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Title: The Hobby Computer Culture

Link: https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/05/28/126210...

A fairly comprehensive look at the early personal computer culture reveals
that from 1975 through early 1977, personal computers remained "almost
exclusively the province of hobbyists who loved to play with computers and
found them inherently fascinating," according to newly surfaced historical
research. When BYTE magazine launched in 1975, its cover called computers
"the world's greatest toy," reflecting the recreational rather than practical
focus of early adopters. A BYTE magazine survey from late 1976 showed these
pioneers were remarkably homogeneous: 72% held at least a bachelor's degree,
had a median annual income of $20,000 ($123,000 in 2025 dollars), and were
overwhelmingly male at 99%. Rather than developing practical software
applications, early users gravitated toward games, particularly Star Trek
simulations that appeared frequently in magazine advertisements and user
group demonstrations. The hobbyist community organized around local clubs
like the famous Homebrew Computer Club, retail stores, and specialized
magazines that helped establish what one researcher calls "a mythology of the
microcomputer." This narrative positioned hobbyists as democratizing heroes
who "ripped the computer and the knowledge of how to use it from the hands of
the priests, sharing freedom and power with the masses," challenging what
they termed the "computer priesthood" of institutional gatekeepers. This self-
contained hobbyist culture would soon be "subsumed by a larger phenomenon" as
businessmen began targeting mass markets in 1977.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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