VM with a legit windows installation in it.

Russian war has little to do with it. For example Germany had already decided to scrap nuclear for gas, which actually bit them in the ass when the war started.

That just makes it smell like weed plus laundry.

Mainframes peaked by the 70s. 80s bored the fruit of the standalone PC revolution.

We’ve been hearing this since 1999.

How about Kraftwerk?

Benzos

This Xerox Alto restoration series is a really interesting reflection on that. Here’s the point in the series where they finally get it running. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OQMhvArI9g

Yeah, Xerox made revolutionary progress. But it appears that their proximity to a viable consumer product is a bit exaggerated. It really did still take another set of eyes and minds to wrangle it in. I think if they did release it sooner, and without the leaks, the next competitor still would have seen that and soon come along and done a better enough job to nullify their first-mover advantage.

Those days were chock full of companies that ended up just contributing to the zeitgeist of computing without themselves reaping in the glory.

I think Steve Jobs’ comments about what Xerox could have been… Is largely him stroking his ego that he and Apple pulled off what they couldn’t.

I don’t think Xerox would be the Mac of today in most timelines.