Computer Advances

You took it pretty much how I meant it. Except for speed, graphics, and most importantly to "keep up with the Jones," there is no good technical reason the classics we are talking about are not perfectly acceptable for most applications. The internet has been mentioned as a major advancement, and it is in the sense people might buy a computer just for the e-mail capabilities. The FAX machine falls in that catagory. I don't think voice recognition by itself would be a reason to get a computer. <SIGH> I guess there would be a few other reasons not to use the classics. 1) the lack of new software applications being written and/or upgraded for the classic, 2) the lack of a standard platform to transfer software between machines. I think THAT is probably the major contribution of IBM to the widespread use of computers.