Mike-- There's a difference between available and affordable. There were certainly 'personal' (in the sense of used by one person as opposed to a multiuser mainframe) before the Trinity. Steve Wozniak made two crucial contributions: First, a motherboard made from cheap components, with an easily usable bus. Second, a compact BASIC available in ROM (after the first machines) designed to make game programming easy. When schools started buying computers to teach basic programming, the Apple had an advantage.
Apple, Commodore and Radio Shack (affectionately known as the Trash 80) made affordable and ac acessible computers. The mass market began. On Dec 4, 2011, at 7:41 PM, Mike Palij wrote: > While those Tipsters who care can puzzle out the koan "what was > Steve Jobs original contribution" (something that Jobs, the > Zen Buddhist might have appreciated; for Jobs' Buddhism > see: > http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lama-surya-das/the-zen-of-steve-jobs-rig_b_1100107.html > > But I have to say that Jobs probably could have written a > book titled "Zen and the Art of Marketing" and not appreciate > the irony), it is useful to keep in mind where Jobs and Apple > fall in the history of personal computing. Wikipedia has a > nice little entry on the long history of personal computer > (yadda-yadda) and it might be useful to remember that > Apple was just one part of the Trinity of the late 1970s, > no matter how much others might try to make Jobs out to > be JC; see: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_personal_computers > > It is somewhat surprising to find out that the first personal > computer was available in 1950 and that other personal > computers were subsequently available, both in kit form > and complete products such as Olivetti's Programma 101 > (which was shown in the 1965 World's Fair in NYC); see: > http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/wsj/access/168968782.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&date=Oct+15%2C+1965&author=By+a+WALL+STREET+JOURNAL+Staff+Reporter&pub=Wall+Street+Journal+%281923+-+Current+file%29&edition=&startpage=3&type=historic&desc=Desk-Top+Size+Computer+Is+Being+Sold+by+Olivetti+For+First+Time+in+U.S. > > or > http://tinyurl.com/olivettiPC --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=14633 or send a blank email to leave-14633-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
