PDP-12 at the RICM (Michael Thompson)

[dwight]

Getting an old machine like this back to running is always
great news.
It is one less piece of history that is lost.
When the early computer designers made these first OS
for these machines, I don't think they'd been exposed to the
consuming effects of "Moore's Law" yet. Most felt they were
creating something to last for 20 years.
So much is lost to just being ignored after a couple years.
When asked why I work on old machines, they ask what good is
it.
I try to explain that it is something like being a historian. It helps
to save the bits and pieces of history that are more than just
the electronics in a metal box. It is more close to the people that
created it.
Dwight