@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · 16h ago

You thought things were bad at #TheDocumentFoundation? I suggest re-reading ejected founder Michael Meeks' 1st April post. He's provided several updates.

https://www.collaboraonline.com/blog/tdf-ejects-its-core-developers/

Follow the links in Meeks' post. The dysfunction he highlights at TDF is breathtaking.

The evidence he brings to bear shows TDF is toxic to its core and is no longer fit to serve the purposes of #LibreOffice or its community. It solely exists now to perpetuate itself. It should be dissolved.

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Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · 2d ago

@savetz it was an aside of yours while outlining some LLM regurgitations of classic 8-bit games.

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Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · 2d ago

Incidentally, I'm pleased to hear @savetz unambiguously express his dislike of slop code for retrocomputing projects: Have I stumbled into more slop-coded Atari stuff? 'Cause I don't like it. Thank you for taking this stand, Kay. Many of us agree that LLM slop code has no place in retrocomputing.

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Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · 2d ago

On episode 127 of "ANTIC, The Atari 8-bit Podcast: Brad's 76K Brain", Brad Arnold mentions the game "Omnitrend's Universe", which is new to me.

Episode webpage: https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-episode-127-brads-76k-brain

Media file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/ataripodcast/127ANTIC_2026_04_Brads_76K_Brain.mp3?dest-id=146000

About the game:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe_(1983_video_game)

Get the game:

https://www.atarimania.com/pgesoft.awp?version=5617

#atari800 #retrocomputing #atari8bit

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Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · Apr 08, 2026

@richardtroupe thanks! So I'm discovering! I have a Kung Fu Flash 2 on the way from the Netherlands. Gaming was never my thing. I'll be learning COMAL-80 on this machine, as I'd dismissed it when I first encountered it on the Apple II in secondary school, where it was pitched as a better educational language than BASIC. https://archive.org/details/comal-80-for-the-commodore-64

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Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · Apr 08, 2026

The Commodore C64C I picked up a few weeks back cleaned up nicely and needed exactly zero electronic work!

I had no Commodore-specific accessories, like keyboard springs, power supply or video lead, so I've been buying those bits piecemeal as the need arose and as my optimism increased that the machine was probably going to be fixable with my minimal electronic repair skills.

Just a few days ago, I had the board out, powered up, but with no monitor attached. Between scoping CPU and memory pins and feeling the temperature of individual chips, I could determine the machine was mostly working. The tight loop indicated by the CPU activity on the scope made me think it was probably waiting for input at the BASIC prompt.

The video cable arrived today, and allowed me to confirm that that's exactly what I was seeing!

Next I need to test the Datasette. It also cleaned up nicely and seems to be running well. Somewhere I have a packet of unopened TDK audio tapes. I need to track them down!

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Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · Apr 07, 2026

@Gammitin wow, I didn't know Clevo had been around that long. Turns out the company was founded in 1983! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clevo

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Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · Apr 01, 2026

@webmink indeed. It's not clear from the article what's actually going on. I mean, obviously it's some kind of misguided power grab - but what's the point? It saddens me when Machiavellian types co-opt community structures for their own little power games. It's pathetic and destructive.

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Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · Mar 25, 2026

@oclsc @histoftech your description fits for me. I think there's something about the geography of a physical book that an e-reader cannot emulate: that key paragraph was about a third of the way through, on the right-hand page, near the bottom. (I think I was forever turned off digital formats for reference books when I thought I was being clever bringing Lonely Planet PDFs for a travel adventure; the format was completely unusable in the field.)

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Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · Mar 18, 2026

@Enthalpiste @Wen eugh: https://retractionwatch.com/2020/06/17/elsevier-journal-to-retract-2012-paper-widely-derided-as-racist/ An article claiming that skin pigmentation is related to aggression and sexuality in humans will be retracted, Elsevier announced today.

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Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · Feb 07, 2026

@scuttlebutt thanks - I wasn't aware.

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Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · Feb 07, 2026

@AdrianRiskin yes! Put the word out on here, using the tags #retrocomputing , #vintagecomputing , #commodorepet and optionally #losangeles and you'll get people popping up offering to take it off your hands. If you can include a snap or two, so much the better. Good luck! I suggest not putting power into it, as the chemistry-based electronics will have degraded in storage and might pop, making repair harder.

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Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · Feb 07, 2026

@rogerparkinson did you consider them mere toys at the time?

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Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · Feb 07, 2026

@argv_minus_one yes, they overlapped. In 1992, Atari released the Falcon and Commodore released the Amiga 4000.

