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Comment by Aardwolf | Hacker News Reader

Hmm, to me the term "multimedia PC" already sounded outdated from the start, similar to the "a CD ROM can contain a whole library shelf worth of data" hype.

I just thought like, this 386 PC could make sound and graphics and games. This Pentium can do it too, granted with more colors and a CD ROM drive and a fancy "where do you want to go today" movie, but does that warrant all this hype of being called "multimedia"?

Oh well, that was the 90s, things moved so fast then so of course things would sound outdated and cheesy very fast.

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> "a CD ROM can contain a whole library shelf worth of data" hype

CD-ROMs were pretty incredible for their time. Remember that when they became mainstream around 1994, hard drives were only 200 MB and floppies were 1.44 MB, so they really were game changing.

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

There was an actual group with recommended ‘standards’.

I see your multimedia PC, and raise you an "information superhighway". That sounded cringey from the start.

Not as cringeworthy as Bill Gates' book in the 90s opting to entirely use that term, abbreviating it to "the Highway," and outright refusing to say "Internet."

Don’t forget Microsoft.Net

Exactly. Back then it seemed like a word that people not much into the computer scene or non-specialist magazines would use, while to geeks the word was a joke.

I agree. Even today I would be very reluctant to use the term "multimedia" because it sounds very dusty and boring to me. I would use "audiovisual" or something else in its place.

Though it's not really necessary to call this out anymore, seeing as virtually every corner of computing is capable of a whizz-bang multimedia experience and has been for a long time.

Even today I would be very reluctant to use the term "multimedia" because it sounds very dusty and boring to me. I would use "audiovisual" or something else in its place.

A term from the 1990's sounds dusty compared to one from the 1950's? Interesting.

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