Ted Hodges found this "lost installment" of
30 Days of Old School Computing
on one of his computers last week. This article was written around
October 19, 2006.
What was the personal computer invented for?
Personal computers were created to be tools, not toys.
Personal computers were invented to make it easier for you to
get your work done.
When you bought a computer 20-25 years ago, you probably bought
it to get your work done. For instance, you might have used a
computer to write an article, do a spreadsheet, draw a picture,
create a presentation, or post something on the local BBS.
You didn't buy one to import your entire collection of music
(consisting of 800 CDs). You didn't import all of your videotapes
onto the hard drive (if you even had a hard drive in those days) so
you could copy them for your friends and put them on the Internet.
You didn't have photo collection consisting of 10,000,000 digital
pictures on your hard drive.
You didn't have iTunes so you could buy movies and music to fill
up your hard drive. You didn't buy an "all-in-one" cell phone that
stored everything that you have on your computer so you would never
be without all of your stuff - so you could talk to someone on the
phone while texting your friends when you're checking your MySpace
account so you can put a new song on your home page - and at the
same time you're watching a movie and driving your car.
Would you have if you could have?
In any case, you are buying music and movies online now, at
99¢ to $12.99 a pop.
Today many computers are nothing more than undersized
entertainment centers that distract us from reality.
During my last 12 days of using vintage computers, I realized
something: Somewhere along the way, personal computers stopped
doing what they designed to do, which was to help you get your work
done.
Since I began using my vintage machines exclusively, I've found
it much easier to get my work done simply because there is no
distraction from my work.
I don't have the iTunes visualizer going while iChat's icon is
bouncing on the dock, nor are there are popups arriving on the
screen trying to sell me on the latest crap.
Do we really need all of the eye candy? Do we really need
multimedia built into every single aspect of our lives?
Maybe you do, but I know that I don't.
Do you own a vintage machine that you can afford not to use?
Could you really tell the difference if I used a 3 GHz Mac Pro to write this or a
Macintosh 128K?
Is bigger, faster, and more really what we need? 
