101
votes
Accepted
How did people get apps on their computer before the Internet?
People used storage media, which they carried around to the machines they wanted to use the software on. The same way music and video were physically distributed in the late 20th century on tape and ...
- 12.9k
50
votes
How did people get apps on their computer before the Internet?
People are focusing on floppies and tapes. But the question is literally tagged with floppy-disk, so pointing them out may not be that helpful. The more general answer perhaps is that you went to a ...
- 2,104
41
votes
Accepted
How did Apple fail to tap the business and scientific markets?
The Apple II was a hobbyist's computer that unexpectedly found a business niche. Apple recognised that niche in its design of 1980's Apple III. Specifically, it thought that the following were ...
- 34.4k
34
votes
Accepted
Cost of PC vs. Amiga 500 in Europe
I don’t know what the situation was like in the US in 1990, but in Europe computers were still unusual in homes then. In my high school in a fairly affluent area, around 10% of my classmates had a ...
- 113k
33
votes
How did people get apps on their computer before the Internet?
Typed them in from magazines and books, saved them on tape or floppy.
Get software by loading it from a tape or floppy borrowed from a friend/colleague/school/club and copy it to yourself.
Use a ...
- 25.6k
32
votes
Accepted
Reason for popularity of Apple IIGS
For one, the II GS was the newer machine - providing a colour desktop and ADB before any Mac.
From a user perspective GS/OS offered everything the Mac did. Plus compatibility with an uncountable ...
- 199k
31
votes
Accepted
Was Amiga the last of the home retrocomputers sold?
If you include clones, home retro computers were sold far into the 90's, including the Milan (Atari ST compatible, 1997-1999) and various Amiga compatible machines. There were also lots of ZX Spectrum ...
- 594
27
votes
How did people get apps on their computer before the Internet?
Several ways depending on the era which you are talking about:
I have some really old commercial software that came on 8" floppy disk. These are pretty rare today but were quite common in the ...
- 2,749
23
votes
Cost of PC vs. Amiga 500 in Europe
My understanding is that throughout the Amiga's life, IBM compatible PCs were consistently 2x to 4x the price of the then-current and comparable home computer Amiga model in the UK.
I'm restricting ...
- 10.9k
22
votes
Accepted
Who considered multimedia capability a liability for a business computers, and why?
TL;DR While multimedia capabilities were not considered a liability for business computers, some of the qualities that were lacking in the early multimedia-capable computers were enough to disqualify ...
- 59.5k
19
votes
Which (micro) computers were dominant in Australia and New Zealand in the 1980s?
As far as the School market in Australia, the locally made Microbee was dominant in the 80's together with the Apple 2e and BBC. The Microbee was mainly sold in Australia (zero to USA) but also sold ...
- 341
19
votes
Accepted
When did the 386 overtake the 286?
According to Dataquest’s 1992 “Microcomponents Worldwide” report, shipments of 386 CPUs overtook shipments of 286 CPUs in 1991; in thousands of units shipped:
Processor
1990
1991
88/86 Subtotal
21,...
- 113k
17
votes
Was Amiga the last of the home retrocomputers sold?
If we are looking back to home computers, maybe the Q60 was the last real "Home computer clone", a Sinclair QL on steroids using a Motorola 68060 CPU in a PC case using ISA slots. It was first ...
- 30.7k
17
votes
Accepted
Which (micro) computers were dominant in Australia and New Zealand in the 1980s?
I had a quick browse of the archive.org computer magazines section, searching for 'Australia' and 'Australian'. The sampling is unlikely to be fair, since I believe archive.org carries only what users ...
- 34.4k
17
votes
Accepted
Why was the 6809 so expensive?
The price was defined obviously by marketing team, therefore their decisions are out of reach for the logical engineering mind :)
Probably they were relying on the marketing company (like this one ...
- 9,731
17
votes
What was the first software company to go public?
Confirming @Jon Custer's reference to Informatics as the first with unit sales to go public.
Informatics was the third software company to became publicly owned and second such company to be listed ...
- 323
16
votes
How did Apple fail to tap the business and scientific markets?
I personally don't believe that Winger understood anything that wasn't well understood by both Apple and IBM at the time.
I would say that this passage is pointing out the confusion that Apple's ...
- 59.5k
16
votes
Why was the 6809 so expensive?
It was just standard market positioning. The 6800 was still a current product and in use in many systems at the time, so they priced the 6809 as a more powerful alternative to both that and the Z80.
...
- 14.9k
14
votes
How did people get apps on their computer before the Internet?
As far as the question is not limited to commercial software, here's an alternative view.
Before the advent of the internet or any widely used long distance packed-switched networks, long distance ...
- 17.8k
13
votes
How did people get apps on their computer before the Internet?
One method wasn't mentioned here: radio broadcasting.
The official Czechoslovak Radio used to broadcast a special night show for computer freaks in the late eighties, and it ended with a few short ...
- 281
12
votes
How did people get apps on their computer before the Internet?
The internet has existed since the 1960s, the World Wide Web is a 1990s development. 'Apps' is used to refer to software obtained via curated 'Stores', like the Apple App Store and the Google Play ...
- 3,503
11
votes
Which (micro) computers were dominant in Australia and New Zealand in the 1980s?
I started programming microcomputers in 1979 as an 11-year-old in Melbourne, Australia. This is how it is in my memory, which I am sure is only a rough approximation of reality.
I never saw anything ...
- 6,036
11
votes
Was Amiga the last of the home retrocomputers sold?
Slightly disagreeing with the accepted answer because the questioner asked about computers that were built around legacy processor architectures and I wouldn't classify the ARM as such, I propose the ...
- 34.4k
11
votes
Hard disks in 1977
In 1981 I acquired an IBM 5444 from an old mainframe computer. Luckily I also got the service manual for it, and so was able to design a controller board to interface it to my Sinclair ZX81. The ...
- 6,485
11
votes
How did people get apps on their computer before the Internet?
Just to toss a log on the fire.
One of the more novel mechanics in terms of mass distribution was through an optical scanning device.
Specifically, this was a device, about a foot long, that you ...
- 11.8k
10
votes
What was the first software company to go public?
From Wikipedia I find for Informatics (founded 1962):
In May 1966 there was an IPO of Informatics stock, priced at $7.50 per share, that brought in $3.5 million
As noted in the Wiki article
...
- 915
10
votes
How did people get apps on their computer before the Internet?
Plenty of answers here detailing how to get your hands on some physical medium with a piece of software on it, but I don't see any of them touching on the point of
how did people get apps and games ...
- 1,305
9
votes
Reason for popularity of Apple IIGS
Your question conflates two questions into one:
Did the IIgs sell more than the Mac in 1986?
If so, why did the IIgs sell more than the Mac?
Others have given valid reasons for (2), but there is ...
- 7,158
9
votes
Accepted
Selling computers via dealers and the mass market
Commodore's experiences were driven by the interactions between Commodore management and its dealer network, and should not be taken as indicative of some broader tendencies within the early personal ...
- 59.5k
9
votes
Was Amiga the last of the home retrocomputers sold?
Commodore went bankrupt in 1994 and sold their assets to ESCOM who re-released the A1200 and A4000T. Then ESCOM went bankrupt in 1997 but one of their licensees, QuikPak, continued to produce the ...
- 17.3k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible