Top all-time · #3291
John Paul Wohlscheid
Personal blog · computeradsfromthepast.substack.comhistoryhardware
John Paul Wohlscheid writes Computer Ads from the Past, a personal blog at computeradsfromthepast.substack.com about history and hardware. Since 2022, 23 different Hacker News readers have linked it 116 times, most often “Connectix RAM Doubler (2022)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (6) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog's posts about vintage computer advertisements, such as Coherent, Franklin's Apple II clones, Connectix RAM Disk and PFS:First Publisher. Comments cite or link the posts without judging the writing.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 6 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Did you ever stare at the ads in your favorite computer magazine and wish you could afford those cool systems or games? I have. Now I look back at computer history through those ads. I also republish interviews and comics from those magazines. Click to read Computer Ads from the Past, by John Paul W
Most-linked posts?
- Connectix RAM Doubler (2022)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2026-02-17
- NeXTWorld Interviews Bud Tribble (1994)2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2026-02-01
- Interactive Unix – So Powerful It Can't Be a PC2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-06-25
- Interview with Steve Jobs from MicroTime (1992)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-02-26
- Alan Sugar of Amstrad Speaks to Practical Computing (1985)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-08-07
- /p/mark-williams-coherent-operating2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-11-14
- Microsoft's Xenix – Microsoft tries their hand at Unix2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-08-01
- Connectix QuickCam: The First Webcam2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-09-10
- MicroTimes' Interview with Doug and Larry Michels from Santa Cruz Operation (1987)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-09-30
- Interview with Programming Visionaries Donald Knuth and Niklaus Wirth from 19852 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-05-22
What Hacker News says?
Coherent was my first PC Unix-clone, before moving to Linux. It was incredible for the time. The documentation was bar none... I still remember the 500+ page book with the shell on it. (Coherent ad here: https://computeradsfromthepast.substack.com/p/mark-williams-... ... not my blog.)
Comment linking /p/mark-williams-coherent-operating
on “NetBSD 10: Proper old-school Unix, not like those lazy, decadent Linux types”Submitted Byte Interviews the Apple Lisa Dev Team (1983) as a story · 155 points
HN discussionPFS:First Publisher was my fav for a while in the 80s on a clone 8086 PC with CGA (running in mono 640x200). Very impressive performance for the time. It supported loading MacPaint bitmaps (.mac on the PC) and with the “cheap” PC compatibles it made for a poor man’s Mac-workalike DTP tool. Here’s an 1988 article on the T/Maker company that built it, founded by Heidi Roizen and her brother Peter Roizen: https://compu…
Comment linking /p/tmaker-tiny-software-company-takes
on “Desktop Publishing Tools That Didn't Make It (2022)”Submitted Dr. Dobb's Journal interviews Jef Raskin (1986) as a story · 91 points
HN discussionhttp://computeradsfromthepast.substack.com/p/connectix-ram-d...
Comment linking /p/connectix-ram-doubler
on “RAM now represents 35 percent of bill of materials for HP PCs”Submitted Ampere WS-1 Japanese APL Clamtop as a story · 71 points
HN discussionI had one, I believe they never delivered on the color compatibility. Mine came with an easy on the eyes amber crt. Here it is the Ace 1000 was greyscale only but was 80 column. Wohlscheid - Computer Ads from the Past Unfortunately, the Franklin didn't copy the Apple's ability to display color graphics. It was limited to “shades of grey and black and white”. https://computeradsfromthepast.substack.com/p/franklins-ac…
Comment linking /p/franklins-ace-1000
on “Franklin's bad ads for Apple ][ clones and the beloved impersonator they depict”Submitted Phar Lap FrontRunner – The Winning DOS Desktop for Windows as a story · 71 points
HN discussionRelief for you is available: https://computeradsfromthepast.substack.com/p/connectix-ram-...
Comment linking /p/connectix-ram-doubler
on “Claude Sonnet 4.6 System Card”Submitted Connectix QuickCam: The First Webcam as a story · 69 points
HN discussionStrangely enough, I did learn Unix by reading the man pages. Way back around 1990, I came across a low-cost Version 7 clone of Unix called 'Coherent'. Along with several floppies containing the software came a large 400-500 page book that was mostly a reprint of the Coherent man-pages. https://computeradsfromthepast.substack.com/p/mark-williams-... Coming from MSDOS, I had to learn Unix from the ground up.* That 'ma…
Comment linking /p/mark-williams-coherent-operating
on “I Didn’t Learn Unix by Reading All the Manpages”Submitted IBM RISC System/6000 Family as a story · 67 points
HN discussionSubmitted Six Game Devs Speak to Computer Games Mag (1984) as a story · 61 points
HN discussionSubmitted Interactive Unix – So Powerful It Can't Be a PC as a story · 48 points
HN discussionSubmitted Unix Review Magazine Interviews Larry Tesler as a story · 45 points
HN discussionSubmitted Volkswriter Deluxe – One of the first word processors for the IBM PC as a story · 38 points
HN discussionSubmitted Chris Curry interviewed by Your Computer magazine (1981) as a story · 27 points
HN discussionSubmitted Altima NSX as a story · 25 points
HN discussionSubmitted Family Computing Interviews Jack Tramiel After Atari Purchase (1985) as a story · 23 points
HN discussionSubmitted Antic Magazine Interviews Alan Reeve, the Creator of the Diamond OS (1990) as a story · 19 points
HN discussionSubmitted Sierra Online – Part 2 as a story · 9 points
HN discussionSubmitted Comics from 1978/05 Creative Computing Mag as a story · 7 points
HN discussionSubmitted Now You Can Work in C with Only BASIC Knowledge as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted Byte Interviews Chuck Peddle, Father of the MOS 6502 and Commodore PET (1982) as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Family Computing Interviews Jack Tramiel After Atari Purchase (1985) as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Unix Review Interviews Sun Co-Founder Bill Joy (1984) as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Interview with Steve Jobs from MicroTime (1992) as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Comics from 1984/04 Creative Computing Mag as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Intel's Inboard 386/PC – Computer Ads from the Past as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Comics from March 1981 Issue of Computers and Automation Magazine as a story · 3 points
HN discussion
