Despite my parents being computer illiterate, I'm glad they were pretty understanding. I never had any IBM experience but I had spent plenty of time on MicroVAX, HP 9000 and later with Sun. I did a number of local pickups (ahh the memories of trying to shuffle a HP9000/835 down Columbia tower and into a dodge caravan) of hardware and knew a person who worked with Sun in Seattle who would sell me old demo stock for a $1. I spent years trying to get rid of it all, no one would take it even for free, and unfortunately had to recycle most of it. Although the Paul Allen museum bought some of DEC Alpha stuff. It just cost too much electricity to even play with.