Though I bought a TRS-80 4k in 1978 for $600 and taught all my children starting around 1980 the Basic Programming Language so they could program their own games to play on it when they were 5,6, and 8 years old, The IBM Clone 286 that I bought around 1985 in Silicone Valley, in Northern California was the first computer that has any real resemblance to today's desktops and todays laptops at all. It was a desktop and ran DOS and I think it might have run eventually some Windows format as well that could be laid on top of DOS (Disk Operating System). DOS allowed one to sort of be a user-operator-programmer so if one wasn't techy enough they might not figure it out. It definitely was not very user friendly like the later 386 and 486 computers were. And I don't think full USER friendliness arrived until Window 95 and after.
However, since the KRNL that windows was originally built upon didn't expect anything like the Internet to happen it was vulnerable to viruses and the like. So, finally after years of staying with the PC platform I finally said, "I'm just tired of my PC's crashing so much from viruses and spyware. I'm going with Mac by Apple. And for the last 5 years the whole family has switched from PC's to Apple products. (about 10 or 12 computers worth). So if an Apple product goes down (once every 6 months to a year) you then have a serious problem. Whereas with PCs they were going down and slowing down about every 2 weeks to a month so I finally gave up. My loyalty to PCs up until that time was mainly that my son is a Computer Gamer and was a computer Tech in his 20s (being a tech is just a hobby for him now). So, he is still calling me up and asking me to buy or share some new gadget. Like the other day he wanted me to download something called "Facetime" which is a way to make phone calls from your cellphone through the internet wifi like skype to avoid big cellphone bills. Also, Magic Jack does this kind of thing too.
My daughter and I Skype regularly now too. The amazing thing about Skype is that as long as you are computer to computer anywhere on earth you can video talk back and forth for free with anyone with a computer and a DSL or better connection on earth. Sometimes if the internet traffic is high it can fuzz out on you but it is really great to see your friend or loved one alive and well live through your computer anywhere on earth and be able to talk to them like you would on a phone only this time through your computer.
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