A personal history of computing, told through the machines that made each new era feel possible.
The specifications are part of the record, but they are not the point. Each machine changed what I could build, learn or imagine.
This timeline began years ago as a small web experiment. Rebuilt here, it becomes a living personal archive—one that can grow as old photographs, missing details and new machines surface.
The machine that started it all: loading programs from cassette and discovering that a computer could be something to explore, not merely use.
Personal noteI learned BASIC by reading from a book written in Slovenian. The Spectrum also gave me an early lesson in hardware: wires in a custom-made adapter caused a short circuit and brought its life to an abrupt end.
A first sustained encounter with graphical computing and the Macintosh way of thinking about the relationship between people and machines.
Personal noteMy aunt brought it from Germany at a time when a Macintosh was a rarity in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the local conversation was about 386s, 486s and the first Pentiums. Its Motorola hardware was already limited, but to me it was everything: Swivel 3D, Authorware 1.0 and Photoshop. It could not officially run Mac OS 8, so I pushed it to System 7.6 and added extensions that recreated the new three-dimensional interface.
The beginning of building rather than buying. Parts could be changed, performance could be earned, and the computer was never quite finished.
Personal noteThe Celeron marked the point when I began assembling computers myself and repeatedly installing and learning the operating systems of the period—from Windows 98 SE through Windows 2000 and XP.
One platform, several processors and the lesson that a computer can evolve in place. This was the golden age of making every component count.
Personal noteBy the Athlon era I was installing every component personally. The processor die was exposed, which made fitting the cooler a careful operation: uneven pressure or one wrong movement could physically crack the core.
Athlon 64 opened a new architecture while dual-boot experiments made operating systems feel less like a permanent choice.
A high-performance build that mixed gaming hardware with an increasingly experimental software setup—including a three-system boot environment.
Personal noteCore 2 Duo became my Hackintosh and multi-boot era. The setup proved useful enough that I also built similar systems commercially for people who needed macOS workflows in music studios and video production.
A machine shaped by upgrades, tuning and the pursuit of balance across processor, graphics and storage rather than a single headline component.
The move to solid-state storage changed the feel of everyday computing more dramatically than many processor upgrades before it.
A powerful desktop built around fast storage, abundant memory and the freedom to run demanding workloads locally.
The current everyday computer: portable, quiet and capable enough to bring development, writing and local AI experimentation into the same workspace.
From 48 KB to 48 GB—and from waiting on a cassette to experimenting with local models.
This restored edition will continue to grow as more memories, photographs and missing details surface.
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