front panel display for a modern PC

[Brent Hilpert]

Chuck Guzis wrote:
> 
> I'm curious why anyone would want a front panel with lights and
> switches.  Except for some early IBM mainframe stuff, the number of
> systems that I've worked with that had no front panel vastly
> outnumber the ones that did.
> 
> Indeed, the front panel on the MITS 8800 seemed to be a waste of good
> components and an anachronism at that.  Better to take the costs of
> the panel and roll them into a good diagnostic ROM with loader.  The
> S-100 followup machine that I used, an Integrand box, had only a
> reset button on the front panel.  I never missed the switches.  After
> the MITS box, I never owned another system with a blinkenlights-and-
> switches front panel.
> 
> Just trying to understand.

As much as the Altair and IMSAI panels can be considered unnecessary (the
contemporary SWTPC 6800 went straight to a two-button panel (power and reset)),
one might consider how much the Altair/IMSAI front panels influenced or
hastened the take-off of the PC/computer-hobbyist market/revolution. Those
front panels said: 'Look, you can have your own computer just like the ones the
big boys have'. Would it have been the same if the cover of Popular Electronics
in 1976 pictured a blank box with two switches?