thelinuxlink.net

Good read regarding the rise & fall of Commodore computers:
http://braeburn.ath.cx/modules.php?op=m ... =0&thold=0

I started on Commodores: Vic-20, C64, Amiga

What a shame they couldn't keep it going.

Some more interesting reading on the subject.

First PC I ever used was a Commodore PET. Later, my parents bought me my own C64.

The first Unix i ever used was called Ace and ran om a C-128. It was just a command line experimental thing but was the fastest thing I ever saw run on a C=.

Judland wrote:Some more interesting reading on the subject.

First PC I ever used was a Commodore PET. Later, my parents bought me my own C64.

The first I ever used was a TRS-80 Model I with 16K of memory. We had a TRS-80 Model III with 48K (!!) of memory and a built in floppy drive at my High School.

I later bought my own C-64 with paper route money. It was the bomb! I learned machine language and BASIC on it. I even took it to college and did word processing with it.

I could never understand why Commodore seemed to work so hard to sabotage their own success.

Gomer_X wrote: The first I ever used was a TRS-80 Model I with 16K of memory. We had a TRS-80 Model III with 48K (!!) of memory and a built in floppy drive at my High School.

I could never understand why Commodore seemed to work so hard to sabotage their own success.

The good old Trash-80's. My grammer school had them. Pretty crappy compared to the other machines available at the time.

My brother used to write for a Commodore magazine back in the 80's. Ahoy magazine. Supposedly Jack Trameal was the person most responsible for running that ship into the ground. They really had the edge on the competition and let it all go to hell.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

My first computer that I could call my own was an Amiga 2000HD. That computer caused me to fall in love with computers, and the interesting ways we can use them. I did simple 2D animations with the Paint program, I forget the name. I had a board in it which was really an IBM 8080 so I could open a window on the amiga and run native dos programs.

In college one time we needed to get a print out for the script of a play we were doing. It was Shakespear's "King Lear". I had typed in the edited copy on the Amiga during the summer, and when we went to put it on the school network, none of the Windows 3.1 word processors at the time could redo the formating quickly. So we hooked that old computer up to the nicest lazer printer we could find in the dorm. One guy had a HP Laserjet, and stayed up all night printing this 100+ page script. By that time the Amiga was showing its age, but it came through when the Windows 3.1 computers couldn't.

I used the Amiga until I bought a Pentium 133 with Windows 95 on it. Then I said goodbye because we were moving and didn't want to carry a bunch of stuff in our Uhaul so I set it on the back of a trailer at a recycling dump yard and never saw it again. Today, I wish I still had it so I could fire it up and remember those by gone days.

For the past 7 years I lost some of my love for computers as I continued to use Windows and find it lacking in many ways. Now for a year I've been running Linux, and have fallen in love with computing again. I don't worry about viruses and spyware. I get to do cool things again on modest hardware. It has opened up a world of possiblities again. In a lot of ways Linux reminds me of my old Amiga, which had some really cool programs and freeware too.

mowestusa

mowestusa wrote:I get to do cool things again on modest hardware. It has opened up a world of possiblities again. In a lot of ways Linux reminds me of my old Amiga, which had some really cool programs and freeware too.

A lot of people gravitate towards linux because the community is similiar to the early computer (home brew) movement. People sharing ideas and showing others what they've done. If you don't like a how program works or want to improve it you can. Most of the people who are into linux are really cool, friendly, helpful, intelligent and wanting to share ideas. Yes, there are a few elitist assholes but for the most part they are the minority.

Patrick,

Something else that reminds me of my old Amiga days is the LUG that I have joined. I live near Toledo, OH, so I joined TALUG. Currently we have a great president and we have had incredible topics each month.

We just had a well done Gentoo presentation, that has me seriously thinking about putting Gentoo on an old box that I can dedicate as my webserver (relating to my post about blogs). The guy did a great job, and he was excited about using Gentoo. One advantage over the old Amiga Computer Users Group that I had joined in college is that at TALUG most of the stuff that is presented is free and open sourse that we can download over our DSL connections and try ourselves. Our TALUG mailing list has been a great source of help too for any questions that you have.

Like I said, Linux has reignited my love for computers again. Your podcast has also done wonders too, I listen every week. If you could try to keep it some what family friendly, I would appreciate it. I would love to listen to my podcasts when taking my daughter to school in the morning, but LugRadio is out of the question, and most of the time I can put you guys on, and the new Linux User show is great for that too.

I really appreciate your dedication to the program. The forum has also been a cool spot to hang out too.

mowestusa

Patrick wrote:

Gomer_X wrote: The first I ever used was a TRS-80 Model I with 16K of memory. We had a TRS-80 Model III with 48K (!!) of memory and a built in floppy drive at my High School.

