Both software and hardware tended to come with much better and more complete documentation than today (things didn't change as fast as they do now, so printed d

Both software and hardware tended to come with much better and more complete documentation than today (things didn't change as fast as they do now, so printed documentation stayed relevant much longer than it would do now). As a teenager I learned a lot from the pretty detailed books on MS-DOS and GW-BASIC that come with our PC XT clone, for example. Then there were 3rd party books, sometimes very good ones. And magazines, some of which were very good too.