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It represents a unique time in the history of computers -- an important gap between the mainframe era that came before it and the standard PC and internet eras
by dtagames 2y ago
It represents a unique time in the history of computers -- an important gap between the mainframe era that came before it and the standard PC and internet eras that came after it. The wide variety of inexpensive and incompatible machines offered at that time has never been seen before or since.
This maverick era produced all kinds of innovation that simply doesn't happen today with one-fits-all computers that are controlled remotely by operating systems and cloud services. Modern machines bear no resemblance to 80's home computers except in their purity as computing machines, Turing machines, with simple I/O and programming.
Once you find out "how it all works" and that all computers are the same, one develops a certain interest in how we got there and perhaps a wistfulness for what things might have become. Home computers of the early 80's is where that answer lies.
- rcarmo 2y agoYep. You had: 1) Completely stand-alone machines with just enough expansion to then get some form of connectivity (or added data storage) 2) Self-contained, instant boot systems without an "OS" as we know it today (instant on is much more fun than it might seem), and that you explored until you could learn literally what every single register/port did. 3) Single-box systems with almost everything under or behind the keyboard, that you had to plug into a TV to get anything done with. There was a purposefulness and immediacy to using those machines that is absent from today's bloated, over-connected, highly distracting and ADHD-inducing systems. It was, in short, a more civilised time :)
- Cockbrand 2y agoAlso, what came after this era it was either boring (standard x86 PCs) or too complex to easily maintain over decades, e.g. Suns or SGIs with failing [UW]SCSI drives that are hard to replace these days.