Cost of a 128KB computer with floppies in 1985

TrivialBetaState@sopuli.xyz to Technology@lemmy.world – 572 points –

How much would you pay for a PC with 128KB RAM, and no hard disk?

In today's money (inflation adjusted)

This an ad from Personal Computer World (UK) from 1985

103

You are viewing a single comment

Apricot? So there were 2 pc makers with connection to fruit? Or Macintosh is not yet Apple then?

Macintosh was always Apple. Apricot may have been trying to ride on the coattails of Apple’s popularity (I remember the computers but I’m too lazy to look it up).

I don’t recall apricot and olivetti. But the other I have vague memories especially the Macintosh one. Compaq doesn’t count as it is still existing.

Olivetti originally made typewriters (we used to have one). Never heard of Apricot.

Olivetti, from Italy, was pretty famous in Europe as a typewriter manufacturer. So it wasn't much of a surprise my father's first PC (and the first PC compatible I could use) was Olivetti PCS 386SX, circa 1992.

Turns out Olivetti is surprisingly important in computer history too. Olivetti made Programma 101, which was the first programmable desk computer/calculator, way back in 1965. If NASA bought a bunch of these, I guess it was serious shit.

Thank you! This is interesting. I’d go to a Google/wikipedia/youtube rabbit hole now