Apple II turns 35 today

"35 years ago this week, at San Francisco's first West Coast Computer Faire, a tiny startup named Apple demonstrated its new personal computer, the Apple II. It was the company's first blockbuster product — the most important PC of its time, and, just maybe, the most important PC ever released, period."



http://techland.time.com/2012/04/16...rsary-tribute-to-apples-first-iconic-product/

That was the computer that spawned a million Mac enthusiasts, and it is still loved to this day. I'd like to get my hands on one someday. Anyway, HBD ][!

In honor of the occasion, I fired up the Rev. 4 ][ plus, loaded a Dos 3.3 system master, and ran the Integer BASIC "Applevision" demo. Ah, a little man on a TV dancing to "Turkey in the Straw"... brings back memories. :D

I was also playing with my Apple IIs this weekend. Classic machines!

The IBM PC is the most important PC ever released. 3 decades later, pretty much ever personal computer on earth, even modern Macs can trace their roots back to the IBM PC. Apple II, Commodore, TI, Atari, etc etc, discared in history.

I wonder just how much the IBM PC was influenced by the Apple II design? I'm thinking " a single-board computer with documented slots for expansion cards?" I'm assuming there was a lot of innovation going on and people shared and borrowed ideas from all over the place. In my mind though, the IBM PC design appears to have borrowed a lot from the Apple II...and the PC did come later.

Just for the record, I'm no rabid Apple fanboy. In fact, I used to stiff at the Apple II and wonder what the fuss was about. However now I own a few and know more about computing history, I have a lot more respect for WOZ's (and the other contributors) innovation.

Tez

gerrydoire said:

The IBM PC is the most important PC ever released. 3 decades later, pretty much ever personal computer on earth, even modern Macs can trace their roots back to the IBM PC. Apple II, Commodore, TI, Atari, etc etc, discared in history.

Click to expand...

That was good for a laugh.

It's not who gets there first, it's who gets there best.

tezza said:

I wonder just how much the IBM PC was influenced by the Apple II design?

Click to expand...

Well, I think both of them owe a debt to the S-100 architecture that came before. The idea of unlimited expansion, partly out of necessity - moving a motherboard into the third dimension to increase functionality per unit volume.