Amin GirasolOne last snap from #MuseumOfComputingSwindon: mortal enemies #Amiga1200 and #Atari520STfm set up side by side on a desk made for two.
Another gorgeous bit of kit - the Apricot Portable.
Here's another form factor I wish still existed: #slabtops. Instead we have tablets.
A #cyberdeck is an homage to these systems. Imagine one of these with an e-ink screen and a Thinkpad keyboard.
At #MuseumOfComputingSwindon, I was especially taken by this Amstrad PC1640, a (mostly) IBM-compatible machine running GEM 2.0, the same Digital Research GUI as the Atari ST.
GEM was a cross-platform, highly compatible GUI framework. Apple initiated lawsuits against Digital Research intended to kill the platform, despite Apple having stolen the concept of the WIMP GUI lock, stock and barrel from Xerox PARC. Between this and Microsoft undercutting DRI with their shitty clone of CP/M named MS-DOS, Digital Research's days were numbered.
I wish we lived in a computing universe where good people like Gary Kildall had won out against the psychopathic creeps Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.
This machine is a glimpse of that other universe.
When you visit the #MuseumOfComputingSwindon, make sure you go with a full bladder so you have an excuse to use the facilities, which are downstairs and through the tantalising racks of acquisitions and donations which aren't on display. (I received permission to take these photos.)
You will be accompanied by a staff member, so don't go getting any ideas.
It was the proximity of the canal and the railway junction near #Swindon town that made it attractive as a place to build the works for the #GreatWesternRailway in the 1840s. This is all that's left of the canal, sadly.
This is on the way from the #STEAMmuseum to #MuseumOfComputingSwindon. The two are an easy walk of 1500 metres or so.
(I've grown to love Swindon in the few days I've been here! There's something wonderful about towns of about 200,000 inhabitants with a rich history of past greatness. They're interesting, diverse and grungy, but small enough for the people to be friendly. Edirne in Turkey is another such city which I adore.)
Just had a wonderful day of intense geekery, bouncing between a packed out #RetroFest2025 at #STEAMmuseum and #MuseumOfComputingSwindon.
At the former, loads of familiar British machines, esoteric 8-bit machines and some 16- and 32-bit Workstations with now-extinct CPU families.
At the latter, a well-presented collection of early hobbyist and personal computers, again with a very solid showing of British machines, many of which you're invited to get hands-on with.
