6 ms·

I remember having to edit autoexec.bat and config.sys files in a text editor to install a mouse driver. I also remember having to set IRQs using actual jumpers

I remember having to edit autoexec.bat and config.sys files in a text editor to install a mouse driver. I also remember having to set IRQs using actual jumpers on my soundcard. I actually loved all of that but it wasn't really easy.

raldi 6y ago
Not only did you have to worry about IRQ conflicts, some hardware didn't work well (or at all) at some of the offered IRQs. And there was no Google to help you.
- GekkePrutser 6y ago
  Indeed. I remember cycling to the local library, searching the old serial terminals for a particular book that could explain an issue I was having, then order it to be sent to my local branch (as they invariably didn't have it) so I could pick it up a few days later. Just to solve a problem (usually pretty complex ones involving things like datasheets or programming manuals but still...). The internet has provided us a way to handle much more complex issues in much less time just by offering immediate access to shared knowledge. That alone makes things much easier these days than back then. But I feel it makes us dumber as well in a sense. Before the internet you couldn't start a major project without knowing all about it before you started. Now often we will just start, and google any problems on the way, often realising only later on that the initial approach was poorly chosen.
- GeekyBear 6y ago
  I can still remember with horror a Windows NT networking class that needed every student machine to have three ISA Ethernet cards manually configured with non-conflicting settings. Can you have that ready by tomorrow, they asked after lunch...
  - pmarreck 6y ago
    wait why THREE?
    - GeekyBear 6y ago
      Mostly to annoy me? I seem to remember that they intended to simulate WAN links.
amatecha 6y ago
Eh, all of his examples are from the Macintosh world which was indeed much much easier to get on with than pretty much all personal computing today.
- cmrdporcupine 6y ago
  80s Macs, maybe. But not 90s. I had to help admin an office full of System 7.5 & 7.6 PowerMacs in 1996/1997, all constantly crashing because FileMaker could not run in a stable way at the same time as Netscape, or some extension in the System folder would freeze up the system randomly. Classic MacOS had no memory protection, memory management itself was terrible and not particularly dynamic (reserve N bytes for this app etc.), and the multitasking in System 7 was bolted on in an awkward way, and the migration from 68k to PowerPC introduced a boatload of bugs. The screenshots on the article's page shows System 7.5. Those were the dark ages for the Macintosh frankly. The _concept_ was "it just works" and "computer for the rest of us" but that was the reality only if you stayed on a fairly narrow path, frankly. System 8 was a major improvement.
- pmarreck 6y ago
  You had extension conflicts all the damn time. There was a utility called Conflict Catcher (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_Catcher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_Catcher) that would identify the culprit by doing basically a binary search and turning off half the extensions and rebooting (many times) and noting if there was a crash, and deducing the problem extension that way. It was kind of like "git bisect" before that was a thing. This craziness is no longer necessary. I mean... when you DID get like 20 extensions all running together stably though, it was AWESOME.
  - pcdoodle 6y ago
    I still find myself doing this on Windows 10 with services and it's very manual, I'd love a "conflict catcher".
    - pmarreck 6y ago
      Which services cause instability or problems in Win10? As much as I dislike Win10, that hasn't been a problem for me
GekkePrutser 6y ago
And remember the cut fingers from inserting and removing all the cards constantly trying out new jumper combos just to get the SoundBlaster, graphics card, ZIP drive and whatever other goodies all working at the same time :D
- Firehawke 6y ago
  I'm surprised those wounds even healed at all considering how much I cut into my fingertips back in the day.
agumonkey 6y ago
It's a matter of perspective. It surely wasn't simpler, but it may have been more joyful somehow.. Maybe the fact that it was slower, less connected, less parts overall too and that you had to get into it. I mean I'm a dev with experience but I have near zero control over my smartphone. There's tons of nice stuff on it (hardware and software) but it doesn't feel much nicer because I actually have no clue about what happens now what I can do.
- ulisesrmzroche 6y ago
  I think this is one of those preach-to-the-choir HN topics. Like, you may feel joyful if you're the type that likes fiddling with gizmos and wants to know how everything works, but that's not everyone. Most people, they want it to just work (tm).
  - agumonkey 6y ago
    I don't deny it, but it might be something that is way more prevalent than people may assume. We're complex animals we like feeling stuff. For instance I've heard people miss playing LPs. You have to fiddle with it, setup the player, take time to install the disc, the arm.. etc It's 100x more complicated than an ipod .. yet people miss it. Ease of use is not all.
linuxlizard 6y ago
Oh lordy, jumper IRQs. I'm so grateful for PCI. The PS/2 and parallel connectors couldn't die fast enough when USB came out.
- bserge 6y ago
  Configuring IRQs on hardware and in BIOS always made me feel like a hacker. Windows 2000 and earlier also had problems with DHCP, I fixed many network setups back in the day, often half-assing it and just using static IPs/mask :D. Worked surprisingly well for small businesses where they used the same hardware for years.
scruple 6y ago
Yeah. I did, too. I really don't feel inspired to subject my kids to that sort of bullshit. In fact, as a person who takes pride in calling himself a "software engineer," I find it... Disheartening... That this is as far as we've managed to get with personal computing in the last 30 years since I was young and interfacing with a machine. It's actually somehow worse while managing to be "better."
lmm 6y ago
It wasn't easy but it was simple, or something on those lines. You knew which jumpers set what, and when you set an IRQ you'd know what you'd set it to. If two devices were conflicting you could understand how and why. Now we're basically all cargo culting. Every few hours one of my USB devices reconnects itself and I'm genuinely not sure whether it's because of a firmware bug in my docking station or what.

raldi 6y ago

Not only did you have to worry about IRQ conflicts, some hardware didn't work well (or at all) at some of the offered IRQs. And there was no Google to help you.

