Hello, recently I was trying to remember what computers my family had while I was growing up and came to some realisations that I think are a bit funny or novel in 2026. I'm not sure exactly what brought this on, probably a video or two that reminded me of stuff/experiences I had growing up, but I thought it might be fun to try and write it all out. The two funniest things I realised/remembered were;
- I didn't have my own (new) computer until I was around 20 years old. (Not super wild as I grew up in the 'family PC in the living room' era, I have just never realised that was the case before).
- I distinctly remember being told by my housemate in 2009 that I should "get facebook, it's the new thing" (relative to myspace).
Anyway, a ramble about my computing history ahead...
The First Family PC (LPX + Win 95-98) 1996-2000
I don't really have any memories prior to 1995, so it's likely '95 or '96 that we got this beige LPX PC with Windows 95. LPX, I only recently found out from a CRD video, was a common form factor between the PS/2 and ATX eras. It lays horiztonally with the monitor on top like older IBM PCs, but has elements that would become standard in ATX like the power supply. Anyway, this was the first computer I used and I was pretty young so I don't remember every detail. I think it was an acer, it originally had Win 95 but we must have upgraded to 98 at some point because there are features and wallpapers unique to each that I remember using, as well as the startup screens/sounds of both. This PC was situated in the corner of our dining room for most of it's life, and I would have only ever used it for games. Apart from the usual stuff (Duke3D, Doom, Wolf3D etc.), I remember playing a lot of SNES games on an emulator (ZSNES? judging by the time period)
The Second Family PC (ATX + Windows Me) 2000-2007
This is the one I really grew up on, I still can't remember the brand or specs but it was a beige tower + CRT monitor + accessories situated in the dining room corner again. Millenium Edition brought with it a bunch more multimedia and network stuff, so we had a TV tuner card, mic, and webcam with this one. The webcam was one of those ball shaped ones (QuickCam Express? judging by release year) and came with a bunch of motion detecting games, like bubble popping and basketball (similar to the PS2 eyetoy). I also had the Sims Deluxe Edition, which gave you the Creator Tool, allowing webcam photos to be pasted onto a custom sim. My best friends and I had these awful pics of ourselves shoddily mapped on these sim bodies, all living together in the big mansion at 2 Sim Lane. This PC is also where I first properly used the internet; lots of Yahoo Messenger, Pool, and Graffiti (pictionary) at first, then on to habbo hotel, runescape, coke music, flash games, and MSN messenger (also being tricked into visiting shock sites). OH and back to the Sims, the official site used to have extra objects you could download for free, and once I got through all of that my friends and I started to find fan-made custom content stuff too. Windows Me became quite dated looking within a year when XP launched, I remember feeling a little bit envious of friends that had XP at the time. Desktop PCs aesthetics also changed within about a year or so away from beige to be mostly silver and black, which further added to the rapidly dated feel of this PC. We didn't upgrade for several years and totally skipped XP for Vista on our next computer.
The Third Family PC (ATX + Vista) 2007-...
This was the last desktop we had at home and I am pretty sure it's still there, it just hasn't been used in a long time. A black tower + LCD Monitor + accessories, probably a Dell. This was where I LIVED during my late-teens, endless hours on MSN and myspace in particular. I did start to get out more, hanging with the other townie kids at the mall (a mix of scene, emo, metalheads, punks and other 'alt-kids' who all mostly got along), but MSN and myspace was our connection at home during the school week. It's where I first got to know my partner (both IRL at the mall + on messenger) and where/when our relationship began, lots of long nights video chatting. This is also where I finaaaallly got to play Civilization IV, which I had for about a year but it wouldn't run on our old computer XD. Anyway, I moved out of home after finishing high school and rarely used this PC again.
'My' first PC (SFF + XP) 2009-2014(?)
First sharehouse I lived in, one of my housemates (the one who told me facebook is "the new thing") gave me this spare office-surplus small form factor black and silver Dell (I assume an optiplex GX520). It had XP, and he didn't need it as he had some early 2-in-1 laptop where you could swivel the screen around into a tablet (dunno what that was). I put it in my room with a beige CRT (I think the one from my family's second PC) and got this wireless keyboard with a trackball mouse and shoulder click buttons built in. I looooooved that keyboard, still the most comfortable wireless one I've ever used, but it was unbranded so idk how to search for it (actually I found a few that look almost identical by 'banalove' and 'SIIG', but they're two-three times as expensive as 15 years ago and I don't need one, lol). I took this PC with me to other places I lived where it became more of a TV-attached 'home theatre PC' and I left it with one of the sharehouses when I moved.
My first new PC (Toshiba Satellite C660) 2010-...
My parents got this for me as a birthday gift (probably had more money now without kids at home, lmao). There isn't a tonne to say about this beyond me realising it's the new first computer I've ever owned. MSN and myspace were basically dead by now, so this was used more with facebook and games. I don't remember video chatting on this, I think because the novelty had worn off by then. I did have this personalised with stickers for most of it's life before taking them off one day thinking it was a bit dated/childish to have that. I have been thinking about this a bit lately (trying to figure out what was wrong with me, lmao) and I believe it was a combination of a few things. A dash of neurodivergence trying to 'fit in', along with facebook and the web at large abandoning personalization for advertiser-friendly minimalism that bled out into real world culture, at a time where people my age were becoming 'real adults'. I now cringe thinking back to this time for opposing reasons, and will get around to stickerbombing it again lol. Anyway, this laptop still works fine with it's original hard drive, wireless card, and a lightweight OS. I'm using it to write this post, and do the majority of my webmastery stuff on it!
My second new PC (Asus Vivobook Max X541UJ) 2016-...
Bought this for myself while studying as the Satellite was getting slower and older (ironic that I now use the satellite more ten years later). A computer getting 'slow and old' is relative, I was more influenced by consumerism at the time, and am very much more about living and computing within my means now, so I would not have made this purchase with my current views. Nothing much else to say about this laptop other than it's where I played through some of my all-time favourite games including Fallout: New Vegas and Knights of the Old Republic 1 + 2
My third new/first desktop PC (Custom m-ATX) 2020-...
My current main PC which I bought and built with some covid or pension related lump sum. With the same opportunity now I don't think I would build a new PC again (even outside of the context of RAM/HD prices), but instead just get a second hand tower and parts to fill it. It lets me play the games I like (all pre-2020 releases anyway), it's where I started using Linux, and it's where I found Neocities :)
School Computers
Little honorable mention here, I will go through what computers my school(s) had growing up. It's all Macs
- Primary/Elementary: We had Macintosh Classic IIs (compact beige all-in-one with a handle) in my earliest years, and there was one computer lab room in the whole school. Partway through we had Colour Classics (I remember kid pix and the '96 carmen sandiego in colour), before ending with 1-3 iMac G3s per classroom
- Secondary/High: Started with iMac G3s (later models with OSX), full 30 kid computer labs, with about one lab per building (so shared between like 8 classrooms). Lots of Nanosaur, also sharing early internet stuff with each other like stick figure fighting flash animation and games. I remember my new friend writing down the URL for habbo hotel and handing it to me in one of these rooms. Eventually these were all upgraded to eMacs, then iMac G5s, with some aluminium intel iMacs coming in by the time I left. The year after I finished they started giving each student their own netbook, which I totally missed out on (you were able to pay some discounted rate to own it when you graduate).
- Tertiary/'College': Weirdly I don't remember this as well despite it being more recent. Pretty sure it was all Dells at the state tertiary schools I went to, that and/or you were expected to have your own computer. While studying nursing I did have a second hand Surface RT (which ran a highly restricted UWP only version of windows), then traded that in for a Surface Pro 1 (worse keyboard but normal windows), and used that attached to our TV for a while until the battery swelled.
I'll end this here, I have other second hand or inherited computers but they don't really fit what I am talking about with this post. I'm more trying to present a look at my experience living through, and coming out of, the 'family PC era'.
Thanks for reading!