How Many Years...

Just out of curiosity, how many years have you been on the interwebs?

I got my first computer in 1996 ($1500. for a 8mb hard drive and 128 mb of memory) and used my computer for primarily a porn and chat machine until about mid-1997 and things started to become easier to do on it. I can't believe my life has been spent on a computer now for 12 years. Wow.

Some of you younguns grew up on computers so, you don't count.

I didn't have a computer in my house till about two and a half years ago. (Wow, yea, I was late to the party.) I've had access @ work on and off (depending on the job) since about 1999. I've had a Yahoo e-mail account all that time, and during the periods when I didn't have access at home or work I used to go to the public library and borrow one of their machines to check it once every week or so.

Quote :

Just out of curiosity, how many years have you been on the interwebs?

I got my first computer in 1996 ($1500. for a 8mb hard drive and 128 mb of memory) and used my computer for primarily a porn and chat machine until about mid-1997 and things started to become easier to do on it. I can't believe my life has been spent on a computer now for 12 years. Wow.

Some of you younguns grew up on computers so, you don't count.

I've surfed at school and library computers since 1995 I think....I had no idea what it was until one day this dude at college said something and then I binged on sports and metal sites.


At home??? My first home computer was purchased in November 2006. If my wife and the practical nature of kids in this century weren't a factor I doubt I'd ever have a computer. Now that I do I love chatting with metal heads and sports people on a couple Track forums, but I could still live without it.

I think we got our first home computer around 96 or 97.Once I got the internet it was all down hill from there.

I've been online since 1997. My first computer that had internet capabilities was a Packard Bell something or other that I got for Christmas in '95.

Yahoo! Chat and ICQ were the big things for me and my friends at the time and that's pretty much all we used the internet for. My first email address was from RocketMail.com, which was later bought out by Hotmail and no longer exists.

Our high school got the internet about the same time and I remember us having classes where we'd go and get on them. Anyone remember using Webcrawler, Lycos and Alta Vista a lot? Along with Yahoo, they were the "Big Four" search engines around that time for me.

Thank Zeus we now have Google!

When I first started finding my way around the internet in the late 90s, the first browser I learned to use was Netscape Navigator. Does that even still exist??

I use Mozilla Firefox at home now. Firefox > Internet Explorer.

Misfit, my engine of choice was "Excite".

Wow, I just checked and that dinosaur is still up and running.

Fat Freddy wrote:

When I first started finding my way around the internet in the late 90s, the first browser I learned to use was Netscape Navigator. Does that even still exist??

I use Mozilla Firefox at home now. Firefox > Internet Explorer.

Netscape still does. I don't know if it's still called Navigator though. I used to use that one alot as well.

I tried Firefox a few years ago, but didn't like it. A lot of people gripe about IE, but I don't have any problems with it, so that's what I stick with.

spectrefate wrote:

Misfit, my engine of choice was "Excite".

Wow, I just checked and that dinosaur is still up and running.

EXCITE! That was another one! Man, that site still looks the same.

At least Webcrawler got rid of that spider!

Got into the internet mode of computers in 1997. Started with an eMail connection then to chat, and since 2003 onto online forums as well.

Think I got online in 1999. Not sure. My webiste was online for the first time in 2001 (can't believe it's still not finished! lol), so I think I'd been online for a couple of years prior to that.

I didn't have a PC at home until April 07 but I've had access from work since about 2000. I always said I didn't want one at home because I work on one all day. Now I don't know how I got along without a home PC.

It's really a love/hate relationship with my computers. I love being able to do all the cool things you can do with them, but ithey end up taking all my time away. There are so many other things I want to do, but have fallen into a cyber grip of sorts.

spectrefate wrote:

There are so many other things I want to do, but have fallen into a cyber grip of sorts.

The wife and I are both trying to spend less time on the computer when we're home @ night. We catch up on household crap and other stuff that needs to be done so our weekends can be freed up a little. On the nights when there are no chores, I've actually started reading actual books again!!! I still hop on the computer for maybe an hour a night, tops, but that's still a lot less than I used to.

Got my first home computer in October of 2001 and hooked up with dial up in January of 2002. I switched to high speed in 2004. I remember using the internet as early as 1998 in college and at friend's houses, but I never felt the great urgency to own one. Now, I look forward to coming home from work and going on HOM and other Metal sites, the IMDB, and movie review sites. It's funny, I have this habit of watching a movie or tv show and going to the IMDB to read the trivia and goofs sections about the movie or tv show and trying to spot the things they talk about. Peace.

around late 95, but i was playing on the BBS for years before that.

I am late bloomer to the party, I had access to a computer due to my job since 1997, but that was for work, so that does count. At home since 2005 and only recently learned that Al Gore really did invent the internet.

Since '99...wow..

I don't remember exactly, but I guess it would be around 1996-97? at work. I didn't get a home computer till about 4 years ago. I never had one when I was single and living alone in my apartment.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I never had one when I was single and living alone in my apartment.

...and that would have been the ideal time to have one....

Modern internet - 95

First email address - College in 91

Genie - 91

C64, 300 baud modem, calling BBS' (one computer on at a time)- 84/85

Terminal calling into a mainframe (Monterrey, CA public library system, my Dad had the termnial for his work as a grad student at the Naval Post Graduate School) - 79

1995. That's when I joined the Air Force. Being an "IT Dude" got me access to the latest and greatest, so I was spoiled. I never had dial-up so I have ZERO patience for slow PCs. A couple of my friends have had dial-up and it drives me mad. When I click, I want something to happen. Haha.

Eyesore wrote:

When I click, I want something to happen. Haha.

That's what she said.

spectrefate wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

When I click, I want something to happen. Haha.

That's what she said.

spectrefate wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I never had one when I was single and living alone in my apartment.

...and that would have been the ideal time to have one....

Probably, but the lure of free internet porn would have turned me into a reclusive compulsive masterbating hermit. Well, even moreso. The subscription to Penthouse magazine didn't help.