On
this date in 1977, the first highly successful “personal computer”
(a microcomputer meant for a home) went on sale for the first time:
the Apple II. Incredibly expensive, large in physical size, and small
in memory size and computing power, compared to computers these days,
the Apple II was still AMAZING at the time!
It was a computer that didn't cost ten thousand dollars and that didn't fill a room. A computer that just an average person could
afford and house and learn to use.
(An
average person like me! I loved my Apple II, and later my Apple II-GS
and Apple IIe!)
There
was a ton of excitement, at the time, with all sorts of new kinds of
products available to home computer users for the first time. We
marveled at the concept of word processors, spreadsheets, spell
checkers, and publishing programs. We were excited to be able to own
paint programs and graphics tablets. We learned BASIC and other
programming languages, and we had massive numbers of “floppy disks”
(I used 5-1/4-inch disks for years, and finally switched to
3-1/2-inch disks. Now, of course, we use CDs and DVDs.)
Explore some more...
Learn
some BASIC programming here.
For
more on Apple computers, and computers in general, see this earlier post.
Also
on this date:
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