[vcf-midatlantic] Inventor of the first personal computer dies - and it's not who you think

[william degnan]

On Mon, Apr 24, 2017 at 4:17 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic <
vcf-midatlantic at lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:

> >> I wasn't trying to be witty
>
> And it shows. :)
>
> Herb made serious points.
>
> Then the thread went downhill with a bunch of dumb jokes.
>

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.  S-100 in particular evolved nicely into the 80's and lasted
for a good 10 years of strong sales 76-86.  At the end of this run they
were hardly homebrew systems.  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.

Apple I homebrew (brilliantly designed, crafted/assembled and tested by an
expert)
Apple II appliance (brilliantly designed, industrially produced, cost more
of a factor, QA by software and standardized.)

Bill