That OS got trashed and rebuilt more times than I can count, but the original HD never failed until I was done with the desktop for good.

    But its limited capabilities in no way prevented me from long nights spent MUCKing into my high school years, after I bought and paid for my own second phone line.... I wish we had kept the Apple IIgs in the family, though. Even now there are songs and sounds from games and such that I miss, and emulators don't do it justice to my memory.

  59. No. My family didn't have a computer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No. My family didn't have a computer.

    We shared a calculator for 5 kids.
    We had 1 color TV.
    There were 2 corded phones in the house - kitchen and parent's bedroom.

    After I graduated college, got a real job and worked for a year, I bought a computer. I was a computer programmer at work, BTW.

    For my kids, we put a computer in the den to be shared. I filtered everything based on the age of our oldest kid. The computer had a whitelist of internet sites until she was 11. Had to put in a squid proxy to perform proper filtering, eventually when I had to allow the full internet. My kids hated me, I suppose. OTOH, they had limits and knew we cared about them and what they could see at home.

  60. Yup, sure did... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow, bit late with this, read this article several days ago. A few years ago read another article basically recommending to keep a single shared PC somewhere out in the open like the kitchen or family room to keep the kiddies on the straight and narrow. Like many of you I started with a C64, and many years later a clone PC (either Citrix or VIA can't remember) 386 DX with 1MB RAM that was over $2K when we bought it. The Altair predates me by just a few years so I never had one. We kept the Commodore in my parents bedroom for years as it was the only other TV; later moving to the living room and its final resting place was my bedroom after we got the PC. PC stayed in the laundry room off of the kitchen for years before we moved to a larger home and it got its own room off of the kitchen and we called it the computer room. It was shared then, and my own kids and wife also have a shared PC in our dining room. It doesn't get as much use due to the kids having tablets and phones and wife has her own laptop. But I still remember those days on dial up when I had a program that would allow calls to come through without disturbing the connection; but I can't remember the name of the service, but it was a godsend. And of coz getright to resume downloads at any time. I still remember when I first connected to a BBS; and later found out the operator lived a few doors down and we became fast friends even though we were 20 years in age difference. He hooked me up with PCTools, 4MB of RAM @ nearly a quarter of what they were worth at the time, and countless other gold mines to my childhood mind. I also remember signing up under a fake account to his BBS to leech adult content like Bar Games and some horribly dithered 256 color GIF scans of playboy centerfolds. And those nights I snuck down into the laundry room to play my dad's Strip Poker 3 game. This pales in comparison to what can be seen online now, but still a strong case to keep a shared PC somewhere open in the home. My gaming rig is connected to the living room TV and doubles as a DVR, and I use my laptop as the command and remote control for all devices. Thanks for the nostalgia guys!

  61. Sure did by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Had a shared computer from...1998 to 2012. Grand total of 3 computers. An old Compaq, a Dell Inspiron, and a Gateway. Then I started doing custom builds for myself and my family either got their own desktop or laptop(s). Then I forced them onto Linux. Except one who games

  62. Re:Yes, and it was so gross by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's because you didn't fulfill your duty to let him shoot his load inside you, like any good daughter would.

  63. Had my own by prefec2 · · Score: 1

    Starting with an Amstrad CPC 464 and later a PC, I always had my own. The family however bought one long after I had the PC. For the my PC, I organized to get s modem to connect to mailboxes. Yes, no internet then. It was in the mid to late 1980s.

    Oh jikes grandpa is talking about the war.

  64. Computer? by ContextSwitch · · Score: 1

    Ha, not only did we not have a computer we didn't have a phone!

  65. Re:Remember the shared family TV? by Cederic · · Score: 1

    The living room itself is fading out as real estate continues to outpace wages. Today the biggest screen in the house (for those fortunate enough to have one) is in the family room, not the living room

    What the fuck? Growing up we had the living room and bedrooms, unless you wanted to gather around the kitchen table. Which wasn't big enough for four people.

    Even now I have one room downstairs and bedrooms/bathroom upstairs.

    Yeah, fucking terrible the living conditions today.

  66. Shortage economy - shared everything by kosmosik · · Score: 1

    I am living in Poland. Back in the 80s there was a constant economical crisis in entire Soviet block Poland included. In shortage economy people needed to manage somehow and we shared everything. I remember people tend to borrow from each other everything from sporting goods (like skis, camping equipment). This lasted some time after the system changed to capitalism. The first capitalist decade was really hard on people and the habits lasted.

    Computers like anything else were also shared.

