On 17/1/07 19:15, "Ray Arachelian" <ray at arachelian.com> wrote:
Digital archaeology of the microcomputer, 1974-1994
By Steven Goodwin <http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/user/39>
/Online on: 2007-01-05/
/(Or, how to prevent the Dark Ages of computing through free software)/
In a few years time, it will be impossible to study the history of home
computers since everything at the time was proprietary; both in terms of
the physical hardware, and all the software that ran upon it since most
of it is encumbered by software ?protection? to prevent copying.
I love it when someone publishes an article without doing any proper
research. Is he saying that no copy-protected software of the late 70s and
80s hasn't already been reverse engineered and/or broken many years ago? So
what if the hardware was proprietary? Has there been a home computer that
hasn't been recreated in some form or another, either by a hardware rebuild
or emulation of some sort? (MESS springs to mind).
To compound the problem, the hardware is dying
(literally) and (being
proprietary) can?t be rebuilt in any equivalent manner. In some cases
the software is physically disintegrating too since, in the case of many
8-bit micros from the 1980?s, the storage medium was cassette tape; a
temperamental mechanism at the time, let alone now. It?s not that no
computer innovation took place in the 1980?s, just that none of it will
be recorded.
Now I *know* he's done no research! Aside from my own BinaryDinosaurs
website how many other home computer museums are there online? Books by the
likes of Gordon Laing and others?
Meh, sloppy journalism.
--
Adrian/Witchy
Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator
Www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?