3 ms·

>wild transitional Not even close to the huge shift from 1989 to 1999.

by anthk 3y ago

FirmwareBurner 3y ago
Meh, PCs weren't so mainstream in consumers' homes back then, it was still more a thing for businesses and nerds, as the tech was quite limited for entertainment and HW still quite expensive for the casual user. Yes hardware progress was fast, but it was also quite expensive and difficult to set up and use, a lot of the times buggy and with compatibility issues, and it would get outdated far too quickly[1] to the point you'd spend a fortune on a new GPU which would be obsolete in a year and the company would go bankrupt in 2 years, leaving you with no games that would support it anymore, turning you expensive GPU in a worthless paperweight. It was rough being a a consumer back then unless you were loaded to afford keeping up with the upgrades and stomaching the teething issues and quick obsolescence. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRHIz97L2iI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRHIz97L2iI
- anthk 3y ago
  OTOH, you could browse the web with Lynx just fine in 2004, post into Slashdot, read most of tech sites seamlessly and even by 2011 you could download full albums from Jamendo/Magnatune and the like. Nowadays you need a Core Duo as a bare minimum for JS ridden sites in order to read something if Lynx/Linsk doesn't work with a fake UA like the PSP one in order to enforce the basic article mode for some overused CMS.
kalleboo 3y ago
True, but as PC and Internet adoption increased, more people were exposed and have nostalgia and memories of the period. The mid-to-late 90's also had a high level of techo-optimism, but I feel there was still a lot more mainstream skepticism that this all this technology would actually be useful which had mostly gone away by mid 2000. I just saw a bit with Bill Gates on Letterman about early Internet audio streaming where the reaction was "have you heard of radio?"

>wild transitional Not even close to the huge shift from 1989 to 1999.

by anthk 3y ago

>wild transitional Not even close to the huge shift from 1989 to 1999.

Meh, PCs weren't so mainstream in consumers' homes back then, it was still more a thing for businesses and nerds, as the tech was quite limited for entertainment and HW still quite expensive for the casual user. Yes hardware progress was fast, but it was also quite expensive and difficult to set up and use, a lot of the times buggy and with compatibility issues, and it would get outdated far too quickly[1] to the point you'd spend a fortune on a new GPU which would be obsolete in a year and the company would go bankrupt in 2 years, leaving you with no games that would support it anymore, turning you expensive GPU in a worthless paperweight. It was rough being a a consumer back then unless you were loaded to afford keeping up with the upgrades and stomaching the teething issues and quick obsolescence. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRHIz97L2iI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRHIz97L2iI

anthk 3y ago
OTOH, you could browse the web with Lynx just fine in 2004, post into Slashdot, read most of tech sites seamlessly and even by 2011 you could download full albums from Jamendo/Magnatune and the like. Nowadays you need a Core Duo as a bare minimum for JS ridden sites in order to read something if Lynx/Linsk doesn't work with a fake UA like the PSP one in order to enforce the basic article mode for some overused CMS.

kalleboo 3y ago

True, but as PC and Internet adoption increased, more people were exposed and have nostalgia and memories of the period. The mid-to-late 90's also had a high level of techo-optimism, but I feel there was still a lot more mainstream skepticism that this all this technology would actually be useful which had mostly gone away by mid 2000. I just saw a bit with Bill Gates on Letterman about early Internet audio streaming where the reaction was "have you heard of radio?"