Jeffrey J. Kosowsky wrote:

> Timothy Murphy wrote at about 17:57:18 +0000 on Friday, March 18, 2011:
>  > In my (very long, I started with a paper-tape machine) experience
>  > one almost always gets better advice on Windows problems
>  > from Unix/Linux gurus.
> 
> Wow! I know that Windows was originally distributed on 3.5" disks and
> perhaps even on the larger 5 1/4 size. But I had know idea that Bill
> ever distributed Windows on paper tape -- given how bloatware Windows
> is, that must have killed a lot of trees. Were the MS forums also
> archived on tape too? :P

The era I was referring to was long before Windows or even Unix.
The first computer I used was in the Mathematical Laboratory
at Cambridge, I guess in the mid-1950s.
I don't think there really was an OS in the modern sense.
There was a version of Fortran though, also on paper tape.
The main thing was that the Lab remained warm even when there were
several feet of snow in the Fens.
The remarkable thing is how much serious work was done on that machine,
eg the work by Swinnerton-Dyer (and Birch) on elliptic curves.

-- 
Timothy Murphy  
e-mail: gayleard /at/ eircom.net
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland


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