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

[Fatuncle]

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!

And his name will be Al Gore.

[GoldCountryRedneck]

IBM PCs were hideously expensive: $8000 or so....

Hmmmm...lookin' at my Fry's Electronics invoice of 11/82, my IBM 8088 with two floppy drives, 128K memory, and a COLOR monitor was $2540.

Six months later, I added a 10Mb HD/Controller card .... for $1100!!!!

Just amazing.....

~GCR~

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Nice Buy....want more SCSI discs I have two 18 G Atlas and a 36 G ......just upgraded to two 160 G Seagate SATA II drives.

[mugs99]

DELL PCs suck!

And so does their service. I'm posting from my old Compaq...My new dell is belly up again. I bought the service contract with the PC.

The new Dell arrived with defective memory. Had no success communicating with the woman in Bangalore. Finally got ahold of a Dell rep in the states. Had to threaten a lawsuit to get new memory which I had to install myself. Two days after I installed the memory the power supply died. Same service problem and same result. Three months after installing the power supply the modem quit. This time Dell told me it couldn't possibly be the modem...it was a software problem. I threw in the towel, went to Staples and bought a new modem. Problem fixed.

That was three weeks ago. Last night the monitor died, and no this is not a powerline problem. I have this Compaq in my shop, The Dell and another Compaq in the house and only the Dell has had problems.

I will never buy another Dell!
.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Another Memory thread:

The 25 Greatest PCs of All Time (long)

[Cheburashka]

I thought the first home computer was the Coleco Adam?
---
Once upon a time there were many microcomputers. They were made by various companies and had proprietary operating systems, i.e. o/s's owned by the company that made the computer. (This is where your Coleco Adam fit in.)

Then one day a company called IBM (you may have heard of them) announced that they were going to start making microcomputers, theirs would be called a PC (standing for Personal Computer). The operating system - known as DOS - was licensed from a little (at that time - they're somewhat larger now) company called Microsoft.

This PC, backed by the largest computer company in the world, caused a nuclear winter in the microcomputer industry, all the proprietary computers were exterminated, except for one - Apple Computers. Some of the other companies survived by licensing DOS from Microsoft, others stated fresh making computers using DOS - these became known as PC clones. Along the way there were many new improved models and upgrades for all these computers, PCs and clones.

Eventually IBM decided they couldn't make money making PCs, so they closed up their small computer division, and there was no pint in calling other brands PC clones, so they became known simply as PC's.

This is enough history, we haven't gotten out of the 80's. The event being celebrated is the introduction of the IBM PC twenty five years ago.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

ROFL ....at your tagline.....!!!

[IronJack]

That's the picture.

[Cheburashka]

Admiral Hopper reported the solution to her superiors just the way it went down, i.e. "We found a bug and....".

Thus the expression!
---
My understanding is that they scotch-taped the deceased moth right into the log book.

So somewhere the original computer "bug" is preserved.

[IronJack]

And his name will be Al Gore.

Not if he's telling the truth.

[Cheburashka]

I described the "bug" in post #69, but you had already posted the picture of it.

[Poser]

I have a Northstar Advantage CP/M machine with two hard-sectored floppy drives. I can still play Asteroids on it.

Oh yeah... 64K or RAM!

I think I have a Radio Shack Model II with two, 8-inch floppy drives around here as well. I'm afraid neither my Kaypro nor my Osborne survided the 90s.

[Physicist]

I nominate this Gateway model as the worst pc ever made.

I would nominate an early eMachine that my dad made the mistake of buying.

The worst TWO design flaws I ever saw were in the same machine, a Fujitsu PC I used when I was in Japan. First, the keys were so loose that if you hit them at the slightest angle away from the exact perpendicular, they'd bind and not go down. Touch typing was impossible. The worst flaw, however, was that if you slid the keyboard back until it hit the system box, it would actually press the power button and turn the machine off. Many a graduate student learned the hard way to use that keyboard only when it was on his lap.

[freedumb2003]

I love my Latitude x300 (so wonderfully tiny and tough), but my home desktops are Sony Viao's -- which have lasted for many years.

[gorush]

We had a PC's Limited 286...two speeds, 8 or 12 MHz as I recall. I have purchased many Dell drafting stations over the years (at prices that bring tears to my eyes), recent experiences with support have left me unwilling to purchase another Dell product.

[Cheburashka]

You forgot how while he was using the stone hammer to chisel the punch cards he also had to use it to fight off the velociraptors.

[PAR35]

IBM doesn't make PCs or laptops any more. They got out of the business.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

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[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

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[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

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