What was your first OS?

My first was Windows 7, still using

My first was 98. Worse than treading in dog poo. Loved XP's tweakability and was dragged kicking and screaming into W7 where I will be staying no matter what. I want a W7 ISO with me in my coffin.

I think it was Windows 98. But I'm not sure because I had earlier memory that I played 3D pinball with older PC in home.

I started on windows 95, which came with my first computer, a Gateway 2000. It included a 98 upgrade disc, which I almost immediately implemented. At my worksite I used XP. I got a new Gateway in 2009, which came with Vista. I upgraded that eventually to W7. I totally bypassed W8/8.1, as I could see how bad it was relative to W7. I tried W10, but the upgrade madness and the incredibly convoluted layout and inner workings of the thing turned me off every time I tried the upgrade.

I still have the Gateway 2000 with W98. And the 2009 Gateway with W7. I also have a bare-bones i7 for my music composition, which has W7 Pro. And recently I purchased an HP Elite 8300 with W7. I could have gotten it with W10, but, why?

I also have explored Linux intensely. I was even doing my music on it until coming back to W7 recently. I have used at least 20 Linux distros. If you're interested, try Mint LMDE. Best cure for distro-hopping that I know.

My first ever computer experience was probably either my dad's iMac G4 or my mom's Vista laptop. Probably the iMac.

RoozerXC said:

My very first OS was Windows XP, it was on my parents' computer when I was only 5 years old. I don't know what the specs of that PC were, it probably got thrown away at some point so RIP

Now I'm almost 18, and I have some machines running XP :) about a few months ago I built a retro gaming PC that has triple-boot 98/2000/XP, and my other PC which is an HP pavilion p6330f also uses Windows XP too (along with 7 and 10 on triple-boot)

I do have a DELL Inspiron 1501 laptop that used to run XP (designed for it anyways), but its battery is toast and needs replacing. I'll see if i can revisit that laptop and give it its needed refresh

I kind of envy you in some ways. You are growing up in an age where computers are commonplace. I bought my first computer in 1979 when I was already 28 years old. Being so young you can't appreciate how much more advanced computers with Windows 98 were compared to computers 20 years before that.

You might find it amazing that my first computer only had 4K RAM. I think my first PC with Windows had I think 8MB RAM. No my main desktop and laptop have 32GB RAM. It is hard to comprehend how much computers have advanced in all these years.

Some people try to make retro computers with too new of computer components. The main problem is finding drivers. My oldest desktops are about 20 years old and run Windows XP just fine. The could probably run Windows 98 since their motherboards have drivers for it.

The biggest upgrade with my Windows XP computers is switching from IDE drives to SATA ones. My supply of IDE drivers was running out because they were slowly dying out. Someone told me that should have been easy because when you install Windows XP it should have no problem recognizing the SATA hard drives. What they didn't understand was that motherboards like mine that came out around 2003-2004 did not natively support SATA drives in their BIOSs. I assume you have installed Windows XP yourself. If you think about it early in the installation it said to press F6 to install drivers. That is what I had to do to install the SATA disk drivers. When I hit F6 Windows XP loaded these drivers from a floppy disk.

I bought my first laptop in 2004. It came with Windows XP Home and had 1GB RAM. Around 2012 years ago I upgraded the RAM to 2GB and installed Windows Windows 7. It was a little slow but ran OK. Back in 2022 or 2023 the video failed where it was scrambled. I was sorry because I have fond memories of it. It also didn't help that I paid over $1500 for it.

A few months ago I picked up an old laptop whose hard drive had failed. I replaced the hard drive and obtained another license for Windows 7 Pro. Since the laptop came out in 2006 it originally came with Windows XP Tablet Edition. It had the key for that on its bottom. The hardest problem was finding a copy of that version of Windows XP. I then had a dual-boot of Windows XP and 7.

As an experiment I upgraded that laptop from Windows 7 Pro to Windows 10 Pro. I am glad I did that in July 2023. That is because in September 2023 Microsoft stopped allowing free upgrades of Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10. Also about that time online sellers stopped selling keys for Windows 7.

MisterEd said:

Some people try to make retro computers with too new of computer components

I made that very mistake lol. I had picked an AMD socket 939 board for a Windows 98 retro gaming rig, and then quickly realized the ATI SB400 chipset was too new for it (only really worked on 2000 minimum) after struggling with the drivers. So I had to go out and switch to a Socket 754 board with a SiS 760GX/964 chipset on it, and everything just worked out of the box afterwards

At least I have a spare PC with that socket 939 motherboard, as i was able to dig out an old compaq presario case to fit it with. I'll mess with it later

RoozerXC said:

I made that very mistake lol. I had picked an AMD socket 939 board for a Windows 98 retro gaming rig, and then quickly realized the ATI SB400 chipset was too new for it (only really worked on 2000 minimum) ....

This is why....

SYMPTOMS
When you are installing Windows 95 or Windows 98 on a computer that has a CPU that runs at 2.2 gigahertz (GHz) or faster, you may receive the following error message:

While initializing device NDIS: Windows protection error

CAUSE
The timing calibration code in the Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) driver causes a divide by zero if the CPU runs at 2.2 GHz or faster. This problem does not occur with CPUs that run at 2.1 GHz or slower.

Microsoft KB Archive/312108 - BetaArchive Wiki

...and this is how to get round it.

FIX95CPU - LoneCrusader's Windows 9x Projects Page