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1. More RAM Than You Can Handle
One early quote often attributed to Bill Gates is that 640KB--that's right, kilobytes--should be enough for any computer user. (He vehemently denies saying it.) We joke about it today, but in 1981 that sentiment would have made sense.
The phenomenally popular Apple II and Commodore 64 computers had 48KB and 64KB of system memory, respectively, and the IBM PC's basic configuration had a measly 16KB. Few people complained. For personal computing's first decade, none but the seriously hard-core had to push their system beyond the seemingly limitless 640KB. These days, even 2GB isn't enough to prevent Windows from dipping into the virtual-memory well.
One early quote often attributed to Bill Gates is that 640KB--that's right, kilobytes--should be enough for any computer user. (He vehemently denies saying it.) We joke about it today, but in 1981 that sentiment would have made sense.
The phenomenally popular Apple II and Commodore 64 computers had 48KB and 64KB of system memory, respectively, and the IBM PC's basic configuration had a measly 16KB. Few people complained. For personal computing's first decade, none but the seriously hard-core had to push their system beyond the seemingly limitless 640KB. These days, even 2GB isn't enough to prevent Windows from dipping into the virtual-memory well.
Well what can I say I barely remember the 256MB and I think it was even less with a Packard Bell back in 1995. I did use Apple computers and the C64 but never really thought about what they had in their cases. Well if you really dumb down a computer system and I mean get rid of everything except the bare essentials then maybe. Of course 26 years ago I doubt no one would have expected the way computers have change, and thats including those nasty price tags. I say in another 26 years computers will be so dirt cheap that people would be throwing them out for a new one after they used it for like one day (unlikely).
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2. Easy, Registry-Free Tweaks
Hey, want to tweak your WordPerfect settings? Fire up your favorite text editor and edit the WP.INI file to your heart's content.
Prior to Windows 95's introduction of the Registry, editing .INI files was the way to customize your experience on a PC. Sure, some of the parameters seemed arcane, but dealing with them was better than deciphering the enigmatic HKEY_local_machine parameters infesting Windows machines over the last 12 years.
The .INI files were also easy to back up, restore, or swap, and messing one up wouldn't take down your entire system. And honestly, did you ever hear of an .INI cleaner? I rest my case.
Hey, want to tweak your WordPerfect settings? Fire up your favorite text editor and edit the WP.INI file to your heart's content.
Prior to Windows 95's introduction of the Registry, editing .INI files was the way to customize your experience on a PC. Sure, some of the parameters seemed arcane, but dealing with them was better than deciphering the enigmatic HKEY_local_machine parameters infesting Windows machines over the last 12 years.
The .INI files were also easy to back up, restore, or swap, and messing one up wouldn't take down your entire system. And honestly, did you ever hear of an .INI cleaner? I rest my case.
Well I was just starting out in the computer world when windows 95 came out, and I done some minor ini stuff with a few games later on, but I do agree though that editing the wrong registry would most likely crash your system. However, thats the price you pay for wanting a fast machine that does trillions of operations a minute.
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3. Software That Goes With You
Back when hard drives were expensive (and therefore rare on most PCs), the medium of choice was the floppy disk--which, depending on your operating system, could hold as little as 180KB. Without hard drives, software had to fit on floppies, meaning that applications were reasonably compact and self-contained. You could easily run your programs with your own settings on any compatible computer if you were willing to tote a few disks around. Recent innovations such as the U3 spec for USB drives are just starting to bring that capability back to modern PCs.
Back when hard drives were expensive (and therefore rare on most PCs), the medium of choice was the floppy disk--which, depending on your operating system, could hold as little as 180KB. Without hard drives, software had to fit on floppies, meaning that applications were reasonably compact and self-contained. You could easily run your programs with your own settings on any compatible computer if you were willing to tote a few disks around. Recent innovations such as the U3 spec for USB drives are just starting to bring that capability back to modern PCs.
Yep I remember doing it the old fashion way, I had a couple of printers that did that and of course the millions of AOL disks that they would send you on a daily basis. Of course having a 1 Gb hard drive meant that you were filthy rich because of how expensive those things were; in the army unit I was in they had these really old laptop computers that only had 1GB hard drive, and we eventually got rid of them. I think the Flash stick software will start becoming bigger later on since flash disks are matching Cd's and DVD's in size, and so I wouldn't be surprise that CDROM drive will get obsolete like the floppy drive, say 10-15 years.
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4. Lightning-Fast Startups
Microsoft has worked hard to keep startup times down for Windows, but let's face it: With all of the drivers, antimalware utilities, and other doodads that load into memory (do you really need that casserole-recipe widget on your desktop?), you can probably make a cup of coffee before you can do anything on your PC.
In the old days, either the operating system was built into ROM (so the computer was ready as soon as you flipped the switch) or you loaded it from a disk (which took just a few seconds).
Microsoft has worked hard to keep startup times down for Windows, but let's face it: With all of the drivers, antimalware utilities, and other doodads that load into memory (do you really need that casserole-recipe widget on your desktop?), you can probably make a cup of coffee before you can do anything on your PC.
In the old days, either the operating system was built into ROM (so the computer was ready as soon as you flipped the switch) or you loaded it from a disk (which took just a few seconds).
I never really paid attention to this from the beginning so for me that's a tough call, although you put enough junk on your computer you could slow it down to the point that it feels like a 28k modem.
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5. A Virus? What's That?
It's not that malware didn't exist--computer viruses actually predate personal computers--but virus protection wasn't as big a concern as it is now. Running virus scans certainly took less time; since most personal computers lacked hard drives, you could guarantee that a clean floppy would stay uninfected simply by write-protecting it. In a certain sense, an inch of adhesive tape, back then, provided better protection than a battery of antimalware utilities does today.
It's not that malware didn't exist--computer viruses actually predate personal computers--but virus protection wasn't as big a concern as it is now. Running virus scans certainly took less time; since most personal computers lacked hard drives, you could guarantee that a clean floppy would stay uninfected simply by write-protecting it. In a certain sense, an inch of adhesive tape, back then, provided better protection than a battery of antimalware utilities does today.
Well if you know your history computer viruses didn't really become a concern till the 80s when every teenager and college computer nerd started going after military installations and what not. Of course one observation I have made is that virus writing has decline in the last few years as people are making their money in spam and Identity theft, yeah you get a virus or two out there that will do some damage, Melissa anyone? But 15-20 years ago viruses would coming out on a daily basis and so the real computer crimes are the ones that exploit code and steal money.
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, heck I think to play Tic-tac-toe in the punch card system was like 60,000 cards or something like that Heck I don't think you want to drop the cards period as they were never numbered in order or something like that. Well luckily for you haslip there is a star bucks every 5 feet from you 
sometimes also known as the DOS prompt, the command line where all commands are issued. this is where EVERYTHING starts, before you can go using the computers of old for anything. with the dawn of graphic interfaces for operating systems, most notably windows 95, the C: prompt somehow faded into obscurity. nowadays, some users can't even get around the system via the command line since we are now in the age of point and click interfaces. the mouse wasn't even a standard computer peripheral then. 
then i moved on to the more professional projects for a multinational company in the medical field.
