[TUHS] Reaction to the 3B2 at Bell Labs

[Seth Morabito]

On Sat, Nov 26, 2022, at 11:18 AM, Larry McVoy wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 26, 2022 at 10:46:33AM -0800, Seth Morabito wrote:
>> Can anyone recall what the general mood was regarding the 3B2 (and the 7300 and the 6300, I suppose!)
>
> If the 7300 was the 3B1, M68K, I had one of those and a good friend also
> had one.  It was a huge step up from a CP/M machine which was my 
> previous machine.  I liked it a lot.
>
> But I wasn't at Bell Labs so perhaps this isn't the info you want.  I got
> the sense that the 3B2 was not very popular anywhere.

It was definitely a weird beast. I'm only "fond" of it in the loosest possible sense because I spent so much time trying to understand its internals. It was the perfect combination of too slow, too low specs, and too expensive!

I think one of my slides will simply say "IT WAS BAD AT BEING A COMPUTER"

-Seth
-- 
  Seth Morabito
  Poulsbo, WA
  web at loomcom.com