23 Nov
2025
23 Nov
'25
8:01 p.m.
In my opinion, the statement below is true when it all started with personal curiosity
about using a computer. Once the computer became a means to make money, the utility of
using computers got intermixed with money and business. Greed took over most of the tech
world except for the few that embraced personal computers as personal computersand not to
make money off the masses.
- Tarek
> One of the greatest joys of classic computing was
running what you wanted on your own computer.
On Nov 23, 2025, at 7:35 PM, ben via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On 2025-11-23 8:11 p.m., Murray McCullough via cctalk wrote:
One of the greatest joys of classic computing was
running what you wanted
on your own computer. What has happened in the intervening years? Have
‘software walls’ created a computing environment that benefits software
gate-keepers(owners of computing technology) by monopolizing creativity,
freedom to program and establishing a defacto ‘true ownership’. Will the
future be this or will it be more like the earliest years of
microcomputing?
Murray 🙂
You have no software ownership any more, or control over you computer.
1984 it was Big Brother, to day it is Uncle Gates.
Ben.
PS: The lesser joy of 'your own computer' is lack of software or i/o devices.