Legal Research

No Color Monitor. No Hard Disk. No Keyboard. But It Had Switches and Blinky Lights.

Thirty-four years ago today the world’s first commercially-successful personal computer, the Altair 8800, officially went on sale.  (Notice I didn’t say “world’s first personal computer”.  Obsessive techno-nerds get all manner of cranky when you call it the first PC.)

The Altair was featured on the cover of the January 1975 issue of Popular electronics.  Obtaining an original copy of that issue is like the Holy Grail to computer enthusaists.

The 8800 didn’t do a whole lot compared to today’s PCs, but it was popular nonetheless, especially with two ubergeeks named Paul Allen and Bill Gates.  They got together to create a programming language for the Altair.  (You know the rest of the story.)

When you look at the guts of the thing, you realize how much the technology has changed in the last four decades.

Full post as published by Jenkins Webblits on December 19, 2008 (boomark / email).