(c) Copyright 1992-2011 David Dilworth
I have a computer1 from the early days of the personal computer industry (1983) that is ready to start typing or printing a letter less than 10 seconds after I press the start button. And it only has floppy disks; no hard drives.
You’ve heard the concept that computers are time saving devices – right? So why does it take longer to get so many things done now than before we all had computers?
Now I want you to think about how long it takes you to get simple office work done where you use a computer, rather than office tools (like a typewriter) from 30 years ago.
I’m not exactly advocating for typewriters or old office equipment, just pointing out that sometimes there are some big time delays when we use even the newest computer systems and associated electronic equipment.
How much training did you need before you could use a word processor? Do you know how long it takes you to print an address on an envelope?
My first point is that it now takes longer, sometimes a lot longer, to do some office than before we had computers.
The second point is that few people realize this is happening.
The third concept is this is a trend that some tasks are getting slower.
1. Its a 1983 Morrow Designs MD2 booting up CPM to run Wordstar (in only 64 kilobytes of memory. Not 64 megabytes, KILObytes).
Update 2011: Compare that 10 second start up (from a 28 year old computer) to a modern multi-gigihertz computer here with some simple reference data on it. Its startup takes 15 seconds to finish the boot Rom sequence before it even starts loading Windows. Loading Windows takes another 1:35 including 3 seconds to type in a password. And that’s stripped down, a computer with nothing to slow its startup — except a very low CPU overhead virus checker in the start up.
Total time from switch on to ready to get data — 1 minute and 52 seconds. Add on 4 seconds to start up MS-Word 97. (MS Word 2003 takes 20 seconds.)
Thats almost twice as slow as when I first wrote this article in 1992. Then I used an IBM Clone that took 48 seconds to get to a C: prompt; and another 15 seconds to load Wordstar for PCs.
A second Windows takes 17 seconds to complete Rom boot, and 1 min 35 seconds until Word 97 is ready for typing. Welcome to “progress.”