3 ms·

There's something so comfy about these old systems, even though most of them were released before I was born. Perhaps it's just nostalgia for the days of consta

by causi 4y ago

There's something so comfy about these old systems, even though most of them were released before I was born. Perhaps it's just nostalgia for the days of constant improvement.

jmclnx 4y ago
That is my belief, I had a couple of 16 bit proprietary UNIX 8086 systems from the late 80s. I tossed them out over 20 years ago. When I see one of these articles really I wished I kept them, but I know I would rarely use them instead of BSD/Linux. But nostalgia seems to get stronger as you age. You know, good-ole-days and all :)
jhallenworld 4y ago
I like the very early microcomputers where the storage is paper tape punch / reader. Your ASR-33 basically types in your program, or punches it on tape when you "list". You can see some of these on "deramp"'s videos (he is selling Altair clones, but even so the videos are great demos). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv5b1Xowxdk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv5b1Xowxdk The next upgrade to this is something like the AC-30 for SWTPC. It does exactly the same thing, except uses cassette tape. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLvfUJd5PjQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLvfUJd5PjQ Then came disk drives, but no DOS. Instead they use disk the same way you used the cassette: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdCnj8iL1hI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdCnj8iL1hI It was up to you to remember which track your file was on.. Next step: file names, but no automatic space management: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4xmZwcM52w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4xmZwcM52w You write files sequentially to the disk, and you can only write to the end. When you delete there are holes. You can run a defrag program to recover the space. This stuff was all just before my time, but there were vestiges of it in later operating systems in the early 80s.
skeeter2020 4y ago
>> days of constant improvement. It was slower though, so you had time to breathe. Today the pace of "constant" is insane, and I'm not convinced of the "improvement" part.
systemvoltage 4y ago
Not a fan of the term "Nostalgia", often used to discredit why older systems were well engineered, minimal, functional and purposeful. But hey, you're deluded because you're being Nostalgic.
Koshkin 4y ago
As far as the personal computing is concerned, the (relative) simplicity of it, and the openness, were key - and, today, the infinite source of nostalgia. It was a revelation that you can simply set a bit somewhere in memory and see a pixel lit on the screen.

by causi 4y ago

There's something so comfy about these old systems, even though most of them were released before I was born. Perhaps it's just nostalgia for the days of constant improvement.

jmclnx 4y ago

That is my belief, I had a couple of 16 bit proprietary UNIX 8086 systems from the late 80s. I tossed them out over 20 years ago. When I see one of these articles really I wished I kept them, but I know I would rarely use them instead of BSD/Linux. But nostalgia seems to get stronger as you age. You know, good-ole-days and all :)

jhallenworld 4y ago

I like the very early microcomputers where the storage is paper tape punch / reader. Your ASR-33 basically types in your program, or punches it on tape when you "list". You can see some of these on "deramp"'s videos (he is selling Altair clones, but even so the videos are great demos). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv5b1Xowxdk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv5b1Xowxdk The next upgrade to this is something like the AC-30 for SWTPC. It does exactly the same thing, except uses cassette tape. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLvfUJd5PjQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLvfUJd5PjQ Then came disk drives, but no DOS. Instead they use disk the same way you used the cassette: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdCnj8iL1hI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdCnj8iL1hI It was up to you to remember which track your file was on.. Next step: file names, but no automatic space management: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4xmZwcM52w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4xmZwcM52w You write files sequentially to the disk, and you can only write to the end. When you delete there are holes. You can run a defrag program to recover the space. This stuff was all just before my time, but there were vestiges of it in later operating systems in the early 80s.

skeeter2020 4y ago

>> days of constant improvement. It was slower though, so you had time to breathe. Today the pace of "constant" is insane, and I'm not convinced of the "improvement" part.

systemvoltage 4y ago

Not a fan of the term "Nostalgia", often used to discredit why older systems were well engineered, minimal, functional and purposeful. But hey, you're deluded because you're being Nostalgic.

Koshkin 4y ago

As far as the personal computing is concerned, the (relative) simplicity of it, and the openness, were key - and, today, the infinite source of nostalgia. It was a revelation that you can simply set a bit somewhere in memory and see a pixel lit on the screen.