[HN Gopher] Cyberpunk 1958: The Early Days of the Polish IT Indu...
___________________________________________________________________
Cyberpunk 1958: The Early Days of the Polish IT Industry
Author : StefanBatory
Score : 93 points
Date : 2025-04-15 21:01 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (culture.pl)
(TXT) w3m dump (culture.pl)
| mrandish wrote:
| > as the inefficiency of the centralisation efforts meant that it
| was met with delays and a lack of coordination.
|
| Starting in 1981, I lived through the evolution of "personal
| computers" and have worked in the startup side of high tech most
| of my career. Even in the U.S. it was hard to create a
| successful, sustainable business in computing. I can't even
| imagine trying to do the same in the Eastern block with central
| planning, lack of ecosystem and myriad other challenges. Here in
| the U.S. there was a rueful saying in tech that "sometimes the
| better product doesn't win" but it was a saying because it was
| _usually_ an exception. At least there was a general expectation
| that better products would win. It 's kind of tragic how much
| engineering talent went to waste or was never utilized behind the
| iron curtain.
|
| A little over 20 years ago I visited Warsaw for a few days and,
| of course, sought out the technology museum. I think I may have
| been the _only_ visitor while I was there. Every large hall had a
| dedicated guard sitting in a chair, who mostly looked like
| retired pensioners. I felt bad because I woke up a lot of nice
| people just walking quietly through. The museum was mostly
| focused on industrial, manufacturing and agricultural technology
| but there was quite an extensive computer hall and it was chock
| full of fascinating mainframe and mini-looking systems I 'd never
| seen, even in pictures. I was surprised that, other than
| terminals, there was little in the way of desktop or home
| computers. Thinking about it I realized that circa 2000, Poland's
| early desktop and home computers were probably still in use and a
| few years away from museum fodder. The only bad part was there
| was virtually no info in English (at least back then) and no
| mobile phone translate apps.
| pndy wrote:
| > Thinking about it I realized that circa 2000, Poland's early
| desktop and home computers were probably still in use
|
| Around 2000 we were already using normal x86 machines in the
| offices and homes. There was a company named Optimus which had
| multiple branches that back then provided: computers
| (assembling and selling these), software - they've become an
| official distributor for e.g. Activision, Ubisoft, Id Software,
| Disney etc., translations for foreign software, and they also
| become one of two offical Nintendo distributors in Poland.
| Optimus had chances to become a really good player here but due
| to financial management "problems" they have failed - to put
| this short. In 2009 Optimus merged with what nowadays is known
| as CD Projekt. Optimus' other child - a web portal known
| originally Optimus Net has become onet.pl and it survived till
| today but become a part of Ringier Axel Springer Poland.
|
| There were specific places which used our "native" machines for
| years. For example last Odra computer was shut down on April
| 30th in 2010 after 34 years of continuos work at Polish
| Railways computer centre.
|
| Beside the technology museum you mentioned there is (or was -
| not sure what happen) an Apple museum in Warszawa - folks
| hoarded over 1700 items under their care.
|
| https://applemuzeumpolska.webflow.io/en/home
|
| https://nmt.waw.pl/en/
|
| Country itself changed in last 20 years and if you haven't seen
| it again in that time, you should return
| kubb wrote:
| It's fascinating to have a glimpse into a parallel history of
| computing that happened in a small country without the resources
| to make it big, but with tireless efforts of brilliant
| mathematicians and engineers who made the advancements against
| the odds.
|
| If the history ran along a parallel path, I wonder what could
| have been different and what would have ended up exactly the
| same.
|
| For the PL nerds who are curious about Loglan, check out:
| https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andrzej-Salwicki/public...
| danielam wrote:
| I found this YouTube channel about the MERA-400, complete with
| interviews with its designer [0]. Unfortunately, it is all in
| Polish.
|
| [0] https://youtube.com/@mera400
| RicoElectrico wrote:
| Fortunately, automatically generated subtitles are often good
| enough.
| pinewurst wrote:
| It's not mentioned but the ODRA 1300s were ICT/ICL 1900
| compatibles, pretty far from the Western state of the art (circa
| early 1960s).
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-04-18 23:00 UTC)