mos_8502  🇨🇦

It has become almost practical to build a productive home computer outside the confines of corporate control. Defining terms:

practical: Something that can be done at sufficient scale and at low enough expense to be self-sustaining

productive: Able to accomplish the basic necessities of computing: create and consume text and graphics, play games, communicate with other systems across some kind of network, be extended by the user via programming

So something like #RC2014 is close to that ideal, but it's not quite there.

Apr 5 at 9:33pmWeb
Show thread⁂ Fish Id Wardrobe1d ago
@mos_8502 something that's good enough to be usable if you are bloody minded enough — i wrote my homework and kept diary on a BBC micro with no hard disk! — but not powerful or normal enough to actually be a valid target for _commercial_ software
Show threadRC201417h ago

@mos_8502 Being a productive home computer was never the goal of the #RC2014. It is great that it has grown in to something *almost* practical, whilst also sad that in 2026 we would need such things.

The point was a combination of having fun building your own computer that could do... something. Getting to understand the hardware, tick a task off your bucket list, and have retro throwback memories to yesteyear are enough for most people.

If I ever start stealing users away from Mac/Windows/Linux it'll be a bitter sweet day.

Show threaddiyelectromusic17h ago

@rc2014 @mos_8502 I think the major breakthrough would be a system that can be used to design and bootstrap itself.

At present, there are many options for designing and building systems, but they all assume a modern computer stack of some kind to get them going, even if that just means access to community information/events online, being able to order a PCB, buy kits, or components, or being able to load firmware onto a modern microcontroller.

Show threaddwardoric16h ago
@rc2014 @mos_8502 I'm definitely in the "retro throwback memory" camp. However I find myself more and more in the "what if" thought loop, likely because of the current mess we're in. Also at least in my memory it was good to work a machine that would fit in my head.
On the other hand most of my daily driver hardware is old enough to be considered retro by some. 😅
Show threadetno11h ago

@mos_8502

What about using a cheap 32 bits microcontroller and glueing some static RAM to it. It could be programmed to run any machine code instructions (RISC-V, 386,... ) at a decent speed, and would cost a few bucks.

Like an old ESP32 with some SPI-RAM and a SD-card ?

Show threadKirtai 🏳️‍⚧️7h ago
@mos_8502
I just want something I can build myself that can run a modern Smalltalk-76+ at a reasonable speed.