The good old Trash-80's. My grammer school had them. Pretty crappy compared to the other machines available at the time.

I remember TRS-DOS being a lot more usable than MS-DOS. The model III also had a built in machine language monitor. The 2.5Mhz Z-80 could beat the crap out of any Commodore machine at the time, and the IBM PC wasn't out yet. Forget it if you want color graphics, though.

The business machines (model II/12/16) with the big 8" floppies were pretty good, although they were never that popular. They ran TRS-DOS, Xenix or CP/M, but pretty much died when the IBM PC hit the market.

mowestusa wrote: We just had a well done Gentoo presentation, that has me seriously thinking about putting Gentoo on an old box that I can dedicate as my webserver (relating to my post about blogs).

Gentoo runs pretty well and you can make it as lean as you like. It's not my first choice. I'd go with Debian or Slackware. Try out Gentoo and see if it's for you. It's definitely not for me.

mowestusa wrote: Like I said, Linux has reignited my love for computers again. Your podcast has also done wonders too, I listen every week. If you could try to keep it some what family friendly, I would appreciate it. I would love to listen to my podcasts when taking my daughter to school in the morning, but LugRadio is out of the question, and most of the time I can put you guys on, and the new Linux User show is great for that too.

We talk like we normally do. We don't make a conscious effort to curse but the occassional f-bomb might get dropped in a heated discussion. This is especially true after consuming some fine brew. We can't make any guarantees though. Besides it's the internet not broadcast radio. Now if someone wanted to pay us and put us on the radio or satellite radio it might be different.

mowestusa wrote: I really appreciate your dedication to the program. The forum has also been a cool spot to hang out too.

Glad to hear you're enjoying the show. Will you be attending the Ohio LinuxFest? I think it's being held in Columbus sometime in October. After hearing about the Norhtwest Linuxfest we were discussing the idea of organizing a Northeast LinuxFest with Jeremy from Linuxquestions.org but no one stepped up to take the lead. It would be a major project to organize it. Maybe we can discuss it again at a later time. We're definitely looking to having a booth at next years Linux World Expo in Boston. We'll definitely discuss it in the future.

Patrick wrote:
Glad to hear you're enjoying the show. Will you be attending the Ohio LinuxFest? I think it's being held in Columbus sometime in October.

This is the first I've heard of this. A quick search pulled up this site. I'll definitely try to make it.

Names I recognize are Aaron Seigo from KDE, Jim McQuillan - LTSP and Ryan Quin - Symphony OS. Also plenty of IBM and Novell people and someone from Ubuntu and Apache. Michael Harrington from the Michigan State Police Computer Crimes Unit on digital forensics sounds interesting.

Gomer_X wrote:This is the first I've heard of this. A quick search pulled up this site. I'll definitely try to make it.

Names I recognize are Aaron Seigo from KDE, Jim McQuillan - LTSP and Ryan Quin - Symphony OS. Also plenty of IBM and Novell people and someone from Ubuntu and Apache. Michael Harrington from the Michigan State Police Computer Crimes Unit on digital forensics sounds interesting.

The forensics one does sound interesting. The linux on mainframe sounds cool too. I know Linc went to school in Columbus. I wonder if anyone is down for a road trip??

Patrick wrote:

Gomer_X wrote:This is the first I've heard of this. A quick search pulled up this site. I'll definitely try to make it.

Names I recognize are Aaron Seigo from KDE, Jim McQuillan - LTSP and Ryan Quin - Symphony OS. Also plenty of IBM and Novell people and someone from Ubuntu and Apache. Michael Harrington from the Michigan State Police Computer Crimes Unit on digital forensics sounds interesting.

The forensics one does sound interesting. The linux on mainframe sounds cool too. I know Linc went to school in Columbus. I wonder if anyone is down for a road trip??

I'll have to confirm with my wife tonight to see if she can do without me for that Saturday. I can't see her wanting to hear boring computer stuff all day. If I'm sure I'm going I'll start a separate thread and see if we can drum up a crowd to go and maybe meet there.

I've never been to Columbus but this would be about an 8 hour drive for us. A bit of a hike. A stay over would definitely be required. Let's see if anyone else is interested.

TALUG is getting a group together.

Weekends are not very free for me, and I live north of Toledo yet, so I don't think I will be making it.

Who knows if the TLLTS guys show up it might be cool to meet up there to see you guys in person.

Let us know if your coming down.

I would highly recommend the event it keeps growing every year, and the TALUG guys that went last year had wonderful things to say about it.

mowestusa