4 ms·
Something tells me that the author was never around for the rats nest of incompatible micro computers that arrived in the early 80's: kaypro, osbourne, pet, co
by iamelgringo 17y ago
Something tells me that the author was never around for the rats nest of incompatible micro computers that arrived in the early 80's: kaypro, osbourne, pet, commodore, texas instuments, ibm, apple, atari, coleco...
All of those computers companies made their own computers and OS's and a completely different stack of software and hardware peripherals. IBM getting into the game and creating a defacto standard with their hardware and software choices helped create a boom in the computer industry that we're still riding.
- allenbrunson 17y agooh man, do i ever not agree with that. i was around for the birth of the microcomputer, and those were very interesting days indeed. here's somebody else who thinks so as well: "[...] But I think that there will be a good long period of cheerful chaos, just as there was in the early days of microcomputers. That was a good time for startups. Lots of small companies flourished, and did it by making cool things." http://www.paulgraham.com/road.html http://www.paulgraham.com/road.html as the micro situation "stabilized," with most of the competitors going out of business, the fun went with them. the darkest period in the days of high-tech was when microsoft so thoroughly dominated everything that they were stifling innovation.
- sfnhltb 17y agoLess fun, but it meant computers went from being a novelty to the core of the vast majority of businesses. This was not a coincidence.