    I remember briefly having an ZX Spectrum borrowed for fun in mid-80s. Then having Amstrad computer with green mono monitor and 70KB (??) floppy drive (!!!) borrowed from neighbor in exchange for my fathers car trailer (IIRC). Then Commodore 64 which we owned and played after school with school friends. Then we got an PC AT clone which I borrowed for few weeks to a relative who was writing a thesis and needed to use decent computer with word processor. I recall we used TAG editor country wide then mainly because it supported Polish punctation correctly. Then in mid 90s I remember that we use to gather all the RAM dices from friends in the neighborhood in order to put together a skateboarding zine (lizg) to pring. We needed the RAM to be able to load the DTP projects and standard single computer didn't ever have enough ram. IIRC 32MB was a standard then and some projects required 128MB or more.

    Ah, that were the times...

    Coming back to topic I think the real sharing (like multi generation) started when Polish market got flooded with cheap Famicon/NES clones and carts...

  67. Re:Remember the shared family TV? by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

    You're old now and out of touch with post millennial reality. That livingroom/diningroom/familyroom/yard with lawn and a dog thing belongs to baby boomers.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  68. Re:Remember the shared family TV? by Cederic · · Score: 1

    That's my point. My parents were baby boomers and didn't have the vast acreage in the house either.

  69. No homework for us by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In France doing homework on a computer was unheard of so sadly we never got to write stuff on the PC. I would have liked using MS Write for this.
    Late 90s we ended getting a printer, color injket. We toyed with it a bit, Print Artist 4 was bundled with it and was nice actually. Then the day we needed it for something the printer didn't work because inkjets dry out and become unusable in a few months.
    Much later I ended up with a dot matrix printer (the official IBM one), it was laughable old tech already but I liked how it worked first time with no driver and after a decade sitting in an unknown basement somewhere. But the continuous paper I had was some weird format, fairly large, not the A4 standard. It probably went to the trash.
    Amazingly it could print graphics (five minutes of screeching). Would have liked one in A4 (plus the holed strips on the sides)

  70. Re:Remember the shared family TV? by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

    Right. It's been like that in Europe since forever, America is just catching up.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  71. Re:Remember the shared family TV? by Calydor · · Score: 1

    If you don't mind me asking as a non-native English speaker, what the hell is the difference between a living room and a family room?

    --
    -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
  72. Re:Remember the shared family TV? by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

    Living room - adjoins kitchen and/or dining room, usually on upper floor of a two floor home, formal furniture, where guests are entertained. Family room (or rec room) - opposite end of house from living room/dining room/kitchen, lower floor of a two floor home, informal furniture, where the kids play. Suburban life.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  73. IBM Aptiva by sysadmindy · · Score: 0

    Now there's a blast from the past!

  74. Until I diy'd my own by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My first machine was a luggable, which was ancient, and had only business software. My aunt scored it, the bank she worked at threw it out. With only an obsolete 320k drive, there was no software for it. Did play around with basic a bit, but soon Dad got a 386 from work. Being a work asset, i was allowed to use it, but expressly forbidden to fiddle, as i was forever making things go sproing. Pain of death if i broke it. It did have Microsoft entertainment pack, and an assortment of apogee classics, which i beat several times. When that was replaced with a p100, same rules applied. It was a fun thing to play with, but I wasnt really able to get into the nerdery of it. Any time it went funny, i was blamed. That lived in the formal dining room, which was never used as such, mainly where dad built models, but was off the main part of the house.

    Then I read a series of articles in Electronics Australia, describing in detail how to build a low-teir (the $100 pc) machine by scrimping and searching etc. Described all the components, how it fitted together, potential gotchas, suppliers, all that. Well, that was that, the quest was on. Scrounged from families n their employers, the tip, spent every cent at the computer shops (never new, haggling for second hand stuff). First boot was a 486sx-25,4mb ram n 300mb hdd, and prime position in my bedroom. Eventually was a dx4-100, 16mb ram, n gigs of hdd.

    Still kinda used the other machine tho, made a serial cable for multiplayer Warcraft. Parents thought it very weird mates would come over after school, then we would sit alone, occasionally yelling abuse at each other. By highschool tho, that room was a semi-permanent LAN party room, its own switch, most of the powerboards n extension leads in the house, a thick blanket over the nice table and Parents who understood the fun we were having, and its importance to our social system.

    Using a shared pc severely limited computing as a hobby, and the quest for my own was formative.

  75. I came from the time period, but... by fedos · · Score: 1

    I had my own computer. I lived with my grandparents, who had no interest, and I bought the computer with money I saved up from working an after school job.

  76. Um by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

    Um, we still have one now.

    Well, OK, my wife has her own laptop. But we have a shared family computer, and the kids don't have phones.

