Heh, it's very cool to see that there are some
real old-timers around here.... I like to point out to a lot of folks that I've been on the Internet since before most people knew there was an "Internet" ("...no, kids, the world wide web is
not the 'Internet' "
), but I was definitely later to the game than you guys — my first "real" modem was a blazing fast 1200 baud Hayes (although my dad had a 300bps acoustic coupler in his office).
I cut my teeth on a Z80-based CP/M system I built myself, and I well remember DOS 1.0 (no subdirectories!), but I'm humbled by you guys who had to deal with 3270 terminals and most likely punch cards
Since I was still in my teens in the eighties, most of what I encountered was hobbyist, so I was monkeying with my own computer stuff and getting into the old FidoNet BBS network. The best I could get in terms of the "real" Internet in those days was a dial-up UUCP gateway into a non-local University connection.
I did a small bit of 3270 and AS/400 work when I started my professional career, but most of my work was centred around PC networks, back when Novell was a contender and Windows NT was still merely a gleam in Microsoft's eyes.