What is your first memory of Microsoft?

MS has been going for 35 years - longer than many of us (but not me, ahem).

My first recollection was using DOS, probably DOS 3 (It was a long time ago).  I can distinctly remember getting very excited when I upgraded my PC (8088 to 8086?) and couldn't believe how much quicker the dir scrolling went by - Jeepers - my eyes could hardly keep up!

But then again my first proper PC was an ATARI ST which pre-dated the above (at least for me)  and I remember a very buggy version of 'Microsoft Write', which I still have (will dig out for a photo - stand by).

(Found it with along with my copy of DBASE II and Atari ST "Starglider" !)

When I was a kid, my dad would regularly bring the MSX2 from the school where he worked home for weekends and vacations. That came with MSX-DOS and MSX-BASIC, both were MS products.

My first exposure to programming languages came from some of the games we had, which were written in MSX-BASIC and had to be started with LOAD, BLOAD and RUN commands (and would occasionally produce a SYNTAX ERROR IN LINE 80).

I did a cursory search for the image on google and this is the only thing close.  Mine was larger (more pages in a 3 ring binder) and had a puffy vinyl cover.

I had an apple II+ at the time so I don't know how I came to have an MS Basic manual, but I read it more than the AD&D manual at the time.

Applesoft BASIC

@ScanIAm: Man, I love that Voltron-esque logo.

Quick BASIC 4

Our first non-Apple PC was a 386SX 16MHz. It had DOS 4 or 5 and Windows 3.0. I wasted many hours playing SimCity and managed to reset all of the IRQ assignments that my dad had spent an entire weekend setting up. Luckily he had written them down on a piece of paper.

My first exposure to PCs in general was an Apple IIC. Favorite games were Dragon's Keep and Miner 2049er, and that's also when I started creating some very basic games in Apple Basic. They never got more complex than "pick a door (1-3): ", and then showing a description of what was behind the door.

I remember looking at the code for Gorillas in QBASIC and being completely lost.

31 minutes ago, Geoffreyk wrote

Radio Shack Color Computer.

Whoping 4k of memory, but I upgraded it to 32k. (I didn't have to use popsicyle sticks either!)

input CLS(0) and the response would be 'MICROSOFT'

(The only documents values for CLS() were 1-8)

Ah, the good ole Trash-80 CoCo.

DOS, I am the new gen.

The first thing that comes to mind is a 5.25" floppy with MS DOS 1.1 written on the label. Either that or playing MS Adventure or MS Decathlon on the family IBM PC

Applesoft BASIC and Microsoft Decathlon

On work experience back in 1987, I was given an MSDOS manual and told to learn it. Think it came with Olivetti PCs. (Go on look them up, I know you youngsters won't even have heard of them)

After two days of reading it, I was given access to a PC - possibly an Apricot (go on look them up too) which had MS DOS and a Microsoft C Compiler. I also discovered Windows 2 hidden away on the hard-drive. And from there, my Microsoft journey took off, apart from a brief flirtation with Borland in the early 90s.

1 hour ago, PaoloM wrote

Applesoft BASIC and Microsoft Decathlon

I have fond memories of Star Blazer and that game.

My friends Windows 3.1 machine. He was showing me things (including the glorious "Internet" using Netscape Navigator) it and in the process accidentally deleted almost all the files on the computer. (I believe by dragging Program Manager into the Recycle Bin?) Let's just say my impressions of Microsoft didn't start out on a good footing.

9 minutes ago, Bass wrote

My friends Windows 3.1 machine. He was showing me things (including the glorious "Internet" using Netscape Navigator) it and in the process accidentally deleted almost all the files on the computer. (I believe by dragging Program Manager into the Recycle Bin?) Let's just say my impressions of Microsoft didn't start out on a good footing.

What kind of impression does your friend's intelligence usually leave?

Microsoft's decision to hide system files as the default setting was probably due to users like your friend.

1981 -- TRS80 Color Computer (Radio Shack's competitor to the Commodore 64) the "operating system" was a BASIC interpreter from Microsoft in ROM.