Computing from 1976

[Peter Corlett]

On Sat, Dec 30, 2017 at 05:43:34PM -0800, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
> On Sat, 30 Dec 2017, ben via cctalk wrote:
>> I find I want use computers less , 5+ minutes to boot something that then
>> needs to check the net. I use a all valve audio system and tubes are warmed
>> up and ready to go before my music app exits the splash screen.
> The "modern" computer is much faster, but it takes forever and a half before
> it is ready to use that speed.

I reckon if I did a side-by-side cold boot of ye olde Amiga 1000 into Workbench
to launch memacs versus firing up my Mac laptop and launching Emacs.app,
there'd be not much in it.

I also very rarely reboot my laptop. Close the lid, and it goes to sleep. Open
the lid -- and perhaps wait 5-10s if it had been asleep for long enough that it
decided to suspend-to-disk and needed to pull the memory image back in -- and
it's ready to continue where I left off.

> Why did anybody ever need more than 64K?

There's no *need*, just like there's no *need* for computers at all.

But since we have computers with multiple gigabytes of RAM, it makes little
sense to restrain one's use of them to a fraction of the capabilities, except
as an intellectual exercise.