Comment by gameshot911 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by gameshot911 | Hacker News Reader

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That actually raises an interesting idea. Does it say anything about the state of a technology when the design becomes a purchasing factor in addition to just the functionality?

In 1995 no one cared what a PC looked like. The driving factors were "You mean I can send a message...electronically!?", "I can chat with other people in a chatroom in real time!?", etc. But today those features are commonplace, and people really do care about how the product looks as much as the capabilities of the hardware. Does this imply some sort of plateau in the progress of the technology or the features it offers? I'd say yes - if a fully functional VR system were available tomorrow (think Oculus v10.0+) it's design would be almost irrelevant in light of the new experiences it offered.

We've hit that point a few times. I'd say the first time was in '98 or so when the original iMac came out. And while there have been various PC clones of Apple laptops since the PowerBook G4s the MacBook Air certainly gained a ton of imitators.

Then again, you could argue the Air wasn't style but usability/convenience of lower weight/size.

"In 1995 no one cared"

I'll take that thought one step further. The sound of an "ugly" teletype banging away line by line with a "basic" program was actually quite cool. Later on I thought I had it made when I could find a green crt that wasn't all beat in the school computer center. [1]

[1] Used one of these at Wharton:

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/pdp10.html

In 1995 lots of people cared, Me, for one. And it was nice when companies like SGI and Sun put real care and thought into the design of their workstations. I could never afford one for myself, but I ooh-ed and aah-ed whenever I got to work on one of those fantastic machines. I guess it took Apple to notice that a well designed computer at a good price point would sell well enough to make it worth it

> Does it say anything about the state of a technology when the design becomes a purchasing factor in addition to just the functionality?

That it's become mainstream like an automobile? Or a house?

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