My childhood in one picture.
My very first PC: a Compaq machine with a Pentium I (166 MHz) - slow by today’s standards, and honestly, even back then. Most kids already had Pentium 4s, but I made the most of what I had.
I started out playing DOS games like DOOM on Windows 98 - and I loved every second. But everything changed when I saw SuSE Linux 8.0 at a friend’s house.
His dad worked at AMD in Germany at the time - so of course they had Linux. I didn’t fully understand what it was… but I knew I needed it too.
So I got SuSE Linux 7.3. I installed it from CD1 - the other 6 CDs and 1 DVD just held software packages. Two boot floppies were needed just to start the installer.
I installed a Sound Blaster card myself at age 10, using the original driver CD. And since my CD-ROM drive was added later, I had to boot from a floppy with DOS CD-ROM drivers first. It was all a bit chaotic – but it worked.
Also pictured: my LEGO Mindstorms grabber arm - the first robot I ever built, following online instructions I hunted down with endless patience.
And of course: PC Games 11/02, featuring Unreal Tournament 2003 (and also No One Lives Forever 2, one of the most underrated gems of its time.) - a game (and series) I still love to this day.
Today, this very machine still works - and after some experiments with Minix and FreeDOS over the years, it’s once again running SuSE Linux 7.3. Just like back then.

What’s missing? My old bike. I didn’t bring it down from the attic.

#RetroPC #Pentium1 #SuSELinux #FOSS #LEGOmindstorms #SoundBlaster #PCGames #UT2003 #FloppyDisk #DOSGames #Minix #FreeDOS #NerdLife #TechNostalgia #FrüherWarMehrFloppy #MeinErsterPC #Kindheitserinnerung #Pixelfed #RetroLiebe #ComputerHistory #RetroHardware #OldHardwareStillRuns #CompaqLegend #SuSE73 #Linux

Mein erster PC wird 40 – 1985 kam er zur Welt. 1989 zog er bei mir ein: Mein Zenith 148. Betrieben mit MS-DOS 1.0 – damals revolutionär, heute Museumsstück. Man konnte nicht viel damit machen. Aber das, was man machen konnte, hat man mit Stolz gemacht.

Womit seid ihr in die Computerwelt eingestiegen bzw. was war eure erste „IT-Liebe“?

#RetroTech #MeinErsterPC #Zenith148 #ITLiebe #Nostalgie #DigitalerUrknall