4 ms·

I think it is a form nostalgia. But, the early 80s was a fast changing time for tech where new and much more powerful hardware was coming out almost every day.

by jmclnx 2y ago

I think it is a form nostalgia. But, the early 80s was a fast changing time for tech where new and much more powerful hardware was coming out almost every day. Plus, tech was not controlled by large corporations as it is now. Back then there were many small hardware/software vendors competing and in many cases helping each other advancing. Now, everything is vanilla and controlled by Large Corps. Me, I miss the days before GUIs, I always thought plain text interfaces were and still are the better in many cases than point/click.

39896880 2y ago
>Plus, tech was not controlled by large corporations as it is now. Back then there were many small hardware/software vendors competing and in many cases helping each other advancing. Now, everything is vanilla and controlled by Large Corps. Yes. My mother’s first computer was made by a company in Northern Kentucky called Thoroughbred Computers. It was tremendously expensive but locally made.
ThrowawayR2 2y ago
> "Plus, tech was not controlled by large corporations as it is now." IBM would beg to differ. They were monopolists in a way that Microsoft and Google are only pale imitations of. "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM" and the term FUD were coined to describe them. The entire x86 hardware ecosystem has its roots in IBM's dominance through the original IBM PC hardware architecture. One aspect of why the '80s-'90s were interesting to the retro enthusiast because it was the era with the most diversity and competition in home computing. By 2000 or so, the IBM PC standard had steamrollered every other competitor, leaving only the Mac occupying a small niche.
- hx8 2y ago
  When I went to college in the late '00s I was able to find several other Linux users. The counter culture to the Windows/Mac duopoly was alive and well. In some ways we won by being accepted as mainstream for certain niches. Between WSL, Steamdeck and Docker Linux has seen more adoption than I was expecting.
  - psd1 2y ago
    I've always assumed that Linux's server-side dominance was fated by providing an apache Web server for zero monetary cost. IIS was several years behind and cost money. I can't imagine Facebook running on IIS in 2004, for example.
microtonal 2y ago
But, the early 80s was a fast changing time for tech where new and much more powerful hardware was coming out almost every day. I feel like the nineties are more like that. Deep into the 80ies, most people would probably still get something with a Z80 or MOS 6502/6510. If you were rich, maybe you got an XT 4.77 MHz somewhere in the 80ies. The 80286 and later the 80386 were out of reach for most consumers. The late 80ies to late 90ies things change rapidly. The 386, 486 (remember going from SX to DX) and Pentium all became in reach for normal households. At the start of the 90ies most people would still have a PC speaker, but then within 1-2 years everyone got Sound Blasters (or clones). Around 1992 or so CD-ROM drives start to become popular. In 1996 3D games go to the next level as 3dfx blasts onto the market. People start getting internet at home. In the 90ies, if you got a PC, it would already be outdated in 6-12 months. This was certainly not the case in the 80ies (or 00s, 10s, or 20s). Also on the software side there are huge shifts. Outside Apple, PCs and home computers were mostly command-line interfaces in the 80ies. But in the early to mid-90ies graphical interfaces took over the world (Windows 3.x becoming a major hit), true multi-tasking becomes more important (OS/2, Windows 95, Windows NT), etc.
AnimalMuppet 2y ago
> But, the early 80s was a fast changing time for tech where new and much more powerful hardware was coming out almost every day. This. It was an amazing time. Like, it was a trip to read the ads in the monthly computer magazines. There would be several each month that would be something I never even dreamed of doing with a computer. Groundbreaking advances every month, over and over. That feeling - that revolutionary advances were being made all the time - was amazing while it lasted. While it lasted. A lot of people may want to feel that again. But I think you can't go home again. From the vantage point of 40 years of (slower) advances later, those things look pretty primitive. It won't feel the same.

by jmclnx 2y ago

39896880 2y ago

>Plus, tech was not controlled by large corporations as it is now. Back then there were many small hardware/software vendors competing and in many cases helping each other advancing. Now, everything is vanilla and controlled by Large Corps. Yes. My mother’s first computer was made by a company in Northern Kentucky called Thoroughbred Computers. It was tremendously expensive but locally made.

ThrowawayR2 2y ago

> "Plus, tech was not controlled by large corporations as it is now." IBM would beg to differ. They were monopolists in a way that Microsoft and Google are only pale imitations of. "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM" and the term FUD were coined to describe them. The entire x86 hardware ecosystem has its roots in IBM's dominance through the original IBM PC hardware architecture. One aspect of why the '80s-'90s were interesting to the retro enthusiast because it was the era with the most diversity and competition in home computing. By 2000 or so, the IBM PC standard had steamrollered every other competitor, leaving only the Mac occupying a small niche.

hx8 2y ago
When I went to college in the late '00s I was able to find several other Linux users. The counter culture to the Windows/Mac duopoly was alive and well. In some ways we won by being accepted as mainstream for certain niches. Between WSL, Steamdeck and Docker Linux has seen more adoption than I was expecting.
- psd1 2y ago
  I've always assumed that Linux's server-side dominance was fated by providing an apache Web server for zero monetary cost. IIS was several years behind and cost money. I can't imagine Facebook running on IIS in 2004, for example.

microtonal 2y ago

But, the early 80s was a fast changing time for tech where new and much more powerful hardware was coming out almost every day. I feel like the nineties are more like that. Deep into the 80ies, most people would probably still get something with a Z80 or MOS 6502/6510. If you were rich, maybe you got an XT 4.77 MHz somewhere in the 80ies. The 80286 and later the 80386 were out of reach for most consumers. The late 80ies to late 90ies things change rapidly. The 386, 486 (remember going from SX to DX) and Pentium all became in reach for normal households. At the start of the 90ies most people would still have a PC speaker, but then within 1-2 years everyone got Sound Blasters (or clones). Around 1992 or so CD-ROM drives start to become popular. In 1996 3D games go to the next level as 3dfx blasts onto the market. People start getting internet at home. In the 90ies, if you got a PC, it would already be outdated in 6-12 months. This was certainly not the case in the 80ies (or 00s, 10s, or 20s). Also on the software side there are huge shifts. Outside Apple, PCs and home computers were mostly command-line interfaces in the 80ies. But in the early to mid-90ies graphical interfaces took over the world (Windows 3.x becoming a major hit), true multi-tasking becomes more important (OS/2, Windows 95, Windows NT), etc.

AnimalMuppet 2y ago

> But, the early 80s was a fast changing time for tech where new and much more powerful hardware was coming out almost every day. This. It was an amazing time. Like, it was a trip to read the ads in the monthly computer magazines. There would be several each month that would be something I never even dreamed of doing with a computer. Groundbreaking advances every month, over and over. That feeling - that revolutionary advances were being made all the time - was amazing while it lasted. While it lasted. A lot of people may want to feel that again. But I think you can't go home again. From the vantage point of 40 years of (slower) advances later, those things look pretty primitive. It won't feel the same.