Toys

29 Aug 2015

The history of computing is full of toys that nobody would seriously try to get real work done with. The PDP was a toy. The Apple II was a toy, and so was the Mac. Unix was a toy Multics, C a toy version of Algol (thrice removed), and the Web a toy in comparison to Xanadu.

With renewed rumours of an iPad Pro, people1 are again suggesting that the iPad (and tablets in general) isn’t suitable for real work. If history is anything to go by, this is a pretty good indicator that it’s an avenue worth pursuing.

  1. Such as Marco on ATP episode 132. [back]

Permalink Mail

This site is maintained by me, Rob Hague. The opinions here are my own, and not those of my employer or anyone else. You can mail me at rob@rho.org.uk, and I'm @robhague@mas.to on Mastodon and robhague on Twitter. The site has a full-text RSS feed if you're so inclined.

Body text is set in Georgia or the nearest equivalent. Headings and other non-body text is set in Cooper Hewitt Light (© 2014 Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, and used under the SIL Open Font License). BBC BASIC code is set in FontStruction “Acorn Mode 1” by “p1.mark” (licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license).

All content © Rob Hague 2002-2024, except where otherwise noted.