The PDP-11 became super influential because it was the first machine that had seemingly unbound performance for its price, compared to any computer from the 60s

The PDP-11 became super influential because it was the first machine that had seemingly unbound performance for its price, compared to any computer from the 60s or 50s. This gave programmers the freedom "write to their hearts content," leading to the innovations of Unix and the C programming language. Compare it to how modern web developers write entirely in the application domain, giving no regard to operating system or machine constraints. I'm proposing that the PDP-11 gave a similar feeling to programmers who had been restricted before, to a programming process that today seems as streamlined as carving hieroglyphics with a pickaxe. Eventually though the new programs started pushing up against the limits of the PDP-11. I propose that virtually anything that seems like magic in Unix or C, from filesystem organization to page sizes, traces its origin directly back to the PDP-11. We are still living in the world of microcomputers, no matter how far we may seem to have ventured away.