Before the desktop was normal

The Altair 8800 (1975) is usually called the spark that started the personal computer hobby — a build-it-yourself kit sold by mail order, with no screen or keyboard, programmed by flipping switches. It also, indirectly, launched Microsoft: Bill Gates and Paul Allen wrote a version of the BASIC programming language for it. 1977 brought the so-called "1977 Trinity" — the Apple II, Commodore PET, and Tandy TRS-80 — the first computers sold ready to use, out of the box, to ordinary people.

The IBM PC and the clone era

In 1981, IBM entered the market with the IBM PC, running Microsoft's MS-DOS. Because IBM's design was openly documented, other companies built compatible "clones" — and "IBM-compatible" became the dominant standard for business computing through the 1980s and 90s.

Making it graphical

The idea of a graphical interface — windows, icons, a mouse — was pioneered at Xerox PARC in the 1970s. Apple brought it to the mainstream with the Macintosh in 1984. Microsoft's Windows followed the same idea, and by the early 1990s (especially with Windows 95) the graphical desktop had become the default way people used a computer.

Laptops get portable — then good

The Osborne 1 (1981) is often called the first commercially successful portable computer — though at 24 pounds, "portable" meant "luggable." Real laptops followed through the 1980s, and by 1992 IBM's ThinkPad set a design language (black case, red trackpoint) that influenced business laptops for decades. Apple's MacBook line, especially after switching to Intel chips in 2006 and to Apple's own chips in 2020, pushed the category toward thin, light, and long battery life.

Where we are now

Most everyday laptops today are thin-and-light "ultrabooks" built around efficiency, not raw power. Apple's shift to its own ARM-based chips (Apple Silicon, starting 2020) forced the rest of the industry to take ARM laptops seriously — Windows has its own ARM push in response. Meanwhile Chromebooks proved a lot of people just need a browser and cloud apps, and gaming laptops remain their own category, trading battery life for power.