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Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · Feb 07, 2026

@rogerparkinson did you skip the 8-bitters entirely? You're a candidate for the minicomputer poll!

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Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · Feb 07, 2026

@maccruiskeen wow, I'd never heard of that system. What a privilege to be exposed to such an early personal computer! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PolyMorphic_Systems#System_8813

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Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · Feb 07, 2026

@howtophil so post-heyday? The machines were considered obsolete by the time you got your hands on them?

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Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · Feb 07, 2026

@quinn it's more of a mix than I expected! (I had guessed just 10% of retrocomputing folk didn't, when they were first released, have access to the machines that are currently their retrocomputers of choice. The poll indicates right now it's over 20%, which I find encouraging, as it indicates there's a sizeable chunk for whom retrocomputing is not about nostalgia primarily.)

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Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · Feb 07, 2026

@Foritus yes! I never had an MSX but I remember finding them intriguing at the time. I still do. They were popular in Europe, the Middle East and South America, if I remember correctly.

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Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · Feb 07, 2026

@AdrianRiskin thank you for sharing that story. The PET is probably repairable for not much money!

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Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · Feb 07, 2026

@stilvoid yeah, likewise. Constructing polls is a science! I missed the 16-bit generation due to changed family circumstances. In the last couple of years I got hold of a beautiful example of the 16-bit machine I lusted after in 1985. Answer in whatever way makes sense to you, and thank you for the comment adding nuance!

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Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · Feb 07, 2026

@Foritus it sure was! And that's also retrocomputing as far as I'm concerned! I was thinking of doing a poll for 32-bit and up consumer home/personal computers. What do you think?

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Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · Feb 07, 2026

#retrocomputing folks: I'm trying to get a sense of the proportion of people here who are into a given class of retrocomputer today but didn't experience the machines when they first came on the market. I want everyone's input! Please boost!

This poll is about the early consumer home computers released between say 1977 and 1994.

Minicomputer poll: @fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

32-bit home/personal computer poll: @fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

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Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · Aug 02, 2025

Superb keynote by @LaineNooney@mastodon.social at #INITHELLO now up on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5XVojLWIQo

It's a talk about the historiography of the history of computing, by way of their book "The Apple II Age".

...my secret anxiety... is that we have vastly misunderstood the actual powers at play that have put these technologies on our desks and in our pockets.
...a huge part of what drove the adoption of personal computing were the financial motivations of a small, elite class of people who won so hard that they literally disappear out of the narrative about how computing became personal.

Outstanding stuff.

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Laine Nooney (@LaineNooney@mastodon.social) - Mastodon

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Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · Sep 07, 2024

@clemens it opts in, not out, right?

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Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · Aug 22, 2024

@LaineNooney for example: https://scholar.social/@Iris/112956342384744538

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Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · Aug 22, 2024

@LaineNooney I'll do that! I've reached the Epilogue and I'm chortling to myself - it's dynamite. I can understand now why your argument must have ruffled the feathers of #retroComputing enthusiasts who aren't accustomed to the perspectives of modern critical history. Bravo. More of this, please. Advocates for computing, historical and contemporary, must acknowledge and grapple with the forces of capital and power which, past and present, work to make computing omnipresent and unquestionable.

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Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

Amin Girasol

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space

Cishet white male. Offspring of immigrants. Free software and self-hosting advocate. Socialist. Anticapitalist. European. I acknowledge the incongruence of this list! Right now I'm enjoying retrocomputing projects on an eight-bit Atari 800 and 130XE, a sixteen-bit Atari 520STFM and a 32-bit 1996 IBM Thinkpad. I'm interested in operating systems, application and utility software, the claims made about the future we were promised with these machines, and the present we've ended up with.

oldbytes.space

@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · Aug 13, 2024

Laine Nooney's"The Apple II Age" is packed full of superb, fresh insights into the character of the forces acting to shape how personal computing came to be defined during the pivotal years between 1977 and 1984.

For example, here are a couple of pages on the compromises teacher and software author Tom Snyder had to make - sacrificing his goal of fostering collaboration and consensus-building among a group of students through exploration - to the neoliberal imperative of isolated individual-as-consumer, in order to render his software legible to the venture-capital-backed MBA types who needed to get a product to market by a hard date.

Bloody brilliant writing. Very insightful on the structures of power and privilege bending how society thinks about what the purpose is of computation cheap enough to be available to an individual.

Thank you @LaineNooney@mastodon.social! So many other histories of computing I've read leave out exactly who was driving developments and for what ends.

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