## The rise and fall of personnal computers age ── June 14-20 2021 ───────────────────── ┌───┐ ▄ ┌─┐ ┌®──┐┌────┐ ▄ ┌───┐┌──┬─┐ │ ─ └┐┌─┐│ └──┐│ ┌─┘│ ──┤┌─┐│ ┌┘│ │ │ │ ── ││ ││ ──┤│ │ │ ──┤│ ││ └┐│ │ └────┘└─┘└────┘└─┘ └────┘└─┘└───┘└──┴─┘ ── conference in gopherspace ───────── now available in low resolution: 70x30 (free of charge) ## La marseillaise Dear __20h__, the french national anthem "La marseillaise", is a call of mass murdering. I hate that. ## Auferstanden aus Ruinen % https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auferstanden_aus_Ruinen Risen from the ruins and facing the future, let us serve you for the good, Bitreich, our country ------------------------------- Auferstanden aus Ruinen Und der Zukunft zugewandt, Lass uns dir zum Guten dienen, Bitreich, unserm Vaterland. ## What i expect from a national anthem Let all paths by peace be lighted, That no mother shall again Mourn her son in woe. ------------------------------- Lasst das Licht des Friedens scheinen, Dass nie eine Mutter mehr Ihren Sohn beweint. ## who am i Marc Chantreux Born and raised in Elsass Work for Renater (French NREN) % https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_research_and_education_network Floss Evangelist Founder of the Green IT WG https://replay.jres.org/videos/watch/e787327a-d922-4891-9968-203ee34d4eba ## birthdates 1973/03 - Palo Alto % https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Alto % https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PARC_(company) % 1975 - Altair % https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altair_8800 % 1976/01 <---------------- I'm here 1976/04 - Apple 1 % https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_I % 1977/01 - Commodore PET % https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_PET ## the old republic experiments and incompatibility 1981/08 - IBM PC % https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_Computer_AT 1982/08 - Commodore C64 % https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_C64 1984/04 - Amstrad CPC 464 % https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad_CPC#CPC_464 1984 - Apple Mac - Thomson TO7-70 (french schools, almost born dead) % https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomson_TO7/70 1985/06 - Atari ST 1985/07 - Commodore Amiga % https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga ## the empire^wbusiness resistance is futile :( IBM PC clones Apple Mac ## (lack of) Bibliography on the sociology of european users of personal computers of the last millenium. An "American/Business" perspective: Triumph of the Nerds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_of_the_Nerds The Commodore History https://www.thecommodorestory.com/ Computers for cynics (Ted Nelson) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdnGPQaICjk ## where to find a PC in 80's * some rare wealthy neighbors Amstrad CPCs Commodore C64 * schools and computer clubs (mainly) TO7-70 ## TO7-70 Motorola 6809E, 1 MHz RAM : 48 Ko text : 40 × 25 video : 320 × 200, 16 colors software distribution on : programs hardcopied on books and magazines : audio tapes (sooooo slow ...) > social engineering > you better write simple softwares #pause have expect ## Computers where new for everyone Even for adults. so we learnt by: - copying programs from books - peer/mob programming/manual reading - asking/answering questions software lifecycle: - release soon, release often - developpement/usage iterations Agile methodology is *at least* that old! ## Utile ? fuck yeah! Fun ? it depends Social ? share and tranmit the knowledge Desire ? how do you think it becomes a market ? ## my own *monster* (1986) 1986: Amstrad PC 1512 % https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad_PC-1512 7.75 kg 2 floppy drives (360 KB 5¼-inch) customized: + Overclocking: 4Mhz to 8Mhz + EGA video card (16 colors) + 20Mb card file ## 90's IBM PC clones * VGA video cards (1987) 640 × 480 monochrome 320×200 256 colors * soundblaster Amiga 500 * Workbench * Deluxe Paint * The demoscene ## Imagination ... from now to ... #pause Rediffusions of Star Trek original series % https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series ___________________ ____....-----....____ (________________LL_) ============================== ______\ \_______.--'. `---..._____...---' `-------..__ ` ,/ `-._ - - - | Also: 1982: Tron, Blade Runner 1983: Wargames % https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarGames % https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner % https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tron ## Fuck you! ______ .888 .8888' .8888' 888' 8' .88888888888. .88888888888. .8888888888888888888888888888888. .8888888888888888888888888888888888. .&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&' &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&' “The most powerful person &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&' in the world is the storyteller. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@: The storyteller sets the vision, @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@: values and agenda of an @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@: entire generation that is to come.” %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%. -- Steve Jobs %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%. `%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%. `00000000000000000000000000000000000' `000000000000000000000000000000000' `0000000000000000000000000000000' `###########################' `#######################' `#########''########' `""""""' `"""""' ## gates and jobs Gates about sharing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Letter_to_Hobbyists transform a land of freedom to a market * stolen all the possible futures and emphasize their poor visions to create monocultures * proprietary softwares everywhere * good/known programming toolchains were unaffordable (borland) => pirates and crackers ## linux and internet this UNIX (OS of the mainframes) => software design by scientists => KISS philosophy => Perl (C if you need) IRC / NNTP Newsgroups / FTP (ls-R.txt) => solve the (technical) education of next generations Gopher * "cool replacement for ftp" * "overseeded by WWW" WWW => i bet no one want to use that ... ## Paychecks and MS domination First Job System administration with MS stack * Windows NT4 * Exchange 5.5 * Internet Information Server 3.0 * Webmastering prototyping with