I remember ASCII. I loved it but you are speaking of MS-DOS based computers here. I hated them before they had GUIs or decent imaging capabilities. I loved my Amiga and knew that Macs had great graphics too. I could watch realistic rain falling and listen to amazing music on my Amiga. I forget what the music format was called. MS-DOS based computers of that time could allow the user to type something into the computer--a CLI command, a text document, some BASIC programming, or a request for the sysop of a BBS to allow you to download a program. When I first got an MS-DOS machine that was all that I could do with it. I was so ecstatic when I download a GUI web gateway app that I still remember its name, FXTerm.

I had to laugh just now while I was looking up old terminology to refresh my memory. Wired wrote "It wasn't long before Microsoft, headed up by one Bill Gates, entered the GUI game. Gates, who as near as I can tell has never had an original idea in his career, is nevertheless extremely good at copying the great ideas of others."

Yes, that is what I thought of early MS-DOS machines.