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Personally I think nostalgia is a proxy for a generalized desire for simplicity. Most people don't long for the days of swapping out 10 different floppy disks t

Personally I think nostalgia is a proxy for a generalized desire for simplicity. Most people don't long for the days of swapping out 10 different floppy disks to install an operating system, or of messing around with IRQ/DMA and UART settings to get a modem configured. It's the simple things (like BASIC) that are remembered and missed.

noir_lord 7y ago
As someone who started young with computers in the 80s you are right. I miss the simplicity of the first programs I wrote. I don’t miss a single thing about the hardware. I’ll take dual 4K displays hooked up to a fast reliable machine over any of my previous machines. Modern machines are simpler to build, vastly faster, vastly more reliable and vastly cheaper, they win on every metric imo.
- JohnJamesRambo 7y ago
  I miss my Commodore 64 hardware. I can still feel the clack of the keys.
spinach 7y ago
I think nostalgia is more complicated than simply a desire for simplicity, though that may be a part of it - and not just because things were more simple back then, but because we didn't understand the complexity as children. Like those people who don't want politics in media/art even though there always has been, they just didn't know as a kid.
yters 7y ago
Maybe something like a cheap Chromebook that boots into something like BASIC where it's easy to write simple PRINT and GOTO based programs, draw stuff on the screen, and beep and boop the sound card. It's having access to simple and easily composable basic elements, like Legos, that made computing so accessible back in the day. Computer gaming was my big motivation. So, this simple platform also needs a decent collection of fun and hackable games, and other useful applications.
- _emacsomancer_ 7y ago
  Or just boot into Emacs - which one can do e.g. via https://github.com/ch11ng/exwm https://github.com/ch11ng/exwm
  - cameronbrown 7y ago
    Emacs is great. It's got a calendar and a web browser and even comes with a text editor. What else do you need from a desktop?
- iamnothere 7y ago
  I like this idea. Sounds a bit like the PocketCHIP but scaled up to a normal size laptop. You could actually implement this using low-end Chromebooks as a platform, just flash them with whatever simplified OS you are using. It would be a great tool for teaching programming basics.
- quazar 7y ago
  Reminds me of Pharo Smalltalk VM or Lisp Machines. There is something powerful about the whole OS utilizing single language and allowing you to interact with and alter everything.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
I'd agree with that. I want a new DOS really badly. Not something with DOS's archaicness and limitations of course, but the modern version of a system that simple.

noir_lord 7y ago

As someone who started young with computers in the 80s you are right. I miss the simplicity of the first programs I wrote. I don’t miss a single thing about the hardware. I’ll take dual 4K displays hooked up to a fast reliable machine over any of my previous machines. Modern machines are simpler to build, vastly faster, vastly more reliable and vastly cheaper, they win on every metric imo.

JohnJamesRambo 7y ago
I miss my Commodore 64 hardware. I can still feel the clack of the keys.

spinach 7y ago

I think nostalgia is more complicated than simply a desire for simplicity, though that may be a part of it - and not just because things were more simple back then, but because we didn't understand the complexity as children. Like those people who don't want politics in media/art even though there always has been, they just didn't know as a kid.

yters 7y ago

Maybe something like a cheap Chromebook that boots into something like BASIC where it's easy to write simple PRINT and GOTO based programs, draw stuff on the screen, and beep and boop the sound card. It's having access to simple and easily composable basic elements, like Legos, that made computing so accessible back in the day. Computer gaming was my big motivation. So, this simple platform also needs a decent collection of fun and hackable games, and other useful applications.

_emacsomancer_ 7y ago
Or just boot into Emacs - which one can do e.g. via https://github.com/ch11ng/exwm https://github.com/ch11ng/exwm
- cameronbrown 7y ago
  Emacs is great. It's got a calendar and a web browser and even comes with a text editor. What else do you need from a desktop?
iamnothere 7y ago
I like this idea. Sounds a bit like the PocketCHIP but scaled up to a normal size laptop. You could actually implement this using low-end Chromebooks as a platform, just flash them with whatever simplified OS you are using. It would be a great tool for teaching programming basics.
quazar 7y ago
Reminds me of Pharo Smalltalk VM or Lisp Machines. There is something powerful about the whole OS utilizing single language and allowing you to interact with and alter everything.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago

I'd agree with that. I want a new DOS really badly. Not something with DOS's archaicness and limitations of course, but the modern version of a system that simple.