  77. My very own HDD by gregmonkey · · Score: 1

    I shared a family computer starting with an old Zenith eZ-PC. At tax time we were never allowed to use the PC since the computer room was dad's domain and you did not want to breath on anything in that room at that time. Thats right the computer had its own room. I didn't but the computer did. Once we had gone through a few upgrades and I still couldn't afford my own computer I went our and bought a set of removable hard drive chassis and my own hard drive. Still had to share the rest of the hardware but the data was mine.

  78. Re:Remember the shared family TV? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Darling, please don't bother me with this plebeian talk. Living room, family room. Just pick a room. We have plenty spare after all.

    Who the fsck are you and where did you grow up? Living room - that place where the TV was. Family room, what other families called the living room.

    Also, couch/davenport/sofa = same thing. Loveseat= small couch.

  79. Early 80s, timeshared on microcomputers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My family couldn't afford a computer. Or a VCR. I saved up but couldn't afford them either (from a paper route.)

    In 1982 - 83 I grabbed any free time I could on my high school's TRS-80, Apple IIc, and Atari 800's. I learned basic and turbo pascal. Partly during actual computer science classes and partly just in free time. I had a box of 5 1/4" floppies for each of them.

    That lab also had a modem coupler which connected to the University of Manitoba mainframe. (I don't know what kind.) It output using an 80 line per second wide printer and had a punch card reader. That was considered "old" in 1983, but we trained on it.

    I didn't own my own computer until 1997. It was an old Mac Quadra.

  80. Are you kidding? by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 1

    I didn't even have an abacus when I was growing up!

    --
    Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
  81. Big Sister's Room? by skam240 · · Score: 1

    ""I can still see the Dell I grew up using as clear as day, like I just connected to NetZero yesterday. It sat in my eldest sister's room, which was just off the kitchen. "

    What a terrible place for a computer. How is anyone supposed to get any masturbation done with it when it is so close to the kitchen and in a siblings room?

    --
    I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
  82. Shared Radio by RNLockwood · · Score: 1

    My family had a shared radio and a shared phone and at one place where we lived the phone was shared by a neighbor. I built a crystal radio when I was 11 but didn't use it much. I think I was 14 when we bought a television which of course, was shared. IIRC we were able to receive 3 stations. When I 19 I bought a new-fangled transistor radio so no longer had to share the family radio but by then I was in University and not home. a few decades later, around 1996 when I was married, we bought a family computer and by 2005 or so each of us had our own computer.

    --
    Nate
  83. I didn't even have a family, nevermind a computer, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    you insensitive clod.

  84. I am the reason we have computers in public school by greythax · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not trying to pull an Al Gore here, but if it were not for my 7th grade computer literacy teacher, and our brief introduction to BASIC on a trs-80, I am not sure what my life would be like today. I came from a food insecure household, and rarely owned more than 3 pairs of pants and 3 shirts at a time. A family computer was just out of the question. Even back then, in the mid 80s, I was keenly interested in video games, and decided I wanted to learn how to program them, so I took that first class.

    I was instantly hooked. I owe a lifelong debt to my teacher, who let me stay after school messing around writing programs while I waited on the bus (city, not school, we were using a fake residence to keep me out of the school in the bad part of town.) I decided right then and there that I needed to have one. So I scrimped and saved every penny I could get my hands on, hid them from my mom, and after 2 years I had 150 dollars, which I used to buy a used commodore 64 from a college kid without my mom's knowledge. Except for the few times it got pawned by my mom, I was on it constantly, taught myself the hardware and ml, and eventually started a career as a programmer.

    I know it's not sharing a family computer, but when I look back on it, that Jr. high class was the most important thing I ever did in my life, and I still think of that c64, which I still own, as probably my fondest possession.

    Anyway, obligatory shout out to Code.org , which hopefully is reaching kids like me every day.

  85. Atari by mchall · · Score: 1

    Atari. Of course it was shared. I had two controllers.

  86. A small window of time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That small window must have been between 1938 (when Zuse built the Z1) and 1975 (when the affordable Altair 8800 was released).

    My father bought a TV so the familiy could watch the first moon landing. Radio and phone arrived later. Then we got a Philips 'computer' for pong and 3 other games - but it did not last long. The Internet was started in 1969, but students did not get access when I went to college.

  87. I had my own in my bedroom by EdwardFurlong · · Score: 1

    As a teen in 1998, I paid for it myself, my parents had no interest in computers. Everyone else I knew had a family computer in a shared room.

  88. YEP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My dad used it for porn as soon as he discovered it was an internet thing. I remember him trying to download a single picture for like 1 hour, as we had 14k baud modem or something like that. It would come in 1 line at a time. IIRC it was a Radio Shack-branded PC with a 486/25 and 4MB of RAM and Windows 3.11. When Doom came out I was barely able to play it. then when Doom II was out, I had to upgrade the RAM and buy a Soundblaster card. Oh and we had AOL If someone picked up the house phone, it killed your internet, and you ended up with a permanently half-naked chick on the screen.

