History of computing Videos Recommended on Hacker News (188)
History of computing is one of the 150 topics Hacker News readers organize their video recommendations around. These 188 videos each earned real recommendations in real HN threads between 2007 and 2026 — 537 recommendations in total — and they're ranked by how many separate months the community kept coming back to them, not by view count.
Computing history: early computers, mainframes, Bletchley Park, ENIAC, Xerox PARC, Unix history, minicomputers, personal computer revolution, historical lectures and museum restorations.
Why HN keeps sending people here — on AT&T Archives: Similiarities of Wave Behavior (Bonus Edition): “By far the best introduction to the subject of waves of any sort.” — an HN commenter, 2019.
Type
TalkLectureDocumentaryExplainerDemoTutorialInterviewCommentaryComedyMusicPodcastsNews & reportingCoursesFeatures
Evergreen only
7 mo on HNUnix and Google
6 mo on HN(1/4) Intro/History: Introducing a 100-year-old mechanical computer
4 mo on HNMouse Cursor History (and why I made my own)
5 mo on HNThe Most Powerful Computers You've Never Heard Of
5 mo on HNIBM Selectric Typewriter & its digital to analogue converter
4 mo on HNHow an Atomic Clock Really Works: Inside the HP 5061A Cesium Clock
4 mo on HNFlaw in the Enigma Code - Numberphile
4 mo on HNXanadu Basics 1a - VISIBLE CONNECTION
3 mo on HNCracking Enigma in 2021 - Computerphile
2 mo on HNThe Computer-free Automation of a Jukebox (Electromechanics)
2 mo on HNThis 1970s tank simulator drives through a tiny world
2 mo on HNWhy Sony's Beta Videotape System Failed--and failed hard (Part 1)
2 mo on HNMENACE: the pile of matchboxes which can learn
2 mo on HNWhy is Japan So Weak in Software?
2 mo on HNHold music used to sound better. Here's why.
1 mo on HNAn astonishing old calculator - Numberphile
1 mo on HNAT&T Archives: The Step-By-Step Switch
1 mo on HNTypesetters in the '80s - Computerphile
1 mo on HNHow Japan Learned Semiconductors
1 mo on HNWhy the Soviet Computer Failed
1 mo on HNPaul Otlet, visioning a web in 1934
1 mo on HNLCCS: The LCD / CRT Hybrid from JVC
Also discussed on Hacker News (43)
Mentioned in HN threads about history of computing, though never formally recommended:
1984 Apple's Macintosh Commercial (HD) · Lucid Energize Demo VHS 1993 · Automatic Hamburger Machine - 50 Years Ahead of Its Time! · The Final Demonstration of the Xerox 'Star' computer · Steve Jobs - NeXT marketing strategy video 1991 · Steve Jobs and Bill Gates Together at D5 Conference 2007 · Xerox Star User Interface (1982) 2 of 2 · The IBM 1401 makes "music" · Ernst Dickmanns’ VaMoRs Mercedes Van, 1986-2003 · GE Walking Truck - Cybernetic Anthropomorphous Machine (CAM) 1969. · The Machine to Build the Machines - NeXT · Xerox Star User Interface: An overview · ALAIN COLMERAUER L'AVENTURE PROLOG · Flashback! The Internet In 1995 | Archives | TODAY · 1968 “Mother of All Demos” by SRI’s Doug Engelbart and Team · Bill Gates demonstrates Visual Basic (1991) · Bill Gates, Windows 98, Blue Screen of Death · How Steve Jobs got the ideas of GUI from XEROX · Apple - 1984 · The Computer Chronicles - The Internet (1993) · Oral History of Bjarne Stroustrup · Why You Can't Name A File CON In Windows · An Earthshaking Announcement · Bill Gates explains this “internet” thing #letterman · Mercury-Redstone 1 Launch failure (MR-1) · Upgrading From Windows 1.0 to Windows 8 On Actual Hardware · SGI IRIS 2400 (1985) · Etak Navigator Tour & Demo · LGR Oddware - MiniDisc Data Storage: Sony MDH-10 · The Computer Designed To Die In Microseconds · KIDS REACT TO OLD COMPUTERS · The Voder: 1939, the worlds first electronic voice synthesizer · The Editor of a Lifetime · Apple II Forever · The World Premiere of the Amiga (1985, Andy Warhol, Debbie Harry) · Penn and Teller's Lab Scam · Introduction to Microsoft Excel 1990 with Jan Brehm · Oral History of Steve Naroff Part 1, Session 1 · Symbolics Space Cadet keyboard review (Honeywell Hall effect 4B3E) · LilithComdexDemo · Steve Jobs The Lost Interview · Microsoft Windows 1.0 with Steve Ballmer (1986) · Tomorrow's World: Mobile Phone 13 September 1979 - BBC