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 HNAlan Kay's tribute to Ted Nelson at "Intertwingled" Festival
8 mo on HNThe Mother of All Demos, presented by Douglas Engelbart (1968)
5 mo on HNEric Bier Demonstrates Cedar
5 mo on HNUsing a 1930 Teletype as a Linux Terminal
5 mo on HNIvan Sutherland Sketchpad Demo 1963
5 mo on HNTed Nelson demonstrates Xanadu Space
5 mo on HNSymbolics Lisp Machine demo Jan 2013
4 mo on HNSYMBOLICS S-PACKAGES 3D GRAPHICS AND ANIMATION DEMO
4 mo on HNAlto System Project: Dan Ingalls demonstrates Smalltalk
4 mo on HNAPL demonstration 1975
3 mo on HNSketchpad, by Dr. Ivan Sutherland with comments by Alan Kay
2 mo on HNErlang: The Movie (Fixed Audio)
3 mo on HNLotus Improv for NeXT 1990
2 mo on HNSelf: The Movie;
2 mo on HNAlan Kay Demos GRaIL
2 mo on HNLyle Bickley explains the PDP-1 (and we play the original Spacewar!)
2 mo on HNLisp Editing in the 80s - Interlisp SEdit
2 mo on HNBeOS DEMO VIDEO
2 mo on HNThe IBM 1401 mainframe runs "Edith"
2 mo on HNSGI Indigo2: An $86,000 Workstation from 1995
2 mo on HNThe 3D-Printed Curta Calculator
2 mo on HNLeap Technology
2 mo on HNAltair 8800 - Video #7.1 - Loading 4K BASIC with a Teletype
2 mo on HNThe IBM 1401 compiles and runs FORTRAN II
2 mo on HNChain of Fools : Upgrading through every version of windows (HQ)
2 mo on HNMegaprocessor Tour 1 - (fixed audio)
1 mo on HNAlternate Reality Kit by Randall Smith at Xerox PARC 1986 (VPRI-0131)
1 mo on HNAmiga Boing Ball
1 mo on HNAlto System Project: Larry Tesler demonstration of Gypsy
1 mo on HNTRON Smart House
1 mo on HNXerox Star User Interface (1982) 1 of 2
1 mo on HNYesterday's Computer of Tomorrow: The Xerox Alto │Smalltalk-76 Demo
1 mo on HNDEC LAB-8/e (PDP-8/e) playing music
1 mo on HNBeOS Demo Video
1 mo on HNCanon Cat
1 mo on HNMaking Money Flow: The MONIAC
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