Memoirs -
Computer Hacking - and A short Course on Computers
(preliminary)
I spend most of my time these days (2000 and later) playing with PCs and using and publishing my numerous websites on www.spaiser.net .
It all started years ago (the early 1970s) in Boston when at the IEEE engineering convention I attended a presentation by the Fairchild Corporation. At that presentation the president of that company introduced the first (or second) single-chip microcomputer. It was a big step up from the machine I used at MRI at the school I went to and worked at (the room size computer with not a single solid state device).
To seed (literally) our interest at the end he threw handfuls of these chips into the audience. I did not get one but went to my electronics distributor soon thereafter and got not only the chip but the "development kit."
In those days there were no computer keyboards or disks or monitors. You used a (surplus) teletype (TTY) machine. There was no such things as pictures and the TTY was both the keyboard and the printer (output). Again - no screen of any kind.
Also - programming was done in "machine code" which is the most primitive level of computer coding. Although it is still what is inside a modern computer, machine code is so primitive we do not ever see it anymore.
The F8 was a great step forward (followed by the Intel 4040 and 8080 single chip microcomputers. The F8 and Fairchild never went anywhere in the computer business, but the 8080 and an upstart (which I think is today's AMD introduced the 53XX series which eventually were used in Apple computers. Of course Intel competed with the first PC - designed and built by IBM, but it was primitive compared to the early Apple machines. By then there were monitor screens and floppy disks (at least). The term PC was coined and even though it stands for the generic term Personal Computer, it became associated with only IBM type machines.
There were some early computers which came and went (in America), the Commodore and its big brother the Amiga plus an old favorite for joking - the Tandy (Radio Shack TRS-80). These machines ran rings around the PC for early computer games with dramatic action graphics. The first flight simulator program was actually written for a Commodore.
However in the world of big business, IBM had too much weight for the little upstart Apple to overcome. However this may have not been the reason for the split today in home computers. For some reason Apple decided to keep its designs confidential and did not license its patents to anyone. Thus apple computers and parts were made only by the Apple Computer Company. IBM, on the other hand, did no such thing. They call this "open architecture" and allowed many manufacturers to build so-called PCs and PC parts (like boards that fit into PCs).
This almost counter-intuitive division of philosophies and the business world's preference for big names meant business applications were developed for the PC, not the apple, and all businesses had PCs. Thus PCs proliferated, while the Apple like machines and the Apple itself retained a niche of devotees, mostly people who didn't like big business or IBM in particular.
There was also the so-called operating system (OS) that was originally required. There was CPM and GEM. CPM ran on the PC and GEM ran on both, I think. I used it for years. It was the first graphic based (as opposed to text based) OS. CPM was text based. Monitors displayed green text on a black background. Also the big problem was storage devices which for these early machines often consisted of tape recorders.
Then came Bill Gates. Sometimes in the 1980s he first took CPM concepts and developed DOS (Disk Operating System). By then IBM introduced the first hard disk which had the staggering capacity of 10 Megabytes - that's 10 Megs - megabytes abbreviated Mb, not Gigs - gigabytes abbreviated as Gb (1000 Megs = 1 Gig)
The next level of storage devices are in the Terabyte range and are appearing as I write for home use. One terabyte = 1000 gigs. There must be an abbreviation for a terabyte of storage but I am not sure if is Tb or what. Note that commercial computer systems called servers on which many people operate, and especially with the start of the Internet and Internet service providers needed terabytes of storage years ago (well, at least 10 years ago).
A company like Yahoo probably has computers with many many terabytes of storage. I suspect they already have as much as 1000 terabytes which put them in a new category I do not know the name of yet. Also after IBM started loosing business to Apple and Amiga because of the graphic interface it introduced Windows. The original Windows was so bad because the computers (with 8080 type microcomputer chips could not run it with and kind of efficiency. At the time Intel had the I-286 and I-386. The 386 and Microsoft finally made Windows feasible, but just barely. Apple and similar machines still ran circles around these machines.
But with the support of a very large corporate customer base, Intel and Microsoft worked together to make better microcomputer chips and better versions of Windows. Eventually Intel introduced the Pentium line and Microsoft graduated from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 - which was the year it was introduced.
It is hard for me to believe it was just 11 years ago. Next came Windows 98, then 2000 and the current versions of Windows-XP. Meanwhile Apple finally opened their architecture (but too late to be of much use - and still much more expensive than the cheap PC stuff made in China).
Also with the introduction of the dual-chip Apple machines and OS-10 they continued to hold their share of the market. Apple computers are still better than PCs for graphic applications, and you will see graphic artists using Apple Macintosh computers almost exclusively.
However, now with huge recourses Gates & Co. funded or gave others necessary information to develop similar graphic software for the PC. And with new multiprocessor PCs and XP, many applications run as fast. But for graphics professionals there is still no substitute for a high-end Apple machine with OS-10.
Apple also introduced the smaller Imac - which in its basic configuration was reasonable in price and attracted many PC haters. The basic Imac is actually very minimally capable and doesn't compare to a PC of similar price, but it is small, all in one case, and probably more reliable than a similar PC.
All this means you have to buy components (printers etc.) and software that is either for one or the other, or designed to work with both.