Love the discussions

[ajg617]

The mid to late 70s was the wild west for software. Microsoft did not originate
the Windows platform. Zerox had developed it and literally gave it to Microsoft (all 5 of them).
Zerox had no practical use for it because at the time most PCs did not have have enough power to run Windows.

Bob A.

I've seen the patent Wang was granted for a DOS OS. Patent attorney friend filed it but Wang had no interest in DOS and as memory recalls, that found it's way to Gates as well pretty much at no cost. Wang was too busy battling with IBM.
Trivia - Wang was the first computer company to run a super-bowl ad - 1978 - well before the famous 1984 Apple ad.

[Jerryr]

The mid to late 70s was the wild west for software. Microsoft did not originate
the Windows platform. Zerox had developed it and literally gave it to Microsoft (all 5 of them).
Zerox had no practical use for it because at the time most PCs did not have have enough power to run Windows.

Bob A.

Xerox screwed up giving the mouse away. I worked at Xerox for 38 years starting in great days of the early 70’s. I still have my Xerox M20i laser printer that I use every day to print and scan

IBM 360 with punch cards brings back memories of my college days.
Commodore 64 my first personal computer
Xerox 820 CPM machine with 8” floppies was delivered to my house on a pallet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_820
Remember reading text as it came across on a 300 baud modem, then 1200 Hayes then 2400
I ran a ftp server at home for my employees to store and retrieve needed technical info. I’m grandfathered in with DYNDNS for a free lifetime account that I created in the 70s that I still use.




Now I have multiple machines running at home on a fios internet. I just did an iP scan of my home network and it has 36 devices on it. We’ve come a long way.

[SolarPoweredRV]

So true.

Anyone ever heard of an IBM 360 computer.
An even older computer was an IBM 1401, I programmed both in a language called Autocoder and SPS.
Bob A.

In High School I programmed on an IBM 1401 using 40 character, manual, punch cards. You would sit and punch out the squares using the Holerath code, talk about hanging chads.

Also, in High School, I worked in a bank that had an IBM 360 and an IBM 370 computer in the same room that shared a Xytex automated Tape library that would robotically find and mount the large tapes used to store data in those days. This machine was controlled by a PDP 11.

I also had the privilege of working on the first Laser printer produced by IBM. This thing was about 8 feet long and could print an entire case of paper in about 5 minutes. We printed credit card statements (2 up/side by side) using a laser etched glass template for the graphics while the printer only printed the data. That thing was amazing to watch.

[docque]

In High School I programmed on an IBM 1401 using 40 character, manual, punch cards. You would sit and punch out the squares using the Holerath code, talk about hanging chads.

Also, in High School, I worked in a bank that had an IBM 360 and an IBM 370 computer in the same room that shared a Xytex automated Tape library that would robotically find and mount the large tapes used to store data in those days. This machine was controlled by a PDP 11.

I also had the privilege of working on the first Laser printer produced by IBM. This thing was about 8 feet long and could print an entire case of paper in about 5 minutes. We printed credit card statements (2 up/side by side) using a laser etched glass template for the graphics while the printer only printed the data. That thing was amazing to watch.

In the Air Force we had a drum printer that was about 8ft wide. Printer worked in reverse. Instead of the head hitting the paper, the paper hit the head. Craziest setup but faster than anything I have ever seen when it comes to printing. It was encased in sound proof box. If you ever opened that when it was printing? Ouch.

[Redapple63]

Remember the 180k single side 8 inch floppies?

I had the notch punch to flip it over for a whopping 360k!

Bill

[docque]

Remember the 180k single side 8 inch floppies?

I had the notch punch to flip it over for a whopping 360k!

Bill

3.5 inch were the same. Spend more for more capacity or punch a hole in the cheaper ones.

[ajg617]

Also, in High School, I worked in a bank that had an IBM 360 and an IBM 370 computer in the same room that shared a Xytex automated Tape library that would robotically find and mount the large tapes used to store data in those days. This machine was controlled by a PDP 11.

When AT&T divested the Baby Bells in 1984, they forgot one necessary item - they had no billing system and had just inherited 93M accounts. Oops. So as we worked in NJ to develop a billing system, I was sent to operationally test the SW at the first data center in MD which housed 6 3084s. As bugs were found, developers in NJ would fix and cut a mag tape and the company would hire a limo and driver to deliver ONE tape each time. Fedex on 4 wheels.

[docque]

Guess I should have called this, "Nerds reminisce". The funny thing is I remember a ton of this stuff. Wonder how many ready this and say, "Floppy what?" What are all these numbers.

Then again, it is probably the same feeling I get when I read some of these things explaining why my AC doesn't cool well. "You take the Ambient temperature add it to the angle of Jupiter's current position in the sky, divided by the number of offspring a two head chicken will have in the Summer of 2032 if they are missing a leg. And that will give you the number you subtract...."

[Steven@147]

A walk back in history. I started working for NCR in 1979 as a field service tech and a lot of what has been mentioned takes me back to a time when computer systems took up an entire room. You were lucky if one disk drive was 200 megabyte but it was the size of a refrigerator. We used to call floppy discs frisbee net. Worked on a lot of bank check sorters in my day. I had a Commodore 64 and the kids had an Atari.
Graduated all the way up to UNIX programming then was forced retired in 2004. Now my wrist watch has more computing power than those old systems.

[attaboy]

I have enjoyed this walk down Memory lane about computers.
Thanks to all who participated.
Bob A. or as @xrated said old fart.