John BullMar 10, 2025

The latest part of my history of home computing is now available. This one looks at the rise of Commodore and Jack Tramiel.

He was a complex man. A brutal manager, but a holocaust survivor who was determined to build a better future. Computers for the "masses not the classes".

Unpicking his story has meant navigating a lot of established truths and myths.

His fear that the US was complacent about thinking fascism could rise there, hits hard now #history #technology https://every.to/the-crazy-ones/the-first-king-of-home-computing

How Commodore Invented the Mass Market Computer

The untold story of Jack Tramiel, Holocaust survivor and home computing's first king

Show threadPaul BarnfatherMar 10, 2025
@garius such a great story. The first computer I ever encountered (aged 10) was a PET. I was hooked, and I absolutely loved my VIC-20. Amazing what could be done with just 3.5KB RAM!
Show threadTwoowls Elt 🦉 🦉Mar 10, 2025
@clanger9 @garius same here, mum brought home a PET from work to learn code, and that Christmas I got a Vic20!
Show threadPaul BarnfatherMar 10, 2025
@twoowls73 @garius that machine changed my world. Over 40 years later, I can *still* remember the memory locations. 36878 for volume, 36877 for white noise... 🤓
Show threadHighlandLawyer
@clanger9 @twoowls73 @garius
7680 for the first screen character unexpanded, but 4096 with the 16k rampack
Mar 11, 2025 at 4:54pmTusky