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A brush and palette need an artist; a pen and paper must have a writer. And a computer? Well, that mandates its own Michelangelo.
Computers are marvelous machines, but without software they are little more than pricey paperweights. The Computer History Museum’s newest exhibit, “Make Software: Change the World!” is a homage to the masterpiece programs that have changed human experience and the world.
In total, the museum curators decided to focus on some of the seminal programs that have become household names, including Photoshop, Wikipedia, mp3s and texting. But also featured are other noteworthy applications that might not be so obvious, such as medical MRI software, car-crash simulators and World of Warcraft, the most successful massively multiplayer online game.
Each program being showcased at the Computer History Museum will have its own exhibit explaining its development and impact. For example, the Photoshop display includes the gradual evolution of photo-editing software from the late 1980s to today. Paired with that history is various images showing how the software has been used by professionals.
Meanwhile, the mp3 section is a homage to audio technology, displaying history from the phonograph to iPod.
Museum curators worked to create their own interactive exhibits, games and documentaries for the featured programs. In addition, the new exhibition aims to inspire a new generation of coders with a new lab equipped with simplified programming stations to show the brass tacks of how software is crafted.
The Make Software exhibit will be open to the public on Jan. 28 at the Computer History Museum, located at 1401 N. Shoreline Boulevard in Mountain View. For hours and information, go to computerhistory.org.
We should stop celebrating these nerds already. Theie egos have swollen beyond measure. They have ruined the entire Bay Area. We need an exhibit about the real heroes of the valley. The Alum Rock Albinos!
I’ll bet they haven’t heard of CTSS or UNICOS, or how they revolutionized supercomputing. These have had more impact on the Computing Age than the programs mentioned here. Or how TCP/IP was used before the WWW was created. Quite a few major details has been omitted on their website.
@the_punnisher:
“I’ll bet they haven’t heard of CTSS or UNICOS”
Holy cow, you are wrong!
http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102638064
The article does not state that these are the ONLY computer programs that changed the world, just some of them. It’s just like any other museum exhibition: curators select a certain finite number of examples to illustrate the point without stating that these are the only examples. YOU SIMPLY DON”T GET THIS.
No one is saying that UNICOS isn’t important but ultimately it isn’t an operating system that makes news breaking history. An operating system is a big complicated program that lets multiple big complicated programs live together in (relative) harmony on the same system. That’s what an operating system is. The operating system itself doesn’t really do anything. The applications/programs that run on that operating system are the news worthy items.
YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND THIS BASIC CONCEPT.
Anyhow, good luck with your quest to make UNICOS a household name. You will LOSE in your endeavor. Because you don’t get it.
UNICOS was demanded by our customers; Cray Research developed a Cray hardware solution. This solution allowed UNIX program applications to run smoothly. THIS WAS A NEW OPERATING SYSTEM! At that time I also bought ESIX,ENIX operating software for my PC. Yes, UNICOS was compatible with UNIX applications that ran under the ESIX,ENIX Operating System I bought.
Cray Time Sharing System and Cray Operating System were the only operating systems we offered before UNICOS. When I joined Cray, I posted a copy of the internal 386 cpu poster and told everyone: THIS IS OUR COMPETITOR.
When I originally visited the Computer Museum, I offered the existing Cray bound books I had; the staff brushed me off. I happen to have the UNICOS programming handbook. The UNICOS Operating System DID CHANGE THE WORLD AT SO MANY LEVELS! The placement of the heat resistance tiles was done on a Cray supercomputer, the Boeing 747 ” flew ” on a Cray supercomputer before it was built. Where do you think our government built the weapons it has? On a Cray Supercomputer, Where did the CGI for ” The Last Starfighter ” come from? Our supercomputer is actually featured in the credits after the movie.
And finally: When you fill up your vehicles with gasoline, you can thank a Cray supercomputer for the exploration and underground mapping of the oil deposits that have been used.
Now tell me that Cray Research wasn’t playing a part in our world today. Or that UNICOS isn’t an operating System. P.S. WINDOWS was not an operating system; It ran under PC-DOS or MS-DOS. I was part of all this history; I personally had an effect on computing history when I grew up in Silicon Valley. I do not like Revisionist History or anyone who preaches it.