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
3 mo on HNSeymour Papert
2 mo on HN3dfx Oral History Panel with Ross Smith, Scott Sellers, Gary Tarolli, and Gordon Campbell
2 mo on HNPart 1 - Training Video for Bell Labs' Holmdel Computing Center - AT&T Archives
2 mo on HNThe Computer-free Automation of a Jukebox (Electromechanics)
2 mo on HNSelf: The Movie;
2 mo on HNDEF CON 18 - Jason Scott - You're Stealing It Wrong! 30 Years of Inter-Pirate Battles
2 mo on HNAlan Kay Demos GRaIL
2 mo on HNOral History of Donald Knuth Part 1
2 mo on HNBBS The.Documentary Part 4 - Fidonet
2 mo on HN"How to Think about Parallel Programming: Not!" - Guy L. Steele Jr. (Strange Loop 2010)
2 mo on HNApollo Core Rope Memory (Apollo Guidance Computer Part 30)
2 mo on HNHere I Stand, at Age 80
2 mo on HNGENERAL MAGIC - Official Trailer
2 mo on HNThe Charming Genius of the Apollo Guidance Computer - Brian Troutwine
2 mo on HNSusan Kare explains Macintosh UI ergonomics on the Computer Chronicles (1984)
2 mo on HNLyle Bickley explains the PDP-1 (and we play the original Spacewar!)
2 mo on HNOral History of Dave Cutler Part 1
2 mo on HNLisp Editing in the 80s - Interlisp SEdit
2 mo on HNHere's What Happens When an 18 Year Old Buys a Mainframe
2 mo on HNNeWS: A Networked and Extensible Window System, lecture by James Gosling
2 mo on HNThe Origins of APL - 1974
2 mo on HNThis 1970s tank simulator drives through a tiny world
2 mo on HNBeOS DEMO VIDEO
2 mo on HNThe Great 202 Jailbreak - Computerphile
2 mo on HNThe KGB, the Computer, and Me (Complete)
2 mo on HNThe Computer Chronicles - Hypercard (1987)
2 mo on HNWhy Sony's Beta Videotape System Failed--and failed hard (Part 1)
2 mo on HNGeneral Magic (1080p) FULL DOCUMENTARY - History, Technology, Business
2 mo on HNMaking of Second Reality / Future Crew
2 mo on HNThe Secret Life of the Radio - Remastered
2 mo on HNThe IBM 1401 mainframe runs "Edith"
2 mo on HNOral History of Gary Davidian, part 2 of 2
2 mo on HNCommodore 64—25th Anniversary Celebration
2 mo on HNSeminar with Alan Kay on Object Oriented Programming (VPRI 0246)
2 mo on HNMENACE: the pile of matchboxes which can learn
2 mo on HNRay Kurzweil on "I've Got a Secret"
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