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The Galaksija computer was a craze in 1980s Yugoslavia

tribunemag.co.uk

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Re: The Galaksija computer was a craze in 1980s Yugoslavia

#31

Post by cosmodisk »

djur wrote: post #2

This is a great story, but most of the anecdotes are very familiar to someone who has studied (or was there for) the early era of home computing in the West. The Altair, the Heathkit, etc. Bill Gates' infamous Open Letter To Hobbyists was written in that era: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Letter_to_Hobbyists The article treats a lot of this stuff as more unique (and, it seems, ideologically inspired) than it was…

It seems that it took him a couple of decades to understand that piracy of his products may be good for the business: when visiting a university in the US in early 90s, he got asked what Microsoft is doing with the Chinese pirating their products left and right. Bill responded with 'let them get used to it and eventually we'll figure out how to charge for it'. I used to use pirated software all the time.fast forward some years and I'm paying for Photoshop, Acrobat,a whole bunch of Microsoft products and I'll most likely host my app on Azure.

Re: The Galaksija computer was a craze in 1980s Yugoslavia

#32

Post by tpmx »

djur wrote: post #2

This is a great story, but most of the anecdotes are very familiar to someone who has studied (or was there for) the early era of home computing in the West. The Altair, the Heathkit, etc. Bill Gates' infamous Open Letter To Hobbyists was written in that era: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Letter_to_Hobbyists The article treats a lot of this stuff as more unique (and, it seems, ideologically inspired) than it was…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaksija_%28computer%29

"See also

ZX80 - Sinclair ZX80 which predates the Galaksija by 4 years and has a remarkably similar system design including using the Z80A to drive the video output."

Re: The Galaksija computer was a craze in 1980s Yugoslavia

#34

Post by jd115 »

Off topic, but ha, this funny. "Tito" and "anti-authoritarian" in the same paragraph, just LOLz. The intro is a bit off, politically.

On a less off-topic note, checkout Bulgaria's wildly successful clone of the Apple II in 1979: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pravetz_computers

Re: The Galaksija computer was a craze in 1980s Yugoslavia

#37

Post by hrvach »

okramcivokram wrote: post #8

There's a great talk about it that also has more technical details on CCC: The ultimate Galaksija talk [1] [1]: https://media.ccc.de/v/29c3-5178-en-the_ultimate_galaksija_t...

That was an amazing lecture by Tomaz Solc. His contributions and work on recreating the Galaksija in a more modern, yet entirely authentic edition are nothing short of amazing.

Re: The Galaksija computer was a craze in 1980s Yugoslavia

#38

Post by acqq »

jd115 wrote: post #34

Off topic, but ha, this funny. "Tito" and "anti-authoritarian" in the same paragraph, just LOLz. The intro is a bit off, politically. On a less off-topic note, checkout Bulgaria's wildly successful clone of the Apple II in 1979: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pravetz_computers

The introduction in the article is historically accurate, compared to the countries behind the so called “iron curtain” that land was indeed different.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Curtain

“Soviet-installed governments ruled the Eastern Bloc countries, with the exception of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which retained its independence and changed its orientation away from the Soviet Union in the late 1940s to a progressively independent worldview.”

From the article:

“Along with Egypt, Ghana, India, and Indonesia, the country founded the “non-aligned movement,” a patchwork of developing nations aspiring to chart a decolonial “third option” of formal neutrality during the Cold War. This constituted one of the few genuine anti-authoritarian, anti-imperial international alliances of the twentieth century.”

That doesn’t mean that the leader wasn’t treated as the “unique and only.”

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