And it has all the same capabilities, right?

Everything except the internet, and math is slower. I have a TRS80 also, the portable version. Has built in CRT screen, but it's only one color text: green, as it uses the old green phosphor.

Also, no friggin' license, no pop ups, no advertising, no crap from whatever company feels like jamming into the software without my consent, or with my FORCED consent.

 

That same computer was almost immune to current virus attacks because theOS was in ROM and not able to be corrupted. If it were still possible to have the OS and programs in ROM equivalent then a lot of immunity would be available.
My color computer could do a lot besides word processing, and I worked with a team that used the color computer for industrial control of machines. The beauty of code in an EPROM is that it is stable and really hard to corrupt. So maybe that is still a valid way toward security.

 

That same computer was almost immune to current virus attacks because theOS was in ROM and not able to be corrupted. If it were still possible to have the OS and programs in ROM equivalent then a lot of immunity would be available.
My color computer could do a lot besides word processing, and I worked with a team that used the color computer for industrial control of machines. The beauty of code in an EPROM is that it is stable and really hard to corrupt. So maybe that is still a valid way toward security.

Hi,

Yeah that's a good point.

The reason I believe we have viruses in the first place is because there is little care about the problem from people that could actually do something about it. In fact, maybe they prefer it that way so they too can change things when they feel like it. If they cover every possible virus entry scheme, then their upcoming changes may look like a virus too and thus they can't control the computer either anymore. There would be no more "security updates" needed, which as documented now, can sometimes have very negative effects on system performance.

You know it used to be called "Computer Science" when i was going to school. Now it seems it's not science at all anymore, it's whatever the software designers feel like doing.
I'm tempted to call it, "Computer Dictatorships", or more simply, "Computer Dics", (ha ha ha). I won't go that far just yet though.

Maybe the TPM idea will help but i guess we have to wait and see.

 

Hi,

Yeah that's a good point.

The reason I believe we have viruses in the first place is because there is little care about the problem from people that could actually do something about it. In fact, maybe they prefer it that way so they too can change things when they feel like it. If they cover every possible virus entry scheme, then their upcoming changes may look like a virus too and thus they can't control the computer either anymore. There would be no more "security updates" needed, which as documented now, can sometimes have very negative effects on system performance.

You know it used to be called "Computer Science" when i was going to school. Now it seems it's not science at all anymore, it's whatever the software designers feel like doing.
I'm tempted to call it, "Computer Dictatorships", or more simply, "Computer Dics", (ha ha ha). I won't go that far just yet though.

Maybe the TPM idea will help but i guess we have to wait and see.

Re virus , and I'm concise this is getting way off topic .
a. A rom based on is zero defence. Virus runs from memory a loads through files and file systems.
b. Virus was invented for a reason.. back in days of IBM 37x series , the engineers needed monitor programs to run "constantly" and we're "depressed" that admins kept deleting them. So they invented a program that would re install it self and hide all over place. Print qué was a favorit. . Oh the ideal days of old ...

 

Bloat is common to software as well. I remember when AutoCAD was nothing more than a glorified Paint program residing on a single 360k floppy disk. They kept adding every bell and whistle that anyone thought they might want to use. Today, the average user probably doesn't use 80% of the options available to them and that is true for most large-scale applications.

Seems to me bloat in hardware is caused by bloat in hardware. Let's take your example of AutoCad. In 1982, 3d drafting became available. Top of the line pc's were the only way to run it, and multitasking with other apps was impossible. Horrific wire frame rendering, glitchy graphics and command line inputs all pushed the limits of hardware and patience of drafting experts, untill 1999 when GPU's became available. Since then, Autocad has been the standard by which computer speeds are compared and tested. Guess what, you still need a faster GPU and GPU according to Autocad, and better software according to Nvidia and TSMC.

 

Seems to me bloat in hardware is caused by bloat in hardware. Let's take your example of AutoCad. In 1982, 3d drafting became available. Top of the line pc's were the only way to run it, and multitasking with other apps was impossible. Horrific wire frame rendering, glitchy graphics and command line inputs all pushed the limits of hardware and patience of drafting experts, untill 1999 when GPU's became available. Since then, Autocad has been the standard by which computer speeds are compared and tested. Guess what, you still need a faster GPU and GPU according to Autocad, and better software according to Nvidia and TSMC.

To this day, I still run SolidWorks 2001 on a Windows XP virtual machine under Linux/VirtualBox on a mediocre PC at 3840x2150 resolution.

This runs faster and smoother than SolidWorks 2022 on Win10 on the best box I've got with an HD monitor.

The 2001 version does everything I need, and nothing I don't.

The 2022 version spends most of its time phoning home calling up ads. Occasionally, it does some pretty shading which looks nice, I guess, but is completely useless to me.

 

You had a choice in the early 80s, High End CAD running on an engineering workstation for ~100-200kUSD per seat or AutoCAD or VersaCAD running on a 286PC W/ 287 math co-processor for ~15kUSD per seat. The first ACAD I saw would run on an 8088 W/ monochrome monitor and it wasn't much more than what MS Paint would have. VersaCAD was far superior to ACAD until Windows came around and VersaCAD didn't transition to Windows and fell into limbo, was sold, put on the shelf, and until finally repurchased by its founder Tom Lazear and still sold today. You could do quite a bit of drafting in VersaCAD on a 286. The story is that when Engineering Managers asked their Drafters if they knew anything about CAD they snickered and reached into the bottom drawer for their pirated 360k ACAD disk that had no copy protection while VersaCAD could only be used with a hardware dongle key. It didn't take long for ACAD to become more prevalent even though VersaCAD was far more useable and more in line with classical drafting skills. Quite a complex drawing could be done on a 286 PC without hitting the memory limits leading to horrible lagging but still much faster than manual drafting. A big problem was plotting. A 30x42" pen and ink drum plotter was ~25kUSD and a somewhat complex drawing could take an hour or longer to plot IF a pen didn't clog and quit. Then you had to start over from scratch. Until they finally came out with drafting ink jet and laser jet 30x42" drum printers which sped up plotting immensely. The also came out with 30x42" drum copiers which eliminated "Blueprinting" mylar plots and allowed plain paper plotting which cut drafting overhead costs. No more photosensitive paper and ammonia developing huge printers. I remember seeing some massive ammonia printers in the 60s that would fill a ~15x40' room and that was just for a pulp mill engineering dept and not a large engineering firm.