It occurs to me that #retrocomputing is a response to the alienation we feel working with modern technology. It's not just nostalgia for when we were kids; it's a yearning for technology that isn't there just to spy on us and extract more money from us. And technology we could understand. Entire companies don't even understand the technologies they're selling to us; they just adapt technology provided by others, who are in turn adapting technology from others: IP cores, kernels, drivers, software, toolchains. Compare to a microcomputer, where a single person can conceivably understand it down to the transistor level.
Discussion
Loading...
@freakazoid
The way things advance surely is questionable.
But not the advance itself.
After all that endowment, what platforms do you use productively?
Being in doubt: Out there is a nice penguin to offer a helping hand.
😇
@RalfMohr1 I use Linux (Debian & Mint) and GrapheneOS. But they're not really a solution to anything; GrapheneOS is in a constant struggle with Google progressively locking everything down, and Linux has been captured by the cloud companies since they're the ones paying the salaries of the contributors. And of course PC hardware is all targeted at either Windows or the server market. Yes, I am aware there are niche companies that target Linux; they mostly suck.
@freakazoid you nailed it! It’s the same for me: it is not only nostalgia, but the pleasure of deeply understanding how the machine works, both on the hardware and the software side.
I know what every wire in the bus of my #RC2014 does. They correspond exactly to the pins on the #Z80 CPU. I know what every chip on every expansion board does. I've read the code for the #RomWBW BIOS and understand how it works. I understand how an assembler and a BASIC interpreter works.
Meanwhile, Flutter is over 2 gigabytes.
@freakazoid
Not sure about the 'isn't there....(to)extract more money from us' bit. My pocket money, back in the day, took a spanking from (mostly budget) games makers :-)
@raymierussell Sure, but once you bought the game, it was yours. No microtransactions, no loot boxes.
Of course, there was copy protection. And programs to break the copy protections. And cracking teams. Disks full of pirated games.