The first computer that I bought was a TRS-80 (they were NOT called "Model
1" in those days). To ME, the "first PCs" were S100. But that stuff is
all subjective!
EVERYBODY has a certain point in time representing the first personal
computer that they saw advertised that THEY seriously considered buying.
(sometimes slightly preceeding the first one that they BOUGHT). THAT
point in time is what they associate with "the FIRST PC".
There is normally an acknowledgement that there EXISTED other machines
before that, but those were "not really USABLE yet." And therefore,
"don't count". I was well aware of the existence of other previous
machines, but they didn't really count for me until S100. Therefore,
"generic S100" was the "FIRST PC" in MY timeline. But the TRS-80 was the
first one in my price range. After lusting after multi-thousand dollar
machines for a while, I was able to get a new TRS-80 for $399 (by skipping
their monitor and recorder). I didn't know how to get an Apple for <$1K.
That point in time will certainly vary from one person to another. But
that basic understanding of what is meant by "the FIRST PC" is why so many
of the PC-Week type of "timeline"s start with the AT, Lotus, and
WordPervert. (There was a guy on CM a while back who was attributing the
development of the 640K boundary and memory mapped video to Lotus!) And
it is why "history"s by folks like Cringely will normally closely follow
their personal interests, and barely notice other branches that they
hadn't been interested in at the time.
So, DRI dropped "Intergalctic" before the IBM PC. C'mon folks, there must
be SOME way that I can blame IBM for the loss of humor in microcomputers!
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin_at_xenosoft.com
Received on Wed Apr 21 1999 - 17:40:19 BST