Re: Results of "For the fun of it"

[et472@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Michael Black)]

Scott Alfter (scott@alfter.DIESPAMMERSDIE.us) writes:
> In article <eeihsr$mt4$1@theodyn.ncf.ca>,
> Michael Black <et472@FreeNet.Carleton.CA> wrote:
>>I realize this isn't a real representation of who owns Apples now (or
>>who owned them thirty years ago), but it strikes me as bizarre that
>>it's stacked towards people who were about fifteen or under back then.
> 
> It's not that bizarre.  They were the most popular computers in schools in
> the '80s, so there are a bunch of people around my age (mid-30s now) who
> used them quite a bit in the classroom.
> 
It's not bizarre that "youngsters" at the time would be interested now,
it's simply that the absence of people who were older at the time seems
odd.

Yes, people who bought Apples a few years later as an appliance likely
have no special memories of those days, at least not enough to want to
have one now.  They wanted the end use, and when they could get something
better they got it, and the Apple II to them is as stale as their first
IBM XT or whatever (and that sort of person may have gone through
quite a few computers over the decades, as they kept upgrading to keep
the appliance current).

But when the Apple II came out it may have led to a widened interest
in computers among the public, but it must have also satisfied a lot
of people who were still trying to make up their mind about what computer
to buy.  At the time, it may have seemed like the Apple II came out long
after the Altair 8800, but it was only a couple of years.  So I would
expect a fair percentage of those early buyers to be in the category
of hobbyists, and of people who wanted a computer before they were actually
available as home computers.

And it's that type of person who would have fond memories of their
first computer.  Yet, they weren't on that list.

I didn't get a computer until 1979, because I couldn't afford one.  At
the time, it seemed like I was lagging behind, but almost thirty
years later, I realize I had a computer before most people did.  But I
kept that first computer (and the second and third) because it was my
first computer, because there was still some value in it.  It wasn't
an Apple II, I never had one until about a decade ago, but if I could
have afforded one when it first came out, it would have been my first
computer.  

Again, I realize the "survey" was of a limited group of people, and only
reflects those who actually replied.  But my take is that the early
days of small computers was driven by something other than end use,
and it was people out of their teens who could afford those early
computers.  And that whole atmosphere should translate to a better
spread in the older ages.

  Michael