And yet there were millions of computers in offices all around the world in the 1980s and 1990s.
Where are all those machines?
Presumably they all got dumped into landfill.
When I thought about it, since there was no electronic recycling or ewaste, the theoretically ALL the computers from the 1980's and 1990's are still here - millions of them.
I wonder if any/many could be recovered in archaeological recovery digs, and if any would have survived such an ordeal reasonably intact.
I mean, in 1980s, only first world seen computers in large quantities. In 3rd world, computers was exotic until late 1990s or even 2000s. So for example, China have not desktop computers culture, they jumped from analog culture to smartphones.
In some countries like Russia, computers before middle 1980s was toys for military, because they gives magic possibilities, like make supersilent submarine screw.
Large share of first world computers of 1980s-1990s, was "donated" to countries of 2-3 worlds, because first don't want to pay for utilization, and others are agree to got new for them technology "for free".
Important thing, that old-new technology means, it will not have official support, no spare parts, no upgrades, so large share of old computers become donors of old parts for other old computers.
Only in 1st world, people pay really much attention, to save history, to make right collections of old tech, which are alive, not just static empty cases.
And old tech does not survive without care.
So you could assume, 99% of old computers which not so fortunate to become part of some collection, are now dead.
For archeology, I'm in Ukraine regularly talking with collectioners and with engineers, and even now with military, who now regularly got pieces of Russian hardware from 1960s to current.
In many cases it is just impossible to figure out something more than approx time period, when piece of hardware made; in some cases could re-engineer what hardware done.
OTOH, it was extremely common for people to discard them by yard sales, or give them to an nephew etc, donate them to others. Even ones put on the curb for the trash collection sometimes got scavenged. So a lot of these things had 2nd lives. Point of this being that over time there were instances of collectors who would amass piles of these things, and when such an individual decided to declutter, maybe, just maybe you'd find a whole lot of hardware buried together. But such concentrations would be the exception, and the state of preservation would still be abysmal.
Personally, I think the time and effort would be better spent recreating new hardware per the old specs.
The interesting stuff is also being held by private collectors in large amounts.
Around 2000-2010, a lot of the interesting 80s and 90s stuff started becoming cheap and was snapped up by any interested party, the rest was landfilled. If you are getting into this now, you are too late - hit up ebay and pay inflated prices.
Speaking of landfills, most of those computers had RTC on board, and were powered by batteries, which tend to explode and "rot" away the board. It's likely very few of them will be salvageable in an easy-to-repair way if they sit for another 20 years.
There is one just outside of Toronto (in Burlington) that takes in large lots of old computers, electronics, wiring, etc. for that purpose alone. Cases get flattened and recycled as scrap metal.
When you pass the place on the Go train, you can see mountains of variously processed metals, and what looks like probably crushed/ground up plastics. I imagine they keep the rendered gold elsewhere, though.
I am also curious on if there are any relics of computing history just sitting there in landfill. Ultimately as a society I do think moving towards devices that can almost entirely be recycled is the only responsible way forwards.
The times I try to play with emulators and the like are short, and the interest fades pretty quickly.
Ultimately I feel like a apple II type setup on an RPI Yes - I know that there are plenty of libraries or just do it in the browser stuff. But there's just a brutal reduction in barriers in a switch on to basic system that would let much more people through the door.
Having said that, even though all of my asm/bare-metal skills come from hacking the A1000 in asm for several years and I should have warm fuzzy feelings about it, it's a dreary experience starting it now and trying to do anything really.. It's fun for like 10 minutes. Even starting it in an emulator is an annoying experience. The UI on modern computers might look superficially the same as these old Amigas, Ataris and Macs, but a boatload of small details have been hammered out and super-optimized since then for usability..
Back on topic, I think a lot of the computers are still in the attics of middle-aged people. Or older.
Apple ][c
PowerBook Duo 210
Original Barbie’s Toilet Seat iBook
G4 Cube
Original iPod
Original iPhone
All the towers had to go :(
I run a used retro games business, and will regularly sell stuff like a C64, Amiga, IBM Clone or SpectraVision to one particular group on Facebook for $200+ in as-is/untested condition. The rare stuff goes for even more. I recently got $300 for an old Atari ST floppy drive.
The guys that buy them will often do things like de-yellow the plastic and change all the caps, and there are even new upgrades being made for many of the old PCs today (HDMI mods being a big one).
In terms of where they come from, I know that some of them make their way back from overseas e-waste (there's one guy in India in particular I'm thinking of that does junked Game Boys and vintage toys too), and there are plenty just sitting in sheds covered in dust.
They was not time-prone, so mostly just disappear. And now people ask, are you sure, existed such civilization?
How it is possible, we know https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism but no journals, no blogs of ancient people, who done such smart things?