On Mon, Apr 24, 2017 at 4:23 PM, william degnan via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Just want to say...I don't think Evan is saying the homebrew era stuff is not good, it's less evolved, kind of like cars were before the model T assembly line process was applied to cars. There were many well-crafted cars before the model T, but they were harder to support, small scale operations.
When I think of "Homebrew" I think of the definition "made at home, rather than in a store or factory." thats all. I mean that was the term people used back then, I mean if I am wrong please correct me I understand where Herb prefers "craft computing" over "homebrew computing" But for whatever reason it bothers me. It's like when people call things artisanal. I happen to like Homebrew because it sounds more grounded and it more of what I believe people during that time would label those machines.
When you compare the s-100s of 1976 with s-100s of 1986, clearly the former for "homebrew" in comparison. Smart, crafted but certainly not industrially assembled. The quality control of the industrial process was a necessary component of the appliance computers, ISA bus, IEE686 S-100, Apple II, etc.
Agreed. This is not to say there were bad or unsophisticated, they were just not pre-assembled or pre-built. I find the "Homebrew" era great because of all the various machines that came out around that time.