Dell reflects on 25 years of PCs ~ PC arrived in 1981

CNET ^ | August 7, 2006 4:00 AM PT | By Tom Krazit Staff Writer, CNET News.com

[johnny7]

RadioShack PCs

LOL... a war-game chum of mine had one of those. Remember him inviting me over to play 'Midway' on it. God almighty... how far we've come!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

It is amazing isn't it!

[Jeffrey_D.]

Thanks for posting.........good read!

[Hazcat]

DELL PCs suck!

[GATOR NAVY]

They had cassette drives instead of hard-disk drives.

I remember we had a celestial navigation mini-computer that used cassettes in the mid '80s. What a nightmare it was to use that. The whole thing was so temperamental most of us could punch the numbers on paper faster than using the computer.

[IronJack]

I remember the old TRS-80 -- that's what he's talking about. You had to load the OS from tape; all it had aboard it was a boot ROM. And it had something like 4k of RAM, upgradable (later) to 8K. No hard drive; no floppy.

But I seriously think it was the Apple II that launched the personal computing revolution. There were so many of those things in schools and libraries that when kids thought "computer," they thought "Apple."

I still admire Jobs and Wozniak for their vision, which put computers on desks years before Michael Dell or IBM.

[Fatuncle]

Several hundred million people don't agree with you.

[Moonman62]

I am using a Dell Precision 690, which is our high-end workstation. It's a two-socket system and it's got two dual-core Woodcrest (Xeon 5100 processors) in there. It's got a port with 64 (gigabytes) of memory, but I have only got 32 (gigabytes) in there.

I guess we don't have to ask him how he heats his home.

[Gabz]

There was an editorial about this milestone in one of the daily rags I read. The final sentence of it pretty much says it all:

---

Today the universe celebrates the 25th anniversary of the personal computer, a technological milestone that is as easy to ignore as it is necessary to commemorate. An estimated 1 billion PCs are in use today.

When IBM unveiled its first 5150 model in 1981, the techies responsible for its renegade development within the staid corporate world had no idea what they unleashed.

In the intervening years the PC has become one of the biggest influences in modern times on business habits and lifestyle convenience.

File-sharing, word-processing spreadsheet and e-mail are now everyday terms because of their affiliation with the PC.

Chiefly, the PC's glory is its dependency on a democratic and free-market atmosphere of hardware and software invention. In the workplace, the PC revolutionized data collection and processing to the point that now the U.S. Department of Labor predicts that some secretarial jobs face extinction because the PC has made bosses comfortable with word-processing duties like phone list management and data storage and retrieval.

It is so common that many of its once-exotic features are commonplace -- interchangeable rather than dealer-specific hardware parts and public-design specs that enabled garage geeks to tweak into entirely new software packages.

Our Blackberrys and cell phones, text messaging and ever growing Internet service providers are a testament to the progress launched by the PC.

Twenty-five years ago today it was all new and no one knew what habits it would eventually change.

[Hazcat]

I own a Dimension 8400, top of the line when purchased. Hasn't worked correctly from day one. Burners don't work, sound card won't see the CD or DVD player, can't burn CD or DVD. DELL support is useless.

[ops33]

I thought the first home computer was the Coleco Adam?

[Hazcat]

I has a "Trash 80" when I was in college. Had a modem setup to the schools' DEC10. That was hilarious trying to communicate. The phone modem was one of the "cradle" type!

[johnny7]

I've got a MacBook Pro 17" arriving next week... wireless technology. Right now, I'm using a Mac G4 with dial-up... gonna' see a BIG, speed difference.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

IBM had earlier attempts at small computers than the IBM PC....which was designed as a Business Machine.

The IBM Instrument Division had a machine that had more Compute power and was designed for a niche market....have forgotten the number....

[steveo]

I have a Dell power edge 2300 that aside from power outages, has been running continuously here since 08-1999. That's about 70 thousand hours without a hiccup.

[I still care]

Believe it or not I still have one, along with the tapes and instruction books.

[BW2221]

PCs really cost IBM its total control of the computer industry. Very few people I know use an IBM PC.

[IronJack]

First programming I ever did was via a 300-baud cradle phone modem to an IBM 360 at the local community college. Input/output was from/to an IBM Selectric ... you know, the typewriter with the "ball?" Sometimes the modem would barf and the typewriter would just spew gibberish for page after page.

[Hey, I think I might have found the source of Stepford Rep Nancy Peolsi's problem!]

Anyway, these computer nostalgia threads always bring out some interesting stories. Before it's over and done with, some old-timer will tell us about how he had to shovel coal for his first computer, and how it ran on punch cards made of granite.

Amusingly enough, he'll be telling the truth!

[1FASTGLOCK45]

Hey Hazcat,
Have you tried swapping out harddrives/parts? I used to have a POS Gateway that gave me problems like that. Never worked right from day one. Also try to scour the internet see if other peeps have the same issues as you.
A week after the warranty went out on my Gateway, the harddrive crapped out.
I asked them why won't they honor the warranty since this has been a documented issue from day one and the harddrive which has been defective from day one finally crapped out.
Gateway told me to screwmyself ( believe it or not, the tech guy told me i was screwed) and hung up on me with his evil laugh.
I've been using Dells ever since, and I got the Complete PC care, they will have to my house quick and fix it. I am going to go and renew my contract now that you reminded me of it!