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
10 mo on HNVCF East: Ken Thompson interviewed by Brian Kernighan
5 mo on HNAvie Tevanian: CMU math whiz goes from Mach to NeXT to Apple Software Chief | Oral History Part 1
3 mo on HNTed Nelson in Herzog's "Lo and Behold"
3 mo on HNMorris Chang, in conversation with Jen-Hsun Huang
3 mo on HNThe Mind Behind Windows: Dave Cutler
2 mo on HN3dfx Oral History Panel with Ross Smith, Scott Sellers, Gary Tarolli, and Gordon Campbell
2 mo on HNOral History of Donald Knuth Part 1
2 mo on HNSusan Kare explains Macintosh UI ergonomics on the Computer Chronicles (1984)
2 mo on HNOral History of Dave Cutler Part 1
2 mo on HNThe Origins of APL - 1974
2 mo on HNThe Great 202 Jailbreak - Computerphile
2 mo on HNOral History of Gary Davidian, part 2 of 2
2 mo on HNOral History of Chuck Peddle
2 mo on HNMicro Men - 10th Anniversary - With Chris Curry, Steve Furber and Hermann Hauser
1 mo on HNWhere GREP Came From - Computerphile
1 mo on HNTed Nelson struggles with uncomprehending radio interviewer, 1979
1 mo on HNOral History of John Backus
1 mo on HNGrace Hopper on Letterman
1 mo on HNOral History of William David "Bill" Mensch Jr.
1 mo on HNBill Atkinson: Polaroids showing the Evolution of the Lisa GUI
1 mo on HNDouglas Engelbart Interviewed by John Markoff of the New York Times
1 mo on HNEdsger Dijkstra interview
1 mo on HNLamport on writing "Time, Clocks, and the Ordering of Events in a Distributed System"
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