Retro Computing Archives

What happened to Conner hard drives

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing February 5, 2026February 5, 2026

Conner Peripherals was founded June 17, 1985 by Seagate Technology co-founder Finis Conner, in San Jose. On Sep. 20, 1995, Conner agreed to merge with Seagate in a deal worth $1 billion. The deal closed February 5, 1996. At the time of the merger, Conner was the second largest hard drive manufacturer, behind Seagate.

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.

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Radio Shack’s 2015 bankruptcy

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing February 4, 2026April 4, 2026

On February 5, 2015, Radio Shack filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy after posting losses 11 quarters in a row and accumulating $1.4 billion in debt. While not officially the end of Radio Shack, the Radio Shack that still exists today is a shadow of its pre-2015 self. At one time, Radio Shack was a retail giant, with about as many stores as McDonald’s, with a high percentage of them in small towns. A small town was about as likely to have a Radio Shack as a McDonald’s, and might not have both.

Dave Farquhar

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When Bill Gates claimed to work for $2 an hour

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing February 3, 2026February 3, 2026

The most popular software product for the MITS Altair 8800 computer was Altair Basic, the first Microsoft product. But there was a problem. Only about 10 percent of Altair owners paid for Altair Basic. On February 3, 1976, Bill Gates decided to do something about it. He wrote a letter titled An Open Letter to Hobbyists in which, among other things, he said he made around $2 an hour writing Altair Basic.

Dave Farquhar

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Intel 286 introduced Feb 2, 1982

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing February 2, 2026February 2, 2026

The Intel 80286 (also marketed as the iAPX 286 and often called Intel 286) is a 16-bit microprocessor that was introduced on February 1, 1982 after about three years in development. It was the first 8086-based CPU with separate, non-multiplexed address and data buses and also the first with memory management and wide protection abilities. The 80286 used approximately 134,000 transistors and was nearly 100% backward compatible with the earlier Intel 8086 and 8088 processors.

Dave Farquhar

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What happened to Packard Bell?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing January 30, 2026January 30, 2026

What happened to Packard Bell computers? The firm ceased operations in the United States in 2000. Its former rival, Acer, acquired the brand January 31, 2008 for $46 million. It was a once-unimaginable outcome for what had been the top-selling computer brand in the United States.

But there’s more to the story than that. The Packard Bell story is a brilliant piece of marketing. The computers were terrible, but the marketing was as good as it gets. And that’s one of the reasons people remember it as one of the more prominent of the 90s computer brands, even if many who remember it don’t remember it fondly.

Dave Farquhar

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Gateway announces merger with eMachines, 1/30/2004

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing January 29, 2026January 29, 2026

Twenty-one years ago, on January 30, 2004, Gateway announced it would be merging with eMachines. This brought two 90s computer brands together, but the tie-up didn’t go all that well. Let’s dig in and see what Gateway was thinking, and why it didn’t work. Because, let’s face it, who wouldn’t have wanted a never obsolete PC in a cow-spotted box?

Dave Farquhar

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JTS: short-lived maker of 90s hard drives

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing January 28, 2026November 16, 2025

JT Storage, aka JTS Corporation, looks on the surface like just another 90s hard drive company that got mauled by Seagate and Western Digital. But I’d say they were significant for two reasons: Their quality, and their corporate ancestry. You see, when Atari decided to close up shop in the 90s, it did so by merging with JTS.

The “JT” in JTS had nothing to do with Atari CEO Jack Tramiel, but the two companies were kindred spirits in many ways, aspiring to compete mostly on cost.

Dave Farquhar

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What happened to Geocities

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing January 27, 2026January 27, 2026

Geocities was at one time the largest web hosting service on the Internet, and was the third most visited website in existence in 1999. It allowed its users to create web pages for free. It hosted at least 38 million web pages. After holdings its IPO on August 10, 1998, Yahoo, then the most popular web site on the Internet, acquired Geocities on January 28, 1999 for $3.57 billion.

Dave Farquhar

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What happened to Sun Microsystems

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing January 26, 2026January 27, 2026

Sun Microsystems was a high flying technology company for much of the 80s, 90s, and even early into the 21st century. But they fell fast and they fell hard. Although they were not a dotcom company, having had their IPO on March 4, 1986, the dotcom bust mortally wounded Sun. The result of that was on January 27, 2010, Oracle acquired Sun for $7.4 billion. And slowly but surely, Oracle is retiring parts of that Sun legacy.

Dave Farquhar

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Nvidia’s IPO on January 22, 1999

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing January 23, 2026January 23, 2026

The biggest company in the AI era held its IPO during the dotcom era, on January 22, 1999. That company was Nvidia, who offered 3.5 million shares priced at $12 each. It had been founded April 5, 1993.

Dave Farquhar

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