Categories › Computing History & Culture
History of computing Videos Recommended on Hacker News (231)
History of computing is one of the 150 topics Hacker News readers organize their video recommendations around. These 231 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.
Features
Evergreen only
1 mo on HNPlan 9: Not dead, Just Resting, by Ori Bernstein
BSDTV
1 HN recommend · 2019–2024
1 mo on HNCharles Babbage and Difference Enginge No. 2 | Doron Swade | Talks at Google
Talks at Google
1 HN recommend · 2012–2022
1 mo on HNTRON Smart House
uidcenter
1 HN recommend · 2022–2026
1 mo on HN"Silicon Valley Story" — a Very Short Romantic Comedy by Ted Nelson
TheTedNelson
1 HN recommend · 2017–2020
1 mo on HNSGI's $250,000 Graphics Supercomputer from 1993 - Silicon Graphics Onyx RealityEngine²
Dodoid
1 HN recommend · 2018–2024
1 mo on HNXerox Star User Interface (1982) 1 of 2
VintageCG
1 HN recommend · 2011–2024
1 mo on HNKirk McKusick - A Narrative History of BSD
iX
1 HN recommend · 2020–2025
1 mo on HNMacintosh Factory
MacGeneration
1 HN recommend · 2016–2025
1 mo on HNOral History of William David "Bill" Mensch Jr.
Computer History Museum
1 HN recommend · 2016–2021
1 mo on HNYesterday's Computer of Tomorrow: The Xerox Alto │Smalltalk-76 Demo
Computer History Museum
1 HN recommend · 2020–2025
1 mo on HNBrian Kernighan: UNIX, C, AWK, AMPL, and Go Programming | Lex Fridman Podcast #109
Lex Fridman
1 HN recommend · 2020–2022
1 mo on HNSymbolicsTalk28June2012
Mike Lambert
1 HN recommend · 2021–2024
1 mo on HNBill Atkinson: Polaroids showing the Evolution of the Lisa GUI
Computer History Museum
1 HN recommend · 2025–2026
1 mo on HN1994: "Today Show": "What is the Internet, Anyway?"
Chrissy Miklacic
1 HN recommend · 2016–2022
1 mo on HNDouglas Engelbart Interviewed by John Markoff of the New York Times
Computer History Museum
1 HN recommend · 2014–2018
1 mo on HNTypesetters in the '80s - Computerphile
Computerphile
1 HN recommend · 2015–2020
1 mo on HNGrace Hopper Lecture
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
1 HN recommend · 2017–2026
1 mo on HNThe History of Unix, Rob Pike
Stephanie Borgman
1 HN recommend · 2018–2021
1 mo on HNA History of The ARM Microprocessor | Dave Jaggar | Talks at Google
Talks at Google
1 HN recommend · 2020–2022
1 mo on HNDEC LAB-8/e (PDP-8/e) playing music
Philipp Hachtmann
1 HN recommend · 2018–2020
1 mo on HN1979: Will WORD PROCESSORS start a HOME WORKING revolution? | Past Predictions | BBC Archive
BBC Archive
1 HN recommend · 2022–2024
1 mo on HNHow Japan Learned Semiconductors
Asianometry
1 HN recommend · 2022–2023
1 mo on HNComputers for Cynics 2 - It All Went Wrong at Xerox PARC
TheTedNelson
1 HN recommend · 2014–2023
1 mo on HNJames Gosling - Simula: a personal journey
UiO Realfagsbiblioteket
1 HN recommend · 2020–2026
1 mo on HNBeOS Demo Video
mikeboss
1 HN recommend · 2016–2024
1 mo on HNWhy the Soviet Computer Failed
Asianometry
1 HN recommend · 2022–2024
1 mo on HNTomorrow's World: Nellie the School Computer 15 February 1969 - BBC
BBC
1 HN recommend · 2010–2026
1 mo on HNPaul Otlet, visioning a web in 1934
Attila Gárdos
1 HN recommend · 2014–2022
1 mo on HNCanon Cat
Storia Informatica
1 HN recommend · 2016–2024
1 mo on HNThe Computer Programme (1): It's Happening Now (Introduction to Computing)
Jesús Zafra (Lobogris)
1 HN recommend · 2014–2025
1 mo on HNDavid Patterson - A New Golden Age for Computer Architecture: History, Challenges and Opportunities
UBC Computer Science
1 HN recommend · 2021–2023
1 mo on HNEdsger Dijkstra interview
Hans Otten
1 HN recommend · 2023–2024
1 mo on HNLamport on writing "Time, Clocks, and the Ordering of Events in a Distributed System"
Turing Awardee Clips
1 HN recommend · 2023–2024
1 mo on HNThe Dial Comes To Town
PVid88
1 HN recommend · 2021–2026
1 mo on HNVCF East: Xerox Star vs. Apple Lisa
Vintage Computer Federation
1 HN recommend · 2023–2026
1 mo on HNMaking Money Flow: The MONIAC
Reserve Bank of New Zealand
1 HN recommend · 2020–2022