The Computer Vault Podcast
Talking about the history of computers, computing and IT.
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Episodes
Friday Apr 10, 2026
Friday Apr 10, 2026
Welcome to The Computer Vault podcast where we discuss the history of computers, computing and IT.
In this episode, we're going back to the late 1980s - a period when the personal computer industry was in the middle of a major transition. DOS had dominated the PC world for years, but it was showing its limits, and a new era of graphical interfaces was beginning to take shape. The question wasn't just what the future would look like - it was who would build it.
To explore that, we're looking at two things that came out of that moment. The first is Windows/286 - a version of Microsoft Windows released in 1988 that was designed to get more out of the Intel 286 processor. We'll look at what it actually was, what problem it was trying to solve, and what it meant for the people using PCs at the time.
The second is Presentation Manager - the graphical interface that IBM and Microsoft co-developed together for their OS/2 operating system. Presentation Manager was, in many ways, intended to be the future of computing on IBM-compatible PCs. We'll get into how it was built, how it differed from Windows, and why that divergence ended up mattering so much.
Friday Apr 10, 2026
Friday Apr 03, 2026
Friday Mar 27, 2026
Tuesday Mar 24, 2026
Tuesday Mar 24, 2026
Welcome to The Computer Vault podcast where we discuss the history of computers, computing and IT.
In this episode, we explore the Amstrad NC100 - a portable writing and productivity machine that tried to combine the simplicity of a typewriter with the flexibility of a computer from the 1990s.
Saturday Mar 21, 2026
Sunday Mar 15, 2026
Wednesday Jul 09, 2025
Wednesday Jul 09, 2025
Welcome to The Computer Vault podcast where we discuss the history of computers, computing and IT.
In this episode, we explore the history of the IBM Model 650 Computer - a machine whose technological innovations, design ingenuity, and historical impact continue to inspire and educate us to this day.
Wednesday Jun 25, 2025
Wednesday Jun 25, 2025
Welcome to The Computer Vault podcast where we discuss the history of computers, computing and IT.
In this episode, we explore how our home television sets have evolved into powerful devices that allow us not only to watch our favourite programs but also shop, bank, and browse the wide expanse of the World Wide Web.
Thursday Jun 12, 2025
Thursday Jun 12, 2025
Welcome to The Computer Vault short podcast series where we discuss the history of computers, computing and IT in 10 minutes or less. This episode examines Netscape's bold creation of Navio, announced on June 2, 1996, as a strategic move to take on the mighty Microsoft.