ScuzzBlog: Diaries October 2025
Entry 9th October 2025: Post : What Personal Computer - Remembering the forgetful.
What Personal Computer - Remembering the forgetful.
When you say Amiga to a computer enthusiast it will instantly
conjure up images of a recognisable nature. That is because the
Amiga was a product with a defined history and a limited legacy.
This is true of any created item that benefits from a recognisable
brand name.
This is less clearly identifiable when referring simply to the PC.
Mr Gates was instrumental in his MSX years to promoting the idea
of a set standard of components that constitute a computer range.
He cared not what badge carried the computer parts as long as the
parts themselves represented the same basic standard. The reasoning
behind this is that Mr Gates wanted a standard that would always
support his software, given that Microsoft had no interest in
making computers.
Whilst IBM and any number of clones fought to provide a melding of
recognisable product lines and applications only Apple from that
era survived to maintain the legacy of identifiable product range
and software OS. Mr Gates won the day and so from the early nineties
and onward computers lost their brand recognition in favor of the
plethora of tin boxes that filled the computer magazines. And so
it was less about specific identity and more about performance.
Hence the vast number of very forgetful PC magazines that filled
the shelves of the newsagents of the era. These often inch thick
publications were filled with supplier catalogs and brochures
promoting their products with little actual journalistic content.
In support of the faceless tin boxes we also were gifted the quite
mind numbing storm of cover disks and CDs filled to the brim with
endless PC offerings that were to transform our worlds.
Like the PC itself magazines were soulless and very similar in
their format. A reflection of a computer world that provided what
I like to call ' food without taste '. Having all the nutrient
value of feeding your needs but providing very little actual taste.
And so what is the point of today's blog. I was asked if I had in
the collection copies of What Personal Computer and disks for the
1992 era. I have to say my heart sinks whenever I receive such
requests, because as avid a collector of computers as I am I would
need a warehouse similar in size to that one you see in Raiders
to house the collected publications of PC magazines and disks/discs.
I do have a pantry of PC magazines from the nineties era but I am
not likely to brave into the darkness for fear of never returning.
PC titles of magazines are as forgetful as the products they
represent. If you cannot conjure up in your mind a singularly
identifiable image from a limited selection of words you finish
up with something not dissimilar to the creative works of Mr Gates.
An art display that would render walls of chaotic imagery or
blank canvasses with little or any genuine works of art.
And so I went through my drawers of PC disks and found five of
the What Personal Computer disks for the specified era and was
unable to generate any level of enthusiasm for the content other
than to say in the great forest of PC publications I personally
have, I have no recollection of this particular magazine tree.
The name 'What Personal Computer' in my mind tends to infer a
different and quite forgettable period in computer history. For
it heralded the end of a great time and seceded to the dogma
and philosophy of a belief that you can truly peddle junk to the
masses just as long as it did the job. Microsoft were only ever
interested in flogging stuff that didn't involve actual product
manufacture. It's an easy commodity to replicate and less easy
to identify as being recognisable by simple appearance.
Thankfully I will always remember what an Amiga looks like. You
can never take that from me.
PS: Not a good time for me to be having this discussion as I am
on a deadline to wade through all the current computer crap and
puchase a new beast just to satisfy MSs restrictive practices on
force feeding updates that render perfectly good computers
obsolete. For a company that doesn't make the kit they certainly
know how to destroy computers. Been doing it all their existence.
What Personal Computer - Remembering the forgetful.
|
