Chapter Four of Accidental Empires, Robert X Cringely
In the early 1970's Personal Computer Software wasn't possible because there wasn't any hardware available on which it could be used. What made this possible was the appearance of the MITS Altair 8800 computer, which in turn was made possible thanks to Intel's invention of the microprocessor. It wasn't until then, in 1974, that Bill Gates was able to convert from minicomputers to microcomputers. This is more or less the foundation for Chapter Four of Accidental Empires by Robert Cringely, titled Amateur Hour. It is based on how hardware nearly always makes possible software. In this essay I will summarise the chapter and also make it clear to see how some of the people who started it all off, did so more or less by accident, just by being in the right place at the right time.
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