Altair - A different perspective

From: Adam Jenkins <adam_at_merlin.net.au>
Date: Fri Aug 14 13:31:03 1998

>Exactly, the Altair helped kick-off the hobbiest movement by being cheap.
>The Mark-8 did this earlier, but it was so slow and buggy that it was
>pretty much a non-starter. The Altair was an improvement, but it was also
>pretty much a non-starter that fizzled after about 10,000 units. The
>Altair was the grandfather of the S-100 bus and CP/M, both of which
>fizzled and left only a minor mark on MS-DOS, which didn't fizzle.

I think that to say that the S-100 Bus and CP/M "fizzled" is to seriously
understate the value of both. :) I'm sure you don't mean to suggest that
they were without value, but keep in mind that 6 years of dominance (which
is probably the minimum that one would give to CP/M and the S100) is an
incredibly long time in the fledging personal computer field. True, it
doesn't stand up that well to 15+ years of Microsoft, but it was the
dominate architecture on teh market.

>Low prices, enabled by the microprocessor, is one of the elements that got
>us to where we are today. A high-degree of interactivity is another.
>Computer graphics is another. The desktop form-factor is also a strong
>survivor. So, if somebody were really looking at collecting Altairs as the
>machine that "started it all", I think they have been misled and would be
>better off collecting the IBM PC, early Apples, early HP desktops, the
>PDP-8, and all of the PDP-1's they can find :-)

I don't support these high prices, and I'm another of the collectors who
wants to save and use, rather than simply buy and store their systems. I
don't have, nor do I particularly desire, an Altair (but I do really want a
NeXTCube), but the significance of the Altair and the hobbiest movement
should not be measured in terms of computers sold. :) My view is that the
Altair made it clear to hobiests that they could own a computer, and so
even if they didn't buy one it started them dreaming about one. (And yes,
I know it was not the first). This is much the same as with the Lisa -
people didn't necessarily buy them, and indeed they ignored them in great
numbers - but without the Lisa then I doubt the Macintosh would have been
as successful. First you have the great implementation of a grand concept
that you can never own, and then you follow it with an affordable version.
Anyway, the point is that the Altair led to the hobbists, while the
hobbists pushed the tech both in hardware and software, creating the
potential for personal computers to move into new markets. True, this was
a marketing dream of many of the computer companies before the Altair, but
the Altair is definitly one of the most important systems. That's my
opinion, anyway.

As to prices, well I come form a number of collecting backgrounds, and
prices are never increased so much by rarity or actual value, but by
perceived value. When people started thinking Teddy Bears were worth
money, the prices lept ahead - but only in the brands which the collectors
recognised. The Altair is recognised as significant, is relativly
uncommon, and every article on computer history sings it's praises. You
could almost guarentee that the prices would go up.

If only Apple IIc's were worth a fortune - then I could finally get my NeXT. :)

Adam.
Received on Fri Aug 14 1998 - 13:31:03 BST

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