Dawn of the Personal Computer: From Altair to the IBM PC

Maximum PC ^ | 03 June 2009 | Erik Klein

[martin_fierro]

And you can still probably find a lot of that Olde Tyme Weirdeness right here:

[Filo]

Interesting article but I don't really buy the analogy. Their 'diverse' computing world would be if everyone had different vehicles - that each had different, incompatible propulsion methods. Gas-engined vehicles would need to scope out an appropriate gas station, hydrogen vehicles the same, electric vehicles would need a power station, and the like.

We have plenty of different models of computers that all have features in common (x86) that allow us to run many varieties of software and operating systems with very little inconvenience.

It's a great time to be in computers!

That was kind-of the point. . . ;)

[Filo]

Once again, the way-ahead-of-its-time Commodore Amiga machines are left out of a "history of the personal computer" bit.

Not left out, just too new. . .

[Filo]

And here:

[martin_fierro]

Linkee No Workee.

[Richard Kimball]

I started out with Atari, but agree. The computer "old school" was really funny. They'd mock advancements and new ideas until the benefits became so obvious it was impossible to avoid adopting them. The mainframe guys mocked the PC. The command line guys mocked the GUI. There used to be T-shirts that said "real men don't use mice."

I remember the mainframe guys pretending to be gurus. I worked with a guy one time, and one of the people in the office had deleted an important data file. He said, "Well, I'll see if I can recover it." He had them bring the computer down to his office and closed the door. He sat on his @ss reading magazines for about seven hours, ran a file recovery program and recovered the file in about two minutes, opened the door and said, "I did it!" It reminded me of the old commercial where the woman locks the family out of the kitchen for a couple of hours, reads magazines, throws flour on her face and walks out with the Rice Krispies treats. The only thing he didn't do was spray sweat under his arms.

[dfwgator]

[mysterio]

TRS-80! I learned BASIC on one of those when I was about 8.

[TChris]

Not left out, just too new. . .

???

The Amiga's development timeline fits right in with the PC and the Mac.

It had multi-channel sound first, graphics acceleration first, high-color displays first and a true, preemptive multi-tasking GUI in 1985.

I'd say it's worth mentioning. :-)

[Filo]

Hmm. Odd one.

I was pointing to the Vintage Computer and Gaming Marketplace (http://marketplace.vintage-computer.com)

You'd think I'd have figured out simple HTML by now. . . :D

[TChris]

He sat on his @ss reading magazines for about seven hours, ran a file recovery program and recovered the file in about two minutes, opened the door and said, "I did it!"

LOL!

I've FELT like doing something similar from time to time.

[ken in texas]

Intersting, thanks for posting.

Years ago, a buddy in the Air Force built an Altair. He called me late one night and told me to come over... he had hooked up an old teletype to it and had finally been able to get the Altair to ring the bell on the teletype. Drove his wife crazy playing with that thing. :-)

[mmichaels1970]

TRS-80! I learned BASIC on one of those when I was about 8.

Me too. My first program was Hangman. Then my Apple IIe kept all of my D&D character info. Just print your D&D character on the thermal printer, grab the fritos, and head off to enjoy the eight-hours-locked-your-friend's-dank-basement fun!

[Fresh Wind]

‘Nother cool site:

http://www.thegalleryofoldiron.com/

[ßuddaßudd]

Way cool !
Anyone want to buy a 1986-7 Compaq Portable,, it still boots up..

[Vroomfondel]

We had those on our Burroughs 6800 mainframe.

Ah, the B6800. Utah State University had one of those when I started attending. It was on the way out, being replaced by a VAXcluster.

[Vroomfondel]

TRS-80! I learned BASIC on one of those when I was about 8.

I was a bit older; sophomore in high school. A bunch of us went up to Montana from Utah for the '79 eclipse and one brought his TRS-80. We read the manual on the way up, then stayed up all night programming the thing.

4K Level I BASIC.

[humblegunner]

The most awesome Kaypro:

It sucked.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Taking off on this theme....came across some fascinating ...stuff:

The Big Boys of Computing’s Early Days

Build Your Own Linux Ubuntu Supercomputer For Under $350

****************************EXCERPT*******************************

Jun 2, 2009, 21 :03 UTC

"What's more interesting is that, on average, I would guess that most of these machines will never be used to 1/100 of one percent of their capacity. What a waste of power. See On Programming: Ecocode.

"Note that a copy of Vista would cost $100, over a quarter the cost of the hardware. Thank goodness we have Linux Ubuntu available at no cost.

"Note especially the CDC 6600, the world’s largest supercomputer from 1966 to the early 1970’s. It cost almost $10 million in 1970 dollars. You can now get a machine that is several orders of magnitudes bigger in memory , , with one terabyte of disk space, AND faster, for less than 1/30000th the price of the 6600.

"Or put the other way, the CDC 6600 would cost at least three hundred billion dollars today!!"

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Which lead to this:

The Wayward Word Press (Dave Shields )