| Oxford 2007-10-26, 10:33 am |
| In article <alpine.OSX.0.9999.0710251727240.4480@pangtzu.panda.com>,
Mark Crispin <mrc@CAC.Washington.EDU> wrote:
> Not by a long shot.
>
> The Altair was out in January 1975, followed in August 1975 by the IMSAI
> 8080.
didn't have a keyboard or a screen or a floppy drive, or any drive.
until much, much later. the apple ][ was the first PC, you need to
accept history, not try and be a revisionist.
> The PDP-8 (introduced in 1965) was a personal computer, especially the
> PDP-8/e/f/m and PDP-8/a.
riiiiiight, it was about as personal as an aircraft carrier. can't
believe you even tried to include mini-computers as PCs. funny!
> Xerox had the Alto in 1973. The Alto was so great that Apple copied it a
> decade later to create Lisa (later Macintosh). It had a GUI text editor
> complete with fonts, and even its own version of Space Invaders and Maze
> Wars. Alto was also the client platform for which Ethernet was invented.
the Alto was never sold, nor was it "personal".
> I forget when the IMLAC PDS-1 came out, but that too was a personal
> computer and it preceeded the Alto.
not a personal computer however.
> The Datapoint 2200 (anyone remember those?) was arguably a personal
> computer, and came out in 1970.
it was just a terminal.
> Although somewhat large, the IBM 1130 was also arguably a personal
> computer and that was late 1960s/early 1970s. I vividly remember
> APL\1130, a largely compatible single-user version of APL\360. The 1130
> was a bit large and power hungry for home use though...
yes, and the IBM System 36 was a personal computer correct? :)
> The earliest that I can find of a reference to the term "personal
> computer" is a New York Times article in 1962. In the mid 1970s, lots of
> people were talking about personal computers and how to internetwork (note
> the small "i") them. IIRC, REM's PCNET mailing list appeared in 1974 or
> 1975.
but none are regarded as personal computers. that happened with the
Apple ][. learn your history mark.
> The main thing introduced by the Apple ][, Commodore Pet, Atari 800, IBM
> PC, etc. was the transformation of personal computers from being the
> province of hobbyists and research labs to being home appliances. There
> is no doubt that the Apple ][ played a significant part. Similarly, the
> IBM PC some years later established the multi-vendor standardization
> necessary for PCs to be successful business tools.
good, now you are starting to catch on.
> These were important contributions; but in the environment of the 1970s
> these developments were inevitable. Lots of people were working on, and
> talking about, personal computers.
sure, but the Apple ][ was the definitive machine that sold millions all
the way up to 1993, it is considered the "first true" personal computer
by all historians. Its original design is what many PCs sold today still
use.
> This is perhaps fortunate, because if Apple had "invented" the personal
> computer, it would have been patented and prevented the vigorous
> competition that created the industry we know today. Yet another example
> of the benefit of open design over closed design.
well, they invented the first personal computer that sold in large
volumes, had tons of "personal" software and went on to form the
foundation that IBM later copied with their IBM PC in 1981.
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