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The trinity of 1977 that changed everything: Tandy TRS-80 Model I Commodore PET 2001 Apple II
They're special because they're all appliance computers, as opposed to kits and specialty devices like what came before:
Finished product desktop general-purpose computer complete with software (BASIC)
Reasonably Priced, purchased at a retail store or computer shop
Turnkey Computer – Works right out of the box
User does not need to know electronics or techniques of tuning of hardware
User does not need to build custom bootstrap program to initiate system
User manual uses pictures and examples to teach use, designed for simplicity.
The point of ownership is not to build the computer and maintain it
Commodore PET 2001-8
This one has the blue bezel around the monitor, the chicklet keyboard, integrated tape, and the colorful case badge -- this has all the signifiers of a very early PET.
Large Scale Systems Museum (LSSM) - mact.io - Pittsburgh, PA
Something unrelated to Teletext and Videotex, I really like the design of the Commodore PET, with my favorite being the PET 2001, I like how the datasette was built in, I think that is very neat ^^
I am also a fan how the casing of the monitor is trapezoid shaped :-.)
The keyboard functionality was sacrificed to fit the datassette, but Commodore was great about reusing things to cut costs. It's a modified cash register/calculator keyboard! The metal case? Made on the same tooling as metal file cabinets.
Here's the example of a PET 2001-8 at the Vintage Computer Federation's museum at Infoage in Wall, NJ
The Commodore PET 2001-32N was never intended to be a terminal, and it's not a particularly good one, but it works I guess.
Remote access to my VegaNet is more than doable, using a pi as an outbound gateway.
PET 2001-32N, PC AT, C128D, C64
Commodore PET 2001-32N running PETTERM 0.5.0, controlling a Knox RS8X8 video router over serial.
Using a PET-2001-32N as a terminal, connected to a Raspberry Pi.