GekkePrutser 6y ago
Indeed. I remember cycling to the local library, searching the old serial terminals for a particular book that could explain an issue I was having, then order it to be sent to my local branch (as they invariably didn't have it) so I could pick it up a few days later. Just to solve a problem (usually pretty complex ones involving things like datasheets or programming manuals but still...). The internet has provided us a way to handle much more complex issues in much less time just by offering immediate access to shared knowledge. That alone makes things much easier these days than back then. But I feel it makes us dumber as well in a sense. Before the internet you couldn't start a major project without knowing all about it before you started. Now often we will just start, and google any problems on the way, often realising only later on that the initial approach was poorly chosen.
GeekyBear 6y ago
I can still remember with horror a Windows NT networking class that needed every student machine to have three ISA Ethernet cards manually configured with non-conflicting settings. Can you have that ready by tomorrow, they asked after lunch...
- pmarreck 6y ago
  wait why THREE?
  - GeekyBear 6y ago
    Mostly to annoy me? I seem to remember that they intended to simulate WAN links.

amatecha 6y ago

Eh, all of his examples are from the Macintosh world which was indeed much much easier to get on with than pretty much all personal computing today.

cmrdporcupine 6y ago
80s Macs, maybe. But not 90s. I had to help admin an office full of System 7.5 & 7.6 PowerMacs in 1996/1997, all constantly crashing because FileMaker could not run in a stable way at the same time as Netscape, or some extension in the System folder would freeze up the system randomly. Classic MacOS had no memory protection, memory management itself was terrible and not particularly dynamic (reserve N bytes for this app etc.), and the multitasking in System 7 was bolted on in an awkward way, and the migration from 68k to PowerPC introduced a boatload of bugs. The screenshots on the article's page shows System 7.5. Those were the dark ages for the Macintosh frankly. The _concept_ was "it just works" and "computer for the rest of us" but that was the reality only if you stayed on a fairly narrow path, frankly. System 8 was a major improvement.
pmarreck 6y ago
You had extension conflicts all the damn time. There was a utility called Conflict Catcher (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_Catcher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_Catcher) that would identify the culprit by doing basically a binary search and turning off half the extensions and rebooting (many times) and noting if there was a crash, and deducing the problem extension that way. It was kind of like "git bisect" before that was a thing. This craziness is no longer necessary. I mean... when you DID get like 20 extensions all running together stably though, it was AWESOME.
- pcdoodle 6y ago
  I still find myself doing this on Windows 10 with services and it's very manual, I'd love a "conflict catcher".
  - pmarreck 6y ago
    Which services cause instability or problems in Win10? As much as I dislike Win10, that hasn't been a problem for me

GekkePrutser 6y ago

And remember the cut fingers from inserting and removing all the cards constantly trying out new jumper combos just to get the SoundBlaster, graphics card, ZIP drive and whatever other goodies all working at the same time :D

Firehawke 6y ago
I'm surprised those wounds even healed at all considering how much I cut into my fingertips back in the day.

agumonkey 6y ago

It's a matter of perspective. It surely wasn't simpler, but it may have been more joyful somehow.. Maybe the fact that it was slower, less connected, less parts overall too and that you had to get into it. I mean I'm a dev with experience but I have near zero control over my smartphone. There's tons of nice stuff on it (hardware and software) but it doesn't feel much nicer because I actually have no clue about what happens now what I can do.

ulisesrmzroche 6y ago
I think this is one of those preach-to-the-choir HN topics. Like, you may feel joyful if you're the type that likes fiddling with gizmos and wants to know how everything works, but that's not everyone. Most people, they want it to just work (tm).
- agumonkey 6y ago
  I don't deny it, but it might be something that is way more prevalent than people may assume. We're complex animals we like feeling stuff. For instance I've heard people miss playing LPs. You have to fiddle with it, setup the player, take time to install the disc, the arm.. etc It's 100x more complicated than an ipod .. yet people miss it. Ease of use is not all.

linuxlizard 6y ago

Oh lordy, jumper IRQs. I'm so grateful for PCI. The PS/2 and parallel connectors couldn't die fast enough when USB came out.

bserge 6y ago
Configuring IRQs on hardware and in BIOS always made me feel like a hacker. Windows 2000 and earlier also had problems with DHCP, I fixed many network setups back in the day, often half-assing it and just using static IPs/mask :D. Worked surprisingly well for small businesses where they used the same hardware for years.

scruple 6y ago

Yeah. I did, too. I really don't feel inspired to subject my kids to that sort of bullshit. In fact, as a person who takes pride in calling himself a "software engineer," I find it... Disheartening... That this is as far as we've managed to get with personal computing in the last 30 years since I was young and interfacing with a machine. It's actually somehow worse while managing to be "better."

lmm 6y ago

It wasn't easy but it was simple, or something on those lines. You knew which jumpers set what, and when you set an IRQ you'd know what you'd set it to. If two devices were conflicting you could understand how and why. Now we're basically all cargo culting. Every few hours one of my USB devices reconnects itself and I'm genuinely not sure whether it's because of a firmware bug in my docking station or what.