The main thing that struck me is the diversity of
computer systems that
were available in the early 80s. Contrast that with what you got today
(Wintel crap/Macincrap). That diveristy is what we are discovering
today.
The other side of the coin, though, is the difficulty of converting
programs
to make them work on your computer. I remember spending a lot of time
in high school, trying to convert TRS-80 and Apple II programs to run on
my TI-99/4A. Fun? Yes. Would I want to do this under deadline pressure?
Probably not.
Of course, the computers couldn't read each other's tapes (disks were
out of the question for most of us anyway) . . .