What did computers without screens do?

[Chuck Guzis]

On 12/15/2015 09:13 PM, Mouse wrote:
>> What would you do with a home no screen computer?
>
> Depends on what counts as a "screen".  If any visible output counts,
> there isn't much - but I suspect you don't want to go that far.
>
> You can connect to it from other computers.  I have six machines
> running right now with no screens on them (though four of them have
> the host-side hardware for a screen).
>
> You can talk to it with a terminal.  If a video-display terminal
> counts as a screen, use a printing terminal.

It's also occurred to me that without screens, we might be better off 
today (oh boy, am I going to get flack on this one).

We might be in the position of being more concise in our computer 
output. A "screen" is an output device--really, ordinary human input 
devices haven't changed much.  The average web-surfing experience blasts 
the user with tons of filigree and useless data, but very little useful 
information.

Don't forget that the first games were text-only.  Web sites that have 
multi-megabyte splash screens that serve no purpose other than tell you 
that you've arrived.  It's like your local Walmart hiring a marching 
band to greet every single customer individually.  Data is cheap and 
Parkinson's law applies.

--Chuck