  89. Yes by sheph · · Score: 1

    It was a TI 99/4A. Long before the internet.

    --
    I don't believe in karma, I just call it like I see it.
  90. No didn't have a computer growing up by Mister+Null · · Score: 1

    When I was growing up my father worked with programmers on computers the size of large rooms. I built my own H-89 (remember Heathkit?) so I guess my kids were the first generation to have a family computer.

  91. Nostalgia ain't what it used to be by TJHook3r · · Score: 1

    I can understand pining for a particular device but pining for the general crapness of not having a device each??!!! I was hoping there might at least be some 'sharing' in the sense of a shared experience, but no, each family member used it in isolation. At least families 'shared' a Nintendo - write about that ffs!

  92. Re: Obama messiah? Has nothing on Trump treason by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Lighten up Francis

  93. Technically Yes, But Not For Long by Doc+Right · · Score: 0

    Several family computers came and went in my youth. Your standard TI/99a and C64 types. But once we got a PC, I dusted off an old 1200 baud modem someone had given us and found some local BBS numbers. It wasn't long after that people were giving me old parts and my own personal PC took shape. I like to say my desktop today started it's life as a Zenith Data Systems 8088. Just made upgrades and upgrades and upgrades over the years. In short time, that 8088 was back together and sold to someone whose sister was planning to buy a word processor, for less than she'd have spent on it. Which allowed me to buy better parts for the then completed 286 that replaced it. IIRC I managed to cram 2MB of memory chips into that 286, found a 286 driver for it (EMM286), coprocessor, and a way too big 250mb hard drive I had to use software to run because that size of a drive was way more than the BIOS could handle. Ran a nighttime BBS myself on that old rig. Those were the days.

  94. Computer? by dave-man · · Score: 1

    When I hit junior high I had a Model 33 teletype with a 75 bps acoustic coupler modem. The upgrade to 300 bps was nirvana. I had dial-up to the local high school and to a local Navy installation I talked my way into an account with so I could get to what eventually became Arpanet.

    Shared? No.

    --
    Bill Gates is a communist -- he's just more equal than the rest of us.
  95. Re:Obama messiah? Has nothing on Trump treason by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The UK government has no credibility, you might as well ask Hitler who attacked first, Germany or Poland.
    Are you a troll for the Deep State?

  96. pre-telecom childhood by eionmac · · Score: 1

    1. our town had about 5 telephones in red boxes for the total town in my childhood.
    No phones in houses (some posh shops had one).
    Postal mail or a person carrying a message was communications.

    --
    Regards Eion MacDonald
  97. Re:Yes, and it was so gross by Scarletdown · · Score: 1

    My Yorkshire Mana had not yet recharged significantly when I had to burn it all in a recent FaceBook discussion where one spoke of having to walk barefoot in the snow to school.

    He was lucky to have feet. We had to walk on our stumps.

    One like that requires a longer recharge before firing off another. :D

    At least, that's my excuse. At least so far, no one from The Yard has come barging in to force an ending.

    --
    This space unintentionally left blank.
  98. It all Started with IBM by Zeekort · · Score: 1

    We ended up with IBM computers that were hand me downs from friends of the family who were IBM'rs and got them when IBM was throwing them out. We went through several PS/2 models and had an IBM dot matrix printer to go with them. Eventually the family started buying PCs from various brands. I didn't have a computer to myself until I was in high school and it was one I had rebuilt from spare parts we had from previous family computers. It didn't last very long though. The monitor blew and stunk up my bedroom for over a week. The family computer was always outdated, but it was a great teaching tool for keeping it running for the family. It was thanks to that and learning what it means to have others depend on me keeping it running that I learned a bit about the joy and frustrations of IT work when I was younger.

  99. Re:Remember the shared family TV? by sh00z · · Score: 1

    Buying a house now, and this outdated paradigm is driving me nuts. Found a house in a great neighborhood, no back neighbors. Square footage seemed about right, until I saw it in person. Separate formal "parlor" living room, "family" room, and a "tv" room. ARGH! Just put that all together!

  100. Thank God, no by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When I got my TI 99/4a as a hand-me-down for my birthday way back in 1986, I spent hours upon hours learning Basic on it, pouring over the big 3 ring binder full of example programs and modifying them to see the different things I can make them do.

      Imagine if I had to share it with my Nintendo-hog sister. :|

      Sorry folks, sharing is NOT caring.

  101. g=c800:5 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    IIRC that loaded the low-level drive format program stored in an MFM drive's controller card, and this was issued from the dos DEBUG command.

      One of my old hand me down computers had a 30 megabyte half height MFM drive drive in it.