Considering I didn't lay hands on a computer til 1996 when I was 42, hard to start much earlier.
My husband taught me basic html and then I surpassed him by leaps and bounds (something to do with him having to actually WORK to support us, LOL). Then one day I got a free copy of PSP and it went from there. I think version 5??? It was while it was still a JASC product and not Corel.
My oldest taught me and my husband how to build PC's...loved doing that and even had a business building computers and cleaning spyware off. I got into that side of it when I had a boot sector virus infect my computer. Trying to save stuff off it was a nightmare. And I couldn't just back it up onto another computer cause it would have infected the other computer. LOTS of CD's later (DVD format was still pricey then), I managed to reformat to clean it. I got mad at the people who wrote the virus and learned how to clean not only mine but others. I was even an
ASAP member for a few years (ASAP: Alliance of Security Analysis Professionals). Then the virus creators started throwing worse and worse stuff out and I had become more involved in designing my own graphics and then digital scrap booking. Got to the point that the creative side pushed the security side to the back burner and then all the way off the stove.
I discovered forums about 2004? My first one was PHPbb, then moved to paid software, vB. Started with version 3 but moved away around version 3.6? Tried IPB (paid) in there at some point, SMF (free) and I think that was it.
We also moved over to iMacs in 2005 which also meant my focus on building my own went away. But even during our last move in 2013, we still had stuff like hard drives, memory, power supplies, etc.
Now, I run this site but let my tech admin handle the upgrades, etc. I did it for awhile. She is the one that took my version of the theme and made it even better.