dreamweaver/photoshop "Stop your linux thing, Microsoft won" -- my former boss Applying new jobs word was the only known file format for resumes ## Open source returns LAMP (linux, apache, mysql, PHP) then python and now Javascript stack yet ... ## Rise of online services The battle we lose was the Mozilla configuration panel * Forced and uneducated users * Overloaded Helpdesks THE CRITICAL RESSOURCE WAS *EDUCATED* TECHNICIANS TIME * don't educate, provide new services/softwares * we can buy more servers and softwares * what is technical debt anyway Hosting services * No deploy * No configuration * No freedom * No more expectations ## Open source become another tool of control => remote hosting => web services => unnecessary complex technology stacks => no more care about software quality => no more # Fixing it the wrong way * Industrial virtualization: now your errors can scale * Continuous intregration : be sure we can always add crap ## I gave up long time ago but ... * Climate change % https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change * Biodiversity collapse % https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction * Raw material shortage % https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_elements_facing_shortage made me stand up and think ## Hubbert Peak 1956's study about extraction American geophysicist M. King Hubbert % # fake Hubbert Curve % # (looks good enough) % # ploot-braille: git://bitreich.org/ploot % % ( cd ${wdir:=$(mktemp -d)} % echo epoch,extraction % seq 20 | % xargs printf '-%s sec\n'| % date -f- +%s > epochs % <<-. bc|tee A|tac > B % for (i=1;i<=10;i++) i^2 % . % cat A B|paste -d, epochs - % rm -rf . % ) |ploot-braille -c60|cut -c 1-150|sed ' % 1d % $d % ' ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⢰⣿⣿⣿⣆⠀<──── GETTING HARD (peak) ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⢠⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ HAPPY DAYS ⠀⠀⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⡀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⣼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⣰⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣆⠀ WE ARE SCREWED ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⢠⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⢀⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀│⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⣼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀│⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⣸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀│⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⣰⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣆⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀│⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⣰⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣆⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀│⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⣰⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣆⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀│⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⣰⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣆⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀│⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⣼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀│⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀│⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢠⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣄⠀⠀⠀│⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣰⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣆⠀⠀v⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣴⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣤⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⣠⣴⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣦⣄⠀⠀ ⣠⣴⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣦ ## Economy basics % https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubbert_peak_theory Hubbert (1956) the more you dig, the less you have % https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox Jevvons Paradox if it's easy to get, it will be wasted % https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth Meadows's "Limit of the growth" (1972) bad news: we did the maths % https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World3 World3 Model * pretty accurate since then * very bad predictions for the next decade % https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Acceleration Great acceleration can't we stop ? % https://webassets.oxfamamerica.org/media/documents/Confronting-Carbon-Inequality.pdf Carbon inequity most people in this world just want to eat. => Energy transition is bullshit ## Impact of our Digital Lives Electronic wastes are huge environemental problems Extraction sites and manufacturing is disaster Between %2 to %10 of the global energy consumption => Life-cycle assessment studies are just estimations focus on dynamics and order of magnitude => WE'RE SCREWED IF WE PERSIST ## the focus lower the environemental impact of production reduce rotation rate choose wisely what we *really* need ## so what ? Let's face it, no matter their "Digital soberty" terminal ──────── >= 1 person is not affordable in an environmental perspective * we should go back to clubs and places to share digital lives * we should come back to "Digital conviviality" ## inspired by Tools of conviviality (Ivan Illich - 1973) things have to be simple and open source so they can be * shared * learned by the most * masterized by many * easy to maintain * hard to lose Software minimalism is not only an esthetic research, It's a pragmatic attitude to value conviviality over functionality. Sounds familliar? Read the Bitreich manifesto! Unix is user-friendly — it's just choosy about who its friends are. Anonymous, in The Art of UNIX Programming (2003) by Eric S. Raymond Whose who don't understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly Henry Spencer ## People are scared * They should be much more scared about the consequences of inaction * Post personal computing could be Utile ? fuck yeah! Fun ? it depends Social ? share and tranmit the knowledge Desire ? yes because it solves real problems There will be less software, more humans less services, more advices Bitreich could help * Help leading new generations to Digital Conviviality * Help preparing/delaying the resilence think about their usages create tools simple ergonomy (yes, i have ideas :))