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DIY Galaksija Computer, Bedrock of Serbia's IT Industry, Turns 30 (err... 35)

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A bit late on this one, but I found it interesting.

More technical detail here:
http://www.spetsialist-mx.ru/Galaksija/index.html
And of course:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaksija_(computer)

DIY Galaksija Computer, Bedrock of Serbia's IT Industry, Turns 30
 Danica Radisic, 23 December 2013
- http://globalvoices.org/2013/12/23/diy-galaksija-computer-bedrock-of-serbias-it-industry-turns-30/
  Creative Commons Attribution (so I might as well post all of it)

"The Galaksija (Galaxy) computer, created by inventor and author Voja
 Antonić in 1983 with detailed instructions for anyone to put
 together a personal computer with standard parts, is nothing less
 than legendary in the former Yugoslavia. The DIY home computer may
 not have matched the quality or high-tech readiness of most brand
 name computing machines of the time, but it inspired a country and
 a generation to plunge deeper and farther into the IT industry that
 was just beginning to develop worldwide.

 As legend would have it, in the summer of 1983, a young journalist
 with a flare for all things tech and scientific, Voja Antonić, was
 vacationing in Montenegro. At the time, importing computers and
 such machinery into Yugoslavia was close to impossible for the
 average citizen due to complicated customs laws and licenses. Such
 technology didn't come cheap in the 1980s either. A standard PC in
 1983 cost about an average Yugoslav worker's monthly salary, which
 was among the highest in Europe at the time.

 Antonić plunged into some summer reading on the Montenegrin coast
 that year about a new brand-name computer that had just been
 released on the global market. As he looked at the schematic, he
 realized that most of the parts of standard PCs had become readily
 available at most hardware stores throughout the country. Within
 months, the young Antonić had put together a schematic for anyone
 who wanted to build a do-it-yourself computer. He then contacted
 a few manufacturers of such parts and partnered with them to create

 Initially, the team involved believed they could sell as much as 
 several hundred of the Galaksija kits, a number they thought to be 
 highly optimistic but possible. Antonić knew he would also have to 
 publish the schematic in a place where wider audiences could see it, 
 for those who didn't want to order the ready to build Galaksija kit, 
 but would rather purchase the parts on their own. He teamed up with 
 Dejan Ristanović, who was barely 20 years old at the time and 
 putting together a magazine about the latest in PC technology, 
 “Računari u vašoj kući” (“Computers in Your Home”). 

 Together, Ristanović and Antonić released the full diagram and 
 instructions for the Galaksija personal computer in the first January 
 1984 edition of the magazine, published in December of 1983. Within a 
 year or so, over 8,000 Galaksija kits were sold in Yugoslavia, while 
 the number of those who purchased parts on their own and used the 
 schematic to build their custom Galaksija were never recorded. That 
 same year, Galaksija computers were introduced into elementary 
 schools throughout the country. The year was 1984.

 A tech revolution was incited. Ristanović, Antonić and their team 
 also used radio and television to promote the Galaksija and 
 everything computer-related, teaching average users how to customize 
 both their hardware and tweak code here and there. The video below is 
 one of  Antonić's countless popular television appearances in which 
 he sat down to explain some gaming basics to Galaksija and other PC 
 users:
 [ https://www.youtube.com/v/NPDcvZwGBMA?version=3&hl=en_US ]

 Thirty years later, Antonić is a world-renowned inventor, speaker 
 and writer, while Ristanović is the editor-in-chief of one of the 
 country's most popular geek magazines, PC Press, and co-founder of 
 one of the first Internet providers in Serbia. Today, Serbia is known 
 among those in the IT industry as a place of great potential and 
 well-rounded developers and innovators, despite the recent decades of 
 political, social and economic troubles. In a recent post, 
 Eurogamer.net elaborated on how the Galaksija revolutionized the use 
 of personal computers on several levels. Radio DJ Zoran Modli came 
 upon the idea at the time to distribute software for the Galaksija 
 and other similar machines – through the radio ether. As the 
 Eurogamer.net article explