While updating an app on my iPhone today, I noted that the update was 40MB in size. For some reason, this got me to thinking about my early days in computers, starting in about 1979 or so. Of course, like most kids of that era, I used the Apple II, TRS-80, Atari 400/800, etc. Then in about 1981, I took a summer computer class at a local university and got an account on the VAX 11/780 running BSD4.1 (I think) and man was that cool! I got to program on a "mainframe"! The VAX 11/780 had a 5MHz processor, 16MB of RAM, and 8 28MB RK07 disk drives! Plus I had access to the ARPANet! I was in geek heaven. Oh, and don't forget "rogue"!
I also took a class at another local university and got access to their VAX/VMS system (don't remember the details), but I never really cared for VMS. I remember using a Teletype portable terminal with a 300 baud acoustic coupler modem that my mom scrounged from work (She worked for AT&T) to get into the VMS system from home.
Then came the 1/1/83 ARPANet "flag day" when the entire ARPANet switched from NCP to TCP/IP. Usenet access and mail came about around this time frame as well. The university with the VAX 11/780 got it upgraded to an 11/785 (7.5MHz CPU!) and got a 56k ARPANet/Internet connection. Anonymous FTP was blazing fast now!
Fast forward to mid-1984. My mom was working for AT&T Computer Systems and she brought home a just introduced AT&T 3B2/300 mini computer. It had a whopping 2MB of RAM and a 10MB hard disk, plus the requisite 5 1/4" floppy disk (360k capacity if I remember right), a 4410 monochrome terminal, and most importantly a 300/1200 baud modem. The modem wasn't auto dial, though. You had to dial the number, then wne the remote end answered, you pushed a button on the modem and hung up the handset. I was on top of the geek world with this setup. I even had a Usenet email (remember bang path email addresses?) and news feed.
In 1985, while still in high school, I got a job with a local database application company as a junior system administrator. We had all kinds of computers that I had full access to - AT&T 3B series, VAXes, one of the first Sequent systems, HP machines and more. And we installed out first Ethernet network using "think net" coax and vampire taps. 2400 baud auto dial modems were the norm. We got an AT&T 8086 IBM PC Clone at home with a 2400 baud modem. Somewhere before that, we got an IBM PC JR, too. Now I had color graphics! Oh, and the Mac made it's debut. Man I really wanted one, but man were they expensive (especially since we got AT&T stuff for free.)
Around 1987, I got a part-time job with AT&T Computer Systems as a system administrator at their local office. I remember getting in a 3B2/600 with dual 600MB hard drives and a 120MB QIC tape drive. I thought to myself, man what are we going to do with all that disk space?! Usenet was really rocking at this point and a "full feed" consumed about 10MB per day, if I remember right. Around 1990, I remember seeing a confidential Intel X86 processor development timeline and seeing a projected X86 processor that ran at 256MHz and thinking to myself how are they going to shield that thing so it didn't make a RF mess.
Computers and Internet progressed and I finally left the IT field in 2002. By that time, I was working for a large international telecommunications company in the network engineering department where we were deploying a global IP network. OC-3 circuits were common and we were starting to deploy OC-12 circuits in the continental US and Europe. GigE had just hit the scene, too.
Anyway, back to my original point, how did we get to the point where an iPhone app update is 40MB in size? Back in 1984, the entire OS, plus applications, only took up about 6MB on that 3B2/300. Hell, the Apple II, TRS-80, etc. ran off 180k and 360k 5 1/4" floppy disks. Of course, the applications today are much more sophisticated, but I remember running Lotus 123 on an Apple III using dual 360k floppy disks. Is the size of applications today due to the development environments used today? Poor programming because of the abundant RAM and disk available? Or are the apps just that much more sophistacted that the code base is several orders of magnitude larger? Or a combination of factors? I haven't done any software development (until I recently started playing with the Arduino and Teensy) for over 15 years and I sure have forgotten a lot, but I'm sure I'm also out of touch with today's software development environment.
I also took a class at another local university and got access to their VAX/VMS system (don't remember the details), but I never really cared for VMS. I remember using a Teletype portable terminal with a 300 baud acoustic coupler modem that my mom scrounged from work (She worked for AT&T) to get into the VMS system from home.
Then came the 1/1/83 ARPANet "flag day" when the entire ARPANet switched from NCP to TCP/IP. Usenet access and mail came about around this time frame as well. The university with the VAX 11/780 got it upgraded to an 11/785 (7.5MHz CPU!) and got a 56k ARPANet/Internet connection. Anonymous FTP was blazing fast now!
Fast forward to mid-1984. My mom was working for AT&T Computer Systems and she brought home a just introduced AT&T 3B2/300 mini computer. It had a whopping 2MB of RAM and a 10MB hard disk, plus the requisite 5 1/4" floppy disk (360k capacity if I remember right), a 4410 monochrome terminal, and most importantly a 300/1200 baud modem. The modem wasn't auto dial, though. You had to dial the number, then wne the remote end answered, you pushed a button on the modem and hung up the handset. I was on top of the geek world with this setup. I even had a Usenet email (remember bang path email addresses?) and news feed.
In 1985, while still in high school, I got a job with a local database application company as a junior system administrator. We had all kinds of computers that I had full access to - AT&T 3B series, VAXes, one of the first Sequent systems, HP machines and more. And we installed out first Ethernet network using "think net" coax and vampire taps. 2400 baud auto dial modems were the norm. We got an AT&T 8086 IBM PC Clone at home with a 2400 baud modem. Somewhere before that, we got an IBM PC JR, too. Now I had color graphics! Oh, and the Mac made it's debut. Man I really wanted one, but man were they expensive (especially since we got AT&T stuff for free.)
Around 1987, I got a part-time job with AT&T Computer Systems as a system administrator at their local office. I remember getting in a 3B2/600 with dual 600MB hard drives and a 120MB QIC tape drive. I thought to myself, man what are we going to do with all that disk space?! Usenet was really rocking at this point and a "full feed" consumed about 10MB per day, if I remember right. Around 1990, I remember seeing a confidential Intel X86 processor development timeline and seeing a projected X86 processor that ran at 256MHz and thinking to myself how are they going to shield that thing so it didn't make a RF mess.
Computers and Internet progressed and I finally left the IT field in 2002. By that time, I was working for a large international telecommunications company in the network engineering department where we were deploying a global IP network. OC-3 circuits were common and we were starting to deploy OC-12 circuits in the continental US and Europe. GigE had just hit the scene, too.
Anyway, back to my original point, how did we get to the point where an iPhone app update is 40MB in size? Back in 1984, the entire OS, plus applications, only took up about 6MB on that 3B2/300. Hell, the Apple II, TRS-80, etc. ran off 180k and 360k 5 1/4" floppy disks. Of course, the applications today are much more sophisticated, but I remember running Lotus 123 on an Apple III using dual 360k floppy disks. Is the size of applications today due to the development environments used today? Poor programming because of the abundant RAM and disk available? Or are the apps just that much more sophistacted that the code base is several orders of magnitude larger? Or a combination of factors? I haven't done any software development (until I recently started playing with the Arduino and Teensy) for over 15 years and I sure have forgotten a lot, but I'm sure I'm also out of touch with today's software development environment.