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0 pointsTuringTest8y ago0 comments

> I mean the utility of the computer was instantly recognized and brought into offices as soon as practically possible.

You may be too young to remember, but that is definitely not true. During the 80's, the only use they could advertise computers to adults was "you can keep you recipies in it" and "you can do accounting". Heck, "there is a world market for about five computers" was a sentence aimed at business at some point.

Wait till the Marketing departments find a way to create the need on all those FB followers, with those "trendy lifestyle" ads.

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drzaiusapelord8y ago

> "you can keep you recipies in it"

That's kinda BS revisionism. I'm an older guy and remember everyone losing their minds over games, BBS's, and such. The utility and acceptance was instant. And that's just the home market. In business they were on every desk well before we had that conversation.

And lets remember the 'grandma' factor was taken care of back then by moving off the CLI and memorized commands and onto a mouse-based WIMP graphical system. VR is like CLI and memorized commands. There's no way around strapping a giant screen on your face and all the negative aspects that entails.

cr0sh8y ago

> That's kinda BS revisionism.

Maybe it was regional. I got my first computer in 1984 (A TRS-80 Color Computer 2). I was 11 years old. Of my friends, only a few had computers, mostly to play games. Their parents didn't tend to use them at all.

Even when I left high school in 1991, very few of my friends had a computer. Computer were more or less "everywhere", in that you could easily get one if you wanted one: If you wanted a TRS-80, you went to Radio Shack, if you wanted something else like a C=64 or similar, you went to Sears, Montgomery Wards, Target, or Walmart, or another department store. If you wanted an Apple IIe or a Mac or a PC - you went to ComputerLand. Sometimes a department store, or Circuit City. Or you went and researched the various computer magazines, and bought the machine from a vendor in there (based on friends or whatnot reviews) or got it direct from the manufacturer.

Even so - they weren't common. After high school, I moved to Phoenix, Arizona (which I call 'home' now) - and it still didn't seem like computers were common for people outside of geeks and businesses. Work was where most people seemed to use a computer, but not a lot of them had a computer in their home. More people had VCRs than computers. More people had Nintendos (NES or Super) than computers.

It was still a fairly niche hobby thing - I remember walking into small mom-n-pop shops to buy a hard drive, or a modem - usually for my Amiga at the time, but for PCs as well. Things were still at that level, even in Phoenix (if you wanted to go to the "mecca" of the time - you made a trip out to Insight).

That really all changed sometime around 1993 or so, with 486 machines becoming affordable, CD-ROM drives becoming ubiquitous, and the SoundBlaster being "mainstream". Suddenly, relatively cheap machines with fairly astounding capabilities were available (16 bit graphics for more colors, CD-ROM drives for music and multi-media, and a powerful-enough processor to tie it all together - interestingly, had Commodore had a better marketing team, things might be much different today, because most of that was available almost 10 years prior).

Plus you had stores like Best Buy springing up, and (I'm not sure on this?) something must've changed a bit in lending practices, because that's the first I recall that stores started to have their own branded credit cards (though Sears and Montgomery Wards did before then - but both of those guys were behemoths at the time). Or maybe it was that those new stores (compared to the old guard) offered terms of payback with no interest at 90, 120, or one year terms? I'm not sure - but Best Buy is what started me on my credit journey, along with renting my own apartment.

I also transitioned to a 486 and played Myst like a fiend. One could also argue that game helped to get PCs into people's homes as well. Maybe in a way it was a "perfect storm" of things all being there in one package: Hardware, software, games, marketing, credit, and a place to get it all in a "modern" setting (and no hassle from salesmen, which was Best Buy's shtick of the time)?

I don't think that is revisionism; maybe not the complete story, but not a fabrication, either. Just how I remember it...

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