RIP Ed Roberts, microcomputer pioneer

[wsuffa]

Among the tekkies, who didn't want to own an Altair? We lost a true innovator and pioneer:

ATLANTA (AP) -- Dr. Henry Edward Roberts, the developer of an early personal computer that inspired Bill Gates to found Microsoft, died Thursday in Georgia. He was 68.
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The man better known as Ed Roberts developed and marketed the MITS Altair 8800 in the 1970s. The build-it-yourself kit was operated by switches and had no display screen, but it inspired Gates and childhood friend Paul Allen to found Microsoft in 1975 after they saw an article about it in Popular Electronics.

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[Ghery]

And I think I still have the January and February 1975 issues of Popular Electronics for that reason. Very handy when the Apple evangelists (and that's the job title on their business cards) started spouting off about how Apple invented the personal computer. Where did they think Jobs and Woz get the idea?

 

[rpadula]

And I think I still have the January and February 1975 issues of Popular Electronics for that reason. Very handy when the Apple evangelists (and that's the job title on their business cards) started spouting off about how Apple invented the personal computer. Where did they think Jobs and Woz get the idea?

Yabut programming a computer via toggle switches and LED's wasn't exactly a "personal" experience.

Except to a bunch of us nerdy engineers perhaps.

 

[wsuffa]

And I think I still have the January and February 1975 issues of Popular Electronics for that reason. Very handy when the Apple evangelists (and that's the job title on their business cards) started spouting off about how Apple invented the personal computer. Where did they think Jobs and Woz get the idea?

I had them, too, for a long time - they got lost on one of my moves.

There was a store near Landmark Mall in Alexandria that carried the MITS kits (and later, z80- and 6800- based systems). It was close enough to home and I had wheels.... spent my money on radio gear instead...