Technology | Learning | The 1980s
Learning To Be Thankful Is Easy: Tech Ed. Vol 1
Desktop computing before Windows and Macintosh
INTRODUCTION
In this volume, you will learn what it was like to own a home computer back in the late 1980s, with simple day-to-day use case examples that revolve around some of the more mainstream and well-known hardware technologies of the time.
This series is of interest to anyone who…
1) Didn’t experience these things first hand and is curious about the history of computing
or
2) Was there during that time period but never “got into computers” (perhaps you knew someone who did)
or
3) Was already using computers then and would like to reminisce about those days
The information is kept vendor-agnostic wherever possible, with a handful of exceptions that refer to recognizable brand names of the time for context. There also are no dry timelines of events!
BONUS: You don’t need any preexisting technical knowledge to follow along.
PREFACE
In this section, you will find out about what used to be called an IBM PC compatible computer, colloquially referred to as a “PC Clone”. Our focus is going to be on the type of functionality and options that were available to the average home user back then.
HOME DESKTOP COMPUTING IN THE LATE 80s
At that time, if you could part with around US$2000 of your (or your parents’) hard-earned cash, you could get all of the following:
- A CRT monitor + video card capable of 256 colors @ a resolution of 1024x768
- A desktop computer with a CPU clock speed of somewhere between 4.77Ghz and 12Ghz (“Turbo” mode)
- 1GB of RAM
- 20Mb HDD space
- A three-button Logitech mouse ($99!) (Primarily used to play games)
- A keyboard with 101 keys (includes a numeric keypad on the right-hand side)
- A 3.5in floppy disk drive with up to 1.44Mb of storage space
- A 5.25in floppy disk drive with up to 1.2Mb of storage space
- Stereo speakers
- The Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS 3.x) (No Windows OS existed yet)
THE MS-DOS OPERATING SYSTEM
A minimally viable MS-DOS system, meaning one that could boot a computer and allowed the user to interact with it through keyboard commands, required only 3 files to be installed on the hard disk. It came with more (a set of utilities for the OS) but those could be accessed either directly from the HDD or from a floppy disk.
If any of the three OS files went missing (and there was nothing preventing a user from deleting them accidentally!), your US$2000 machine would crash (not boot up). In that case, a boot disk (3.5in or 5.23in floppy disk containing the three OS files) would need to be used to start the computer, and restore the files.
If it was your first time experiencing this technical problem, though, the process looked more like…
- Freak out
- Head to the shop with your computer to get it fixed, which could literally take less than 5 minutes
HOW ABOUT RUNNING SOFTWARE PROGRAMS?
Normally, without a lot of fiddling around with technical configurations that were not particularly user-friendly to learn about, nor explained by the shop selling you a computer, you could run one program at a time. Some of these programs were entirely text-based and others included a rudimentary graphical user interface that could work with your mouse. Video games did both, and often included graphics as well, but not always (text-based video gaming, anyone? Anyone..?)
The closest you would get to something that looked like a Windows operating system were File Management programs that allowed you to copy and move files between two directories, with both being displayed simultaneously. They made use of mainly the keyboard and showed a graphical representation of the directory structures, much like you can see in Windows (except for the cute folder and file icons.)
WERE THERE VIRUSES BACK THEN?
Of course! And you would need to obtain an anti-virus program to install on your computer and scan for the virus, then remove them. Perhaps the most famous one that started back then and still exists to this day is McAfee Anti-Virus.
DID YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR SOFTWARE BACK THEN?
Many programs were being distributed for free and labeled as either ”Freeware” (a fully working version), and just as many or more were called “Shareware” (a trial version set to stop working after [x] days, with limited functionality and requiring a paid upgrade to unlock the other features).
I LIKE FREE — WHERE CAN I GET SOME?
Freeware was considered to be part of the Public Domain. There were two main ways to obtain it: 1) Users who already had some freeware would share it with each other using floppy disks, and 2) You could download those programs from a Public Bulletin Board System (BBS).
To download, you would simply follow these steps:
1. Have a modem card installed on your computer, or connected to it
2. Have the phone number of a BBS to call
3. Make the call using a normal phone line (your line will be busy for the entirety of the call)
4. Register an account (or sign in with an existing one)
5. Use the BBS’ text-based interface to browse for what you want (more like look at whatever the System Operator (SysOp) happened to have uploaded and made available)
6. Download the software
Note: Software could also be uploaded there, which is what the developers often did to “get the word out” about their program.
HOW ABOUT PRINTING?
Dot-matrix printers were widely available, and cost hundreds of dollars. They required aligning the paper to the plastic “teeth” on the sides of the printer, and the paper would roll through using that mechanism. The print quality, for anything other than text, left a lot to be desired. Occasionally, however, you might come across a cool image file on a BBS that you could download and print.
WAS THERE ANY SOUND?
As long as you had a sound card installed inside of your computer, you could hear music and sounds coming from video games, for example, or specialized software if you were composing the music yourself.
WHAT ELSE COULD I DO WITH THIS COMPUTER?
If you had extra money to burn, you could buy a hand-held black & white scanner! This puppy required you to hold and move it slowly across a page in order to capture whatever was printed on it and digitize it into a picture on your computer. But don’t even think about being able to reliably transfer text to something that was actually editable on your computer.
FINAL NOTE
All external devices were connected to the computer using either a parallel or serial interface cable, except the computer monitor which used a Video Graphics Array (VGA) cable to connect to the graphics card.
CONCLUSION
I hope that this has provided you with an interesting insight into what it was like to use a desktop computer in the late 80s.
The next article in this Learning To Be Thankful Is Easy series adds a second volume to the Tech Edition. In that volume, you can learn what it was like to use a modem, hear about some influential early video game pioneers, and find out what was involved with getting connected to the internet when it started to become publicly available.
Q. Did you, or anyone you knew, use any of the technologies I’ve discussed here?
All the best,
Pascal
PS: You can read more about me here.
