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Computer History Wiki

From EverybodyWiki Bios & Wiki

The Computer History Wiki, "CHWiki" for short[1] is self-described as "to supplement and augment Wikipedia, not to compete... to get information that would not be suitable for the Wikipedia format - folklore, stories, tips and tricks, tutorials/guides, et cetera."[2]

It is online, searchable, and has a process for signing up as a contributor.

History[edit]

The Computer History Wiki's host, Gunkies.org, is a multi-purpose site. "Gunkies.org" was created as a personal site[3] that has expanded its focus; the Wiki is a major focus.

The Wiki's focus is on "older" systems, including for maintaining older hardware or running older software on Simulators.[4]

Open sourcing[edit]

It incorporates content from other resources, such as Flickr, and it covers many computing-related topics. Due to its availability under the GNU Free Documentation License, a copyleft license, it has in turn been incorporated in whole or part into other free content projects, such as Wikipedia.

Recognition[edit]

  • Hacker News, which is over a decade old, uses - and cites them.[5]
  • A Looking-back "Top 10 Websites for Windows 95 Facts" listing[6] listed Gunkies as one of their 10.[7]
  • Other social-media quote/cite them[8]
  • book citations[9][10]

Impact[edit]

Impact has gone beyond individuals[11][12] finding useful information.[13]

Technical sites direct readers to Gunkies,[14][15] One called it "a wiki dedicated to retro-computing."[16] and it has attracted interest from Wikipedia contributors.[17][16][18]

Origin of the Gunkies name[edit]

The web site is named for a fictitious product named Apple Gunkies.

Apple Gunkies[edit]

MIT had two radio stations, AM airing commercials, and FM operating as non-commercial. The latter aired Public service announcements between programs, but also at times aired "commercials for fictitious products."[19] One of these fictitious products was named Apple Gunkies.[20] The Boston Globe included their programming among its radio and television listings.[21]

How it differs[edit]

Unlike Wikipedia, neither full length articles nor stubs, which migh be so-labelled yet have extensive content[22] feature footnotes or references.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. "Main Page".
  2. "Computer History Wiki".
  3. "Welcome!". This is my domain, named in tribute to ...
  4. "About".
  5. A PDP-11 article "They're pretty easy to emulate".
  6. "Top 10 Websites for Windows 95 Facts".
  7. Forbes.com, Britannica.com, 3 from Microsoft.com were among the other 9.
  8. A PDP-11/70 item "Digital PDP-11/70 - 1975".
  9. Citing Gunkies' "Kiss It Goodbye" comment about Windows 3.0 Anastasia Salter (2017). Computer Games. ISBN 1501327437. Search this book on
  10. "4.3BSD-Quasijarus". For more details on 4.3BSD Quasijarus please see http://gunkies.org/wiki/4.3_BSD_Quasijarus.
  11. "x86". March 27, 2017. For most of the following, I've used the instructions found here at gunkies.org for getting 386BSD running on Qemu.
  12. "Decuser". ODT runs the program until it hits the breakpoint. ... The document that helped me get up and running http://gunkies.org/wiki/Installing_RT-11_5.3_on_SIMH
  13. "Retro Computing Roundtable". iTunes.Apple.com. The enduring legacy of Zork ... on the Computer History wiki
  14. "Hercules390 - VM". May 19, 2010.
  15. "Computer History and Restoration Links". July 3, 2018.
  16. 16.0 16.1 "Interesting wiki site". February 6, 2009.
  17. The bio of an administrator who joined in 2017 said he's also a Wikipedia admin.
  18. "I’ve started to redo some of my work ... over there. Hopefully this will get more people interested in the whole thing.
  19. Robert J. Sales, News Office (April 4, 2001). "At age 40, WMBR keeps riding the waves".
  20. "Boston Radio roots". BostonRadio.org. WMBR traces its roots back to an MIT campus-only carrier-current AM station ... of humorous “hack” commercials for fictitious products such as “Apple Gunkies”.
  21. "The Boston Globe". May 2, 1964. 8:45 Apple Gunkies Presents. 9:00 News
  22. "Amiga".


This article "Computer History Wiki" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Computer History Wiki. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.