It’s often hard to remember that the personal computing era is still quite young. It only dates from 1977, with the arrival of the first mass-market PCs. These were the first computing devices meant for individuals that weren’t kits, had screens and keyboards, and could actually do something useful, like word processing, game play, or, eventually, spreadsheets.
The best known of these, the Apple II, which remained on the market in various forms until 1993, will have its 40th anniversary in June. That makes mass-market personal computing younger than the Super Bowl, Starbucks, and Disneyland.
You can trace a pretty straight line from these first machines to the laptop, tablet or smartphone you’re...
