[derfclausen]

The first instruction set I learned was Z80 (Osborne 1), followed by 6502 (Atari 800). I think Atari and Commodore 8-bits may have been more popular than the Apple II, if only because they were available for purchase at more locations.

[SwellJoe]

"if only because they were available for purchase at more locations."

And cost about a third what an Apple II cost. Only the rich kids in my school had Apples. Everybody else had a Commodore, Tandy, or Atari.

I'm certain that cost was the reason my family had a Commodore 64 rather than anything else (my dad is a very value conscious buyer, and the the C64 was a pretty solid value with more RAM, more color, better sound, and the cheapest floppy drive of all the contenders).

[zach]

I had a C64 as well and recall now that my friends with Apple IIs were all pretty well-off. This went completely over my head at the time.

Purely incidentally, my C64 floppy drive's case was cracked because the family acquaintance we got it from had found a broken drive second-hand, bought a new one at Toys R Us, swapped the internals and returned the one with bad guts to the store.