jfweber@bellsouth.net wrote:
Late?? not really, *old* cp/m -> dos -> os/2 -> linux
yeah, my path w/ the little boxes , as well. Did you ever get to play w/ the big iron? <G> It still amazes me that people insist there was no "internet" before Berners-Lee invented the weg organization of it... <Sigh>
( not to in anyway denigrate that gentleman's contribution, we would very likely still be a small community of geeks rather than the current world wide conglomerate of computer users. Even some few w/ real knowledge of the power we weild. <g>)
My path in the PC world, was DOS > OS/2 > Linux, with some Windows on the side. However, long before I ever touched DOS, I had my first computer, an IMSAI 8080 and also serviced various minicomputers, including Data General Nova & Eclipse, DEC PDP8, PDP-11 & VAX 11/780 among others, so I was playing with VAX/VMS, before I ever touched DOS. I even worked on the systems, that employed the 1st LAN technology. I also used to service some Collins 8500C computers, which had a LAN, but instead of packets, like ethernet, it used time slots on the cable. If a device wanted to send, it would reserve its' time slot to transmit. There were 2 speeds used. The "TDX" loop ran at 8 Mb and the "TDM" loop at 2. The TDX loop was used for things like disk and tape drives, while the printer and card punch & reader were on the TDM loop etc. The loops were constructed of triaxial cable for the TDX loop and coax on the TDM. They were configured as rings.