Re: What is Apple II

["Erik Klein" <ekklein@pacbell.net>]

"Don Bruder" <dakidd@sonic.net> wrote in message
news:D8T0b.13411$dk4.485858@typhoon.sonic.net...

> Apple I  = a $666.66 naked circuit board that you went out and bought
> parts to solder onto, built a case and keyboard for, and otherwise "put
> together" to give you a real live computer of your own for a sum of
> money that, while large, was *WAY* more reasonable than anything else
> available at the time. A mind-bogglingly HUGE step in the so-called
> "computer revolution". Without it, humanity may well have never seen any
> such thing as the information age - It broke new ground in so many ways
> that I can't even begin to list them all.



Interesting take on life.



The Apple I wasn't all that revolutionary or special.  Steve and Steve only
sold a few hundred examples and quickly replaced them with the Apple ][
which also wasn't particularly special but was very well received and,
therefore, helpful in moving the computer revolution along.  Most of the
impact, however, came from a couple of guys who wrote a little program
called VisiCalc.  That's what made real people (i.e. not geeks) buy PCs.



The Altair and it's S-100 brethren probably had a lot bigger impact on early
computing.  Truly significant machines like the Sol-20 advanced certain
concepts (such as integrated video, keyboard and such) but didn't represent
"mind-bogglingly HUGE step[s]" although they were more significant then
Apple's offerings.



Early Apple's were brilliantly engineered, but they weren't the seed from
which modern computing grew by any measure.



   Erik Klein

   www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum

   The Vintage Computer Forum