The following adverstisements were scanned directly from the February 1984 issue of Byte Magazine and are presented solely for your entertainment. I have removed the name of the company and any phone numbers, etc. leaving only the product name(s) and price(s). Let's have some fun and be thankful we don't have to re-live those trying times!

Ad number one: The IBM PC

Released in 1981, the IBM PC would literally change the “Home PC” market. Intended as a business-class computer that would be just as comfortable at home, the IBM PC sold in numbers that amazed even IBM. At the time of it's release, the market was flooded with a variety of home computers; Atari, Commodore, Apple, Altair, IMSI, Hewlett Packard, Xerox and many other companies had systems on the market. Not to mention the vast array of S-100 compatible systems, C/PM systems and the horde of Apple clones (Franklin being the most prominent).

Enter, IBM and the world changed. By the close of the decade, IBM and the IBM clones had dominated the marketplace. At one point, Digital Research - the creator of the long-lived Operating System, C/PM (Control Program for Microcomputers) - even attempted to sway IBM PC users away from MS-DOS (MicroSoft Disk Operating System) with full-page ads offering C/PM for free with the purchase of any of their C/PM business programs!

Here's our first ad:

Now, look carefully at the specifications! The first machine includes just 64K of RAM! Today, most computers are sold with at least 1GB of RAM. 64K of RAM is roughly equal to 64,000 characters of memory. 1GB is equal to 1,024K - or over one billion characters of memory! I checked 1984 RAM prices and found 64K to be approximately $45. If RAM still held that value, todays standard 1GB would cost a whopping $754,974,720!

Also notice that there is no hard drive included, only two full-height 5.25” floppies. You also got a monochrome monitor. All of this for the low price of just $2,590! To buy the upgraded model with 256K RAM, one 5.25” full-height floppy and a 10MB (yes, you read that correctly - not 10GB but 10MB) hard drive, you would have to invest nearly $4,000.

Ad Number Two: Printers

My biggest complaint about today's printers would have to be the cost of ink. Sure, you can buy a decent quality ink-jet printer with scanning and faxing capabilities for less than a hundred dollars, but just wait until you have to buy ink! My latest printer, a Lexmark X5470 was less than $80, yet the two ink cartridges cost $40 - half the cost of the entire printer. Does anyone else see a problem here? I've heard the arguments before: I'm not just buying “ink” - I'm buying ink as well as the cartridge, which contains the circuitry and ink-jet heads. I still think that after over twenty years of development and sales, the cost of ink-jet cartridges should have fallen considerably by now. Just look at the above example on computers!

Wow, look at those prices! For a letter-quality daisywheel printer, you'd have to spend at least $1,800. A low-end dot-matrix printer cost $430. And I certainly don't miss the “whap, whap, whap” sound of a daisywheel printer, or the machine-gun retort of the dot-matrix printer!

Okay, maybe I won't complain too much about the cost of ink anymore.

Ad Number Three: Hard Drives

Back in the early nineties, I operated a computer sales and service center. The Seagate ST-225 hard drive was a popular seller. This was a 20MB, 5.25” form factor hard drive. It was very reliable and I installed hundreds of them in new and used PC's. Back then, we used to calculate the cost per megabyte to purchasers. If I could buy an ST-225 for $125, the cost per mega-byte (cpm) would be 9 cents. Today, I can buy a 320GB internal hard drive for about $180. This translates to a cpm of .00005 cents! So, if I had to buy a 320GB hard drive at “yesterday's” prices, it would cost me an incredible $29,491!

Here's a peek at 1984 hard drive and floppy drive prices:

One 5.25” full-height floppy drive cost $239. This was a Control Data or Tandon brand - both considered to be excellent brands.

The truly shocking items are the hard drives. A 20MB hard drive cost a staggering $2,050! That's a cpm of $102.50! One hundred dollars per megabyte! What would a new, 320GB hard drive cost me in 1984 dollars?

Are you sitting down?

$33,587,200

All of this makes me ponder the future. Where are we headed? In twenty-four years, will we look back at 2008 and laugh?

Will we say, “Wow! Can you believe we were paying .00005 cents per megabyte? What a joke!”

Will we be measuring the cpt - cost per terabyte? Will computers as we know them even exist?

I look forward to what the future holds but I do hold a special place in my heart for the early days of personal computers. And while I may not have been able to afford most of the systems and peripherals that were on the market, I made do with what I could afford and took part in the revolution.

Here's to the next twenty-four years!

I'm getting ready to purchase another computer. I am looking at a Circuit City advertisement that says that Circuit City will sell you an HP desktop computer for $679 dollars, regularly selling for $769.98. It has got 3 GB of memory and a 500 GB hard drive and with a 17” widescreen LCD monitor. It comes with Windows Vista. I think this is a pretty good buy.

Every time I get ready to purchase a new computer, I find that I have to reacquaint myself with the market. And I find that computers get more powerful because of the demands of bigger and more sophisticated applications. I also find that the price of computers actually stay about the same or are reduced when compared with, say, the previous year's models. I think this is also good for the consumer, especially when everything else appears to be going up.

Laptop Computers

In the same advertisement, I see an HP laptop computer being advertised for $629 dollars, with 3 gigabytes of memory and a 160 gigabytes hard drive of storage memory, but with a 15” monitor. Windows Vista is included

A free Deskjet printer is included with the purchase of any computer.

There are also other brands with similar specifications included in the advertisement. Of course, Best Buy also has some good buys from time to time. With a little bit of shop comparison, I'm sure I will find a new and more powerful computer that will handle any new applications and gaming needs.

Windows Vista Versions

Windows Vista comes in several different versions. Based on your budget, and how good your computer is, Microsoft recommends one of these to you. They are as follows, with descriptions:

• Windows Vista Home Basic - This is the cheapest of the versions in the Vista line. However, it is also the most striped down. You don't get Aero, or any of the other new cool features. It is almost like having Windows XP Home for a higher price. If you don't have enough money for Home Premium or above, don't even bother getting Vista, because Basic is not even worth it.
• Windows Vista Home Premium - This version is the best choice for the home user. It comes with Media Center and Aero. If you are looking into getting Vista for your home, then this is your best choice.
• Windows Vista Business - This version of Windows is mainly for small to medium sized businesses. It does not have Media Center, however, it does have Aero (I don't see why it has Aero, because in my opinion, that will just distract employees from doing there jobs because they will be playing with the ALT-TAB Window Tilt feature all the time). If buying for a business, this is your best choice. Home users should just ignore that this edition even exists.
• Windows Vista Ultimate - This edition has all the features of both the Business edition and Home Premium Editions. I like to call it an operating system on steroids, because that is what it seems like. You should only buy this edition if you have a lot of money to spend, and a very high end computer that will be used for both personal and business uses.

Cost? Why should I switch from Windows XP?

Yes, the cost is quite high, and I feel your pain. Having bough Windows Vista Ultimate, I forked out a lot of money for my new computer (which I built). If you are just using your computer for Email, or other general uses, you don't need to switch to Vista, because Windows XP has what you need. However, if you are concerned about your computers security, I do suggest switching to the more secure Vista. Also, if you use your computer for either Business, Video Games, or you are online a lot, you should switch to Vista. Vista is more secure for the online stuff you do, as well as for business uses, and eventually, most PC games will be released for Vista and not support XP.

Full Install Vs. Upgrade Version

If you do decide to get Windows Vista, I suggest buying the Full Install version over the Upgrade Version. The Upgrade Version has more problems after install. As well, never use the download and install option on the website for Windows Vista. This is the upgrade version and causes even more problems then the DVD Upgrade Version.