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1980's Soviet Bloc Computing: Printers, Mice, and Cassette Decks

Posted by samzenpus on from the making-it-work dept.

szczys writes Martin Maly rode the wave of computer evolution in the 1980's while living in the former Czechoslovak Republic. Computers themselves were hard to come by, peripherals were even more rare and so enthusiasts of the time hacked their own, like dot-matrix printers and computer mice. If your build was impressive enough, the government would adopt it and begin manufacturing the design somewhat widely. Was your first computer mouse built into a plastic spice container? We covered what the personal computer revolution was like in Eastern Bloc countries back in December.

5 of 74 comments (clear)

  1. C64 had a cassette drive by cant_get_a_good_nick · · Score: 4, Insightful

    My C64 had a cassette recorder (DataSette I think it was called). It wasn't being Soviet, it was being cheap when the floppy disk drive more expensive than the computer.

  2. Admirable aspects by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Modernism and human efficiency aside, they repaired and reused a lot of equipment and parts rather than make version N be landfill and buy version N + 1. You have to admire that aspect. The throw-away culture we have now is an embarrassment to humanity. Plus, there's the fun side of their MacGyver-ism.

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    Table-ized A.I.
    1. Re:Admirable aspects by Immerman · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Can we please stop repeating the blatantly false claim that Soviets were communist? They may have cynically flown the flag, but in practice they were unapologetically fascist (same small group of elites controls both government and industry). Communism involves the workers owning the means of production - that's only compatible with the government owning the means of production if the workers own the government, and NOBODY is making that claim about Soviet Russia.

      Maybe one day someone will be able to attempt state-level communism, but we're going to have to make some massive advances in democracy first.

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      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  3. lolwut by edittard · · Score: 4, Funny

    We covered what the personal computer revolution was like in Eastern Bloc countries back in December.

    Going from nothing to serious cyber espionage in four months is pretty impressive.

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    At the bottom of the /. main page it says 'Yesterday's News'. Well they got that right.
  4. And the less admirable aspects ... by drnb · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A former coworker who worked in a Soviet client state during that period told me that the distribution of printers was controlled because it was a "printing press" and could be used to create anti-government propaganda for distribution. That there were government offices where you could take your data to be printed if you were unable to justify why you needed a printer yourself.