for the pointer, p3k: nick moffit's $7 history of unix.

'The year 1969 has often been heralded as ... '

adam osborne has died on march 25. once a technical writer he founded a publishing company, he sold 1979 to mcgraw hill. 1981 he presented the "Osborne 1", at the west coast computer faire. also on this fair osborne announced the yearly winner of the "white elephant award". dan bricklin has an audio file of this event from 1980 at his page.

an article in the time from 1982 on computer moves in and - especially for mr tiny - there is one quote in it i guess you will like: from one of the most remote villages ...

"... Even the name of the product is a matter of debate: "microcomputer" sounds too technical, but "home computer" does not fit an office machine. "Desktop" sounds awkward, and "personal computer" is at best a compromise ...

... At the moment, Dataquest estimates that Texas Instruments leads the low-price parade with a 35% share of the market in computers selling for less than $1,000. Next come Timex (26%), Commodore (15%) and Atari (13%). In the race among machines priced between $1,000 and $5,000, Apple still commands 26% followed by IBM (17% and Tandy/Radio Shack (10%). But IBM, which has dominated the mainframe computer market for decades, is coming on very strong. Apple, fighting back, will unveil its new Lisa model in January, putting great emphasis on user friendliness. The user will be able to carry out many functions simply by pointing to a picture of what he wants done rather than typing instructions. IBM is also reported to be planning to introduce new machines in 1983, as are Osborne and others ...

...The argument that computers train minds to be logical makes some experts want to reach for the computer key that says ERASE. "The last thing you want to do is think more logically," says Atari's Kay. "The great think about computers is that they have no gravity systems. The logical system is one that you make up. Computers are a wonderful way of being bizarre ..."

richard feynman and the connection machine thanks chris for the pointer.