Fourth Generation Computers

In Comes The PC!

The Altair 8800 was the first personal "computer," in 1975, with switches on its front to enter information in the fashion of 1's and 0's (hello, old friend Binary). Buddies Bill Gates and Paul Allen, recent high school graduates, fell in love with it. They created a program that translated user commands into commands the computer could understand.

"The World's First Minicomputer"

In the coming years, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak would create the Apple personal computer, as well as the Apple Computer Company and the successors of their main creation: Apple II and Apple III. Other players began to enter the market of personal computers, such as IBM, Commodore, and the Osbourne Company.

To fast forward and compare: the first computer created was incredibly costly, weighed 27 tons, took up over 600 square feet of space, and consumed vast amounts of electricity. Personal computers of the 21st century are much, MUCH smaller and lighter, as well as faster, cheaper, and publicly known and owned

Nowadays, it has become a part of human life to learn to maneuver around this growing technology. To say one must know something about computers in this day and age would not be an understatement. Although it is expected, being technologically savvy is not something that comes, or has come, easily to the older population.