Oct

26

I became involved in the personal computer movement back in the early days. I built an 8 bit, Intel 8008 powered computer from a July 1974 magazine article in Radio Electronics. I also started one of the first "home computer" clubs at NASA/Houston in 1975, so I have been a really long-time observer of this technological development.

I have been amazed at the development of what has become the worship of Apple, even from the early days of the Apple 1. Now an anthropologist has confirmed that it has become a religion.

Today Apple Inc. has become a mammoth corporation. All very interesting.

John Bollinger writes:

I was just a few years behind you, starting with a z80 S100 system in 1978. Indeed, I developed Bollinger Bands on such a system. In those years there were a wide of microcomputer choices and many users moved around from platform to platform, but the Apple people were exclusive from the start. They used separate stores, forums, bulletin boards, user groups, ect… It seemed that with Apple you were either in or out, whereas with other platforms there was a lot of cross fertilization, debate and movement. One could work with a Commodore, Radio Shack, S100, cp/m, Atari, Sinclair, etc. user, even with some of the mini-computer users, PDP, VAX, etc., but rarely with an Apple user. The dividing line seemed to be memory mapping versus port mapping, with Apple's 6502 using memory mapping while much of the rest of field used port mapping, a distinction that faded long ago. My take is that the closed culture was deliberately fostered by Apple's founders to ensure the success of their brand.

David Lilienfeld writes:

I too remember those early days, having built the first MITS machine. Running a program meant flipping toggle switches up and down. The 8008 was followed by the 8080, which was a great chip with which to design. It was a lot easier than the 8008. There were only two competitors of note–the Motorola 6800 and the AMD 6502. That's how Motorola and Advanced Micro entered the microprocessor market (and the world introduced to Jerry Saunders, who could have taught Liberace a thing or two about flamboyance).The Z80 followed in due course. By then, the TRS-80 came on the scene, along with the first set of Apple computers. Those were heady days. Just getting a "Star Trek" program to work was considered a major accomplishment.

I'm not so amazed by Apple's development, per se, as by its rescue from the trash heaps of the PC industry. This isn't close to being the arrogant company that built the Lisa and the original Mac. I'm not sure it is a religion, though. Look at what's already happening with the early adopters and the new iPad. This situation is like the original versions of Word, and the Microsoft fans (Microsoft worship in corporations was pretty prevalent, though nothing like Apple). As with Microsoft, this support of Apple will in time pass.

Jeff Watson writes:

I remember my first Commodore and thought that being able to figure out empirical calculations(curve fitting) with major fudge factors to describe grain prices was the cat's meow. But then again I thought my old HP 35 calculator was something.

 


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2 Comments so far

  1. dave whitesel on October 29, 2012 8:09 am

    As part of the original group who established Apples original channels of distribution, i have many stories, one in particular is that of the inertia in the early 80’s economy created by IBM’s sway over MIS Departments. Once we were invited into a Huge Omaha based Insurance company whose signature was linked to Wild Something or other. Various departments want to get control over thier budgetting so we were to show VisiCalc on the Apple II.

    During the course of the demonstration a bunch of folded arms hovering around the table stepped up to the table and the leader, who was later revealed as an MIS muckty muck, with red face and viens popping, spittle flying, asked us to leave, stating in no uncertain terms that these tools would never be allowed here.

    Naturally we felt sad for them, embarrassed for the staff who had just been undermined for wanting to do thier jobs…better.

    Needless to say; the “Never happen here” faded fast, as 6 months later the IBM PC came out and this companies attitude rapidly changed…..once Lotus 123 came along, the momentum of the industry was sealed, and MIS started its long slide into support for these micro tools.

    We had a lot of fun creating the evangelical movement that was Apple, critical to it all was penetrating the education market using a whole range of formerly connected school affiliated personages, who became, Apple entreprenuers.

  2. Georg Cantor on November 2, 2012 1:15 pm

    I remember making my first computer: a Chinese abacus model with 50 columns! It was top of the line and advanced for its time. The abacus was made out of the finest pine wood, and the abacus had bamboo rods, and genuine pine wood beads, which could slide up and down effortlessly. I made the abacus myself, and spent many months designing this computing machine. I annihilated the competition in my high school class against the saps who brought in their fancy-smancy HP-35, HP-65, HP-45. They were no match against my abacus! Those were the days…

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