Vic-20 here. What a time to be alive.

C64 gang, represent!

Seriously though, I feel like that generation of machines was the last time you could look at hardware and say "yeah, I understand literally everything about how this works" and that knowledge has made even some of my (tech sector) coworkers think I'm a wizard

I had a GUI - windows 3.11

But it was so slow. So I made my own gui/menu system that ran in dos. I was between 9-11 I reckon.

Not sure where that lands me on the spectrum of coddledness

I can technically claim I started with a hand me down C64 from my grandmother in the early 90s. But I was like 6 years old, and I didn't really get into computers until we got a Windows 95 machine a couple of years later. Though by 99-2000 I was regularly playing around with the C64 for the novelty of what felt like ancient tech.

I remember using dialup internet on windows 98 in the late 90s to look up how to use the C64.

Yeah, it was just MSDOS. I saw "Abort, retry, fail" so many times, and I didn't even know what it meant because I was four and I just wanted to play Family Feud with my brother.

Are you joking? C64 was the bomb back in the day! My Atari and Amiga mates were enjoying colors and music and games while I had sat there on my colourless, mute PC. All I had was Flight Simulator 2 in black and white. And DrBrush for drawing in Hercules "graphics" mode.

Apple ][e was my first. We also had an XP machine for internet (Neopets) but I didn’t have to fight for turns on the Apple.

I know you’re joking but this is how a lot replies here feel. Kids don’t even know how to program using punch cards anymore smh.

40 years from now the newest generation will be saying “Grandpa doesn’t even know know what a Cyber Tibulator Strip is let alone how to use it. If you need him he’s out back yelling at clouds.”

Don’t get me wrong here, tech literacy is low but when has it not been?