BBS

[Chris Meyer]

Were Bulletin Board Systems not as popular in the late 80s early 90s as I thought they were? I have a small circle of friends who I met BBSing. I realize not a lot of people did them but... I'm a Software Engineering student at 32. I started my first internship at a aviation software company. I'm surrounded by programmers, and tech people all the time, at work and school. And none of them know what the hell I'm talking about when I make a Renegade reference, or Terminate, or Ripterm. To me, this was the internet before it was common in households. Am I the only one out there who remembers this scene?

[devonrevenge]

they all turned into warez doodz and hung out on IRC after that, you want to talk to old amiga enthusiasts in their late forties

[z05DSL3A]

you want to talk to old amiga enthusiasts in their late forties

*Waves*

[Cheraphy]

old amiga enthusiasts in their late forties

Early 50s. but you just described my dad. Who supposedly ran the most frequented BBS system on the eastern half of the US.


I got to play with his amiga once. He still has it. it's one of the ones that has "rock lobster" written on the board in the wiring.

[Manga]

An old timer huh?

Yankey Trader sound familiar?

You are speaking of a time when modems were external and screamed at you. BBS were not popular back then and generally if you weren't part of the geek secret society, nobody knew what the hell you were talking about. Basically if you dialed a wrong number and heard screaching on the other end, you knew to use your modem and call again and see what was up there.

"L8r" dude.

[Cheraphy]

Can we talk about the amiga? cause I'd really like to see the amiga come back full force.

[devonrevenge]

i love the amiga, i got an amiga emulator working on my machine, they still havent made games as satisfying as settlers 1 and k240, i love those games, the amiga got no credit for showing everyone how to make a house hold comp and its games and apps, Why did the PC beat the amiga??

[Veltas]

devonrevenge:

I think the Altair 8800 should get mention if we're talking about household computer revolutions... anyone got one of those?

But why did the PC beat the Amiga? Because it's better. You should know this because you're using a PC to emulate one. :P

[devonrevenge]

no, i reckon they just got a loan, often the better thing doesn't succeed.

[Manga]

microsoft is to blame.

face it their windows operating system made computers so user friendly that even the most computer illiterate of people could operate one.

[z05DSL3A]

microsoft is to blame.

IBM is to blame, they lost control of their own product, opening the flood gates to a whole host of companies making clones.

[3qX21hU5]

IBM is to blame, they lost control of their own product, opening the flood gates to a whole host of companies making clones.

Exactly. You can't really blame another product for capitalizing on a opening in the market.

[devonrevenge]

I <3 my Amiga.

I wonder what modern computing would be like if the amiga was the most successful model.

[Cubbi]

Chris Meyer wrote:

I'm surrounded by programmers, and tech people all the time, at work and school. And none of them know what the hell I'm talking about when I make a Renegade reference, or Terminate, or Ripterm. To me, this was the internet before it was common in households. Am I the only one out there who remembers this scene?

The programming world is simply a lot bigger than it was back then.
Look, for example, at 1992 fidonet nodelist: http://www.textfiles.com/fidonet-on-the-internet/n1992/nodelist.003 -- there are only 15 thousand lines. What are the chances you'd be working with one of them today? (granted, not every BBS owner routed mail, but I think it's representative of the scale)

[iw0XoG1T]

Grey Wolf wrote:

IBM is to blame, they lost control of their own product, opening the flood gates to a whole host of companies making clones.

This is not the history I remember. The way I remember it IBM seemed to have little interest in owning the software for their machines. I had no idea that software could be so profitable in the late 80's and early 90's.
I also believe that if IBM had owned the OS installed on those machines that it is possible that computers would still be tools only used by a few in business and academy.
In 1992 I only knew one person who had internet access, and when he explained it to me I could not understand of what possible use I could ever have for it. Today I was accessing information for two hours at least at work. And tonight I will read or be entertained for another two. 25% to 80% of my waking hours are spent on the internet or using a computer and in 1992 I thought the PC was a toy for the rich.

[Cheraphy]

Not software, Chesks. Their bios chip.

http://computemagazine.com/the-history-of-the-ibm-personal-computer/

[iw0XoG1T]

@Cheraphy

From the article you posted:

Except for a critical piece of code called BIOS, the PC truly was an open hardware architecture. Every major and minor component, enclosures, motherboards, disk, memory, bus, even the CPU would eventually be easily second-sourced.

The consequences of these IBM decisions not only spawned the PC era, but also led to the creation of a new and highly profitable PC software segment.

This is how I have always heard this story told. Now what I don't understand is why people believe that the BIOS was stolen. Was what IBM did so unique that it could have been patented in a way preventing others from imitating it?

In case it is not clear I am asking for opinions--because I don't understand enough to have a strong opinion.

[Cheraphy]

I just googled and skimmed till I found one that looked relevant. Jsyk :P

[z05DSL3A]

Now what I don't understand is why people believe that the BIOS was stolen.

I wouldn't say it was stolen, just not adequately protected.


I would like to have seen where we would be if the emerging personal computer market was 'allowed' to germinate more prior to being smothered by the 'IBM PC'.

[Chris Meyer]

I just wanted to rehash memories of LORD.. :)