1990s AOL competitors

1990s AOL competitors

It’s hard to believe now, and nobody should have believed it then, but around 1997, analysts were calling AOL the only blue-chip dotcom stock. The problem was the golden age of dialup ended around 1998. But AOL served a purpose, for a time. Here’s a look back at 1990s AOL competitors.

In the 90s, technology stocks were a slightly different category. Today we don’t distinguish them, but companies who made and sold physical goods like IBM were easier to understand than companies whose business model revolved around the Internet and or proprietary information services.

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Packard Bell vs Hewlett-Packard

Packard Bell vs Hewlett-Packard

I didn’t realize that the question of Packard Bell vs Hewlett-Packard existed anymore. The search engines say otherwise. So here’s the difference between these two rather old brands.

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Why did Compaq fail?

Why did Compaq fail?

Compaq was a high-flying PC brand in the 1980s and 1990s. It created the first successful and fully legal IBM PC clone, set records as a startup, usurped IBM as the standard bearer in the PC market, and made sturdy, highly regarded desktop PCs and servers. But today it’s just a trademark that HP owns and doesn’t use. Why did Compaq fail?

There were several reasons why Compaq failed, but one stands taller than the others.

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Why is x86 so popular? Momentum.

Why is x86 so popular? Momentum.

Intel and Intel-compatible x86 CPUs are everywhere around us. It’s been a long time since you could buy a desktop or laptop computer with anything but an x86 CPU in it. Even Apple, a longtime anything-but-Intel stalwart, started using x86 CPUs more than a decade ago. That raises a fair question: Why is x86 so popular?

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Computers in the 1990s

Computers in the 1990s

Computers in the 1990s, especially at the dawn of the 1990s, were very different from today. Looking back now, it’s easy to see how the 1990s were a pivotal decade for computing. And since GenXers like me live under the delusion that the 1990s just happened, I still remember it well.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember about computers in the 1990s is the number of things that didn’t exist prior to 1990. In other cases, they existed, but were terrible, so nobody used them.

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Commodore 64 vs Nintendo 64

Commodore 64 vs Nintendo 64

The Commodore 64 and Nintendo 64 have similar names, but they aren’t related. The number “64” was significant enough that both companies wanted to brag about it. But in the case of the Commodore 64 vs Nintendo 64, the number meant two completely different things. Here’s why that number keeps coming up.

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Advantages of 8086 over 8085

Advantages of 8086 over 8085

Intel had a hit on its hands with the 8080 CPU and its successor, the 8085. But then Zilog came along and stole its thunder with the compatible but superior Z-80. Intel needed to follow up with something a lot better. The 8086 was what they came up with. The advantages of 8086 over 8085 were numerous, and that’s why everyone knows Intel, and few people outside of retro computing enthusiasts and embedded systems engineers ever heard of Zilog.

Here are the major advantages of 8086 over 8085.

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Commodore 64 CPU

Commodore used two different chips as the Commodore 64 CPU during its long lifetime. Both Commodore 64 CPUs were proprietary derivatives of the venerable MOS 6502, but unlike the 6502, Commodore and its MOS subsidiary never licensed either of them to other sources.

Like the Atari 2600 CPU, the 6510 and 8500 were 6502s with some changes. Unlike the 6507, the 6510/8500 added capability, rather than removing it.

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Apple II vs Macintosh

Apple II vs Macintosh

The Apple II was one of the first mass-market computers, one of three announced and released in 1977. It proved successful, and Apple had a hard time following up on it. The Macintosh was the third attempt, and it eventually proved successful. Apple II vs Macintosh ended up not being much of a comparison. But it took a while for the Mac to catch on. Here’s what set the Mac apart from its widely successful predecessor.

The Mac, like most of the computers that followed it in 1985, ushered in a lot of changes from its predecessor. Technologically the Apple II was much closer to its main competitor, the Commodore 64.

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Computers in 1980

Computers in 1980

Computers in 1980 were rather different from computers of today. They could do the fundamental things a computer of today can do, but by modern standards, they were much smaller and less powerful. In the mid 1980s, Commodore Grace Hopper said we had the Model T, computing-wise. In 1980, we weren’t quite at the Model T yet.

Still, computers in 1980 were interesting. We’d never seen anything like them.

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