Article View: alt.folklore.computers
Article #625365Re: Microsoft's PDP-10s
From: Questor
Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2018 18:23
Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2018 18:23
40 lines
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3651 bytes
On Wed, 1 Aug 2018 13:22:49 -0700 (PDT), hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: >On Monday, July 30, 2018 at 6:25:49 PM UTC-4, Quadibloc wrote: >> On Saturday, July 28, 2018 at 3:03:35 PM UTC-6, JimP wrote: >> > We >> > decided that no home computyer would ever have a CPU that ran at 1 GHz >> > or better, nor have a gigabyte of ram. >> >> > We were wrong. >> >> Ah, well. >> >> I think there is a world market for maybe five computers. >> - Attributed to Thomas J. Watson (Sr.), but likely spurious > >I've tried to research that, but never could find any source >of that quote, so I doubt it is true. Watson Sr did support >the construction of the 701 as a general purpose computer >to be sold to anyone, as opposed to a special-purpose computer >for a unique user (as many were in those days). > > >> There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home. >> - Kenneth H. Olsen, founder of the Digital Equipment Corporation > >I don't know (if) or when that was said, but by the early 1960s, >home computers (actually a terminal connected to a super mainframe) >were definitely a hot topic. He said it -- around 1977, if memory serves. The hobby market was just beginning to emerge at the time. The machines were relatively slow, had very little storage, and were somewhat complicated to use. The justifications for having one in the home were quite flimsy. Balancing one's checkbook, or storing and re-portioning recipes were often cited as the usual reasons. It would be a few years before computers started becoming more common in the home, primarily for playing games. And it was a few more years after that when their use as communications terminals drove widespread adoption. In a sense, Ken Olsen was right. Very few people do any actual computing with their computers.
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X-Received: by 2002:adf:e784:: with SMTP id n4-v6mr789588wrm.14.1533320607336; Fri, 03 Aug 2018 11:23:27 -0700 (PDT) X-BeenThere: alt.folklore.computers@googlegroups.com Received: by 2002:a7b:c0c8:: with SMTP id s8-v6ls1561370wmh.10.canary-gmail; Fri, 03 Aug 2018 11:23:26 -0700 (PDT) X-Received: by 2002:a1c:9652:: with SMTP id y79-v6mr1757wmd.29.1533320606558; Fri, 03 Aug 2018 11:23:26 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 Path: mbox-mo1.pugleaf.net!p4-v6ni12961wmb.0!nntp.google.com!feeder1-2.proxad.net!proxad.net!feeder1-1.proxad.net!feeder.ecngs.de!ecngs!feeder2.ecngs.de!87.79.20.101.MISMATCH!newsreader4.netcologne.de!news.netcologne.de!peer01.ams1!peer.ams1.xlned.com!news.xlned.com!peer01.am4!peer.am4.highwinds-media.com!peer02.iad!feed-me.highwinds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!post02.iad!fx04.iad.POSTED!not-for-mail From: usenet@only.tnx (Questor) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Microsoft's PDP-10s Organization: random access Reply-To: usenet@only.tnx Message-ID: <5b649d93.6466237@news.dslextreme.com> References: <pis39j$mii$1@sdf.lonestar.org> <pjfunr$mfr$1@sdf.lonestar.org> <0bdfaae7-ccd1-4617-975c-4994af3ed1a5@googlegroups.com> <930f8190-5ab3-465e-8c51-55a8ace70fe8@googlegroups.com> <slrnplp0gp.4k5.mausg@smaus.org> <20180728174042.a45a47406a109bfc579d70ce@eircom.net> <slrnplp8q2.6ma.mausg@smaus.org> <p2mpld9mmk79329sobc7utv88vb07sgpnv@4ax.com> <86794864-1ef9-40d3-814b-74346ff73b38@googlegroups.com> <a7f2cdb1-3563-4979-b4cf-b548d1ca80bb@googlegroups.com> X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.21/32.243 Lines: 41 X-Complaints-To: abu...@dslextreme.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2018 18:23:25 UTC Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2018 18:23:36 GMT X-Received-Bytes: 2878 X-Received-Body-CRC: 1803709971 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit