Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Apple II: The Machine That Started It All

Posted by Hemos on from the another-retrospective dept.

Thomas Hormby writes "The first Apple II was sold on June 5, 1977. It was outfitted with a 1 mhz processor, 4 KB of RAM, a keyboard and a cassette interface. Despite the seemingly paltry specs, the machine made Apple, and bankrolled the LISA, Macintosh and LaserWriter. Besides building Apple, the machine revolutionized the entire microcomputer business, pulling it way from the hobbyist kits and closer to todays PC. Read about it at MLAgazine."

1 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. Re:It's tragic and bad they weren't more open. by 2TecTom · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    and then there's the whole story ...

    Second they decided on an open architecture so that other manufacturers could produce and sell compatible machines -- the IBM PC compatibles, so the specification of the ROM BIOS was published. IBM hoped to maintain their position in the market by royalties from licensing the BIOS, and by keeping ahead of the competition.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC (italics are mine)

    My point still stands. I'd probably have owned a Mac or be using a Mac OS if Steve Jobs wasn't so much like Bill Gates. I'm just glad there wasn't a similiar egotist running IBM at the time.

    Of course, anyone who dares to question Apple is always labelled. Why is that? Insecurity, perhaps?

    --
    Words to men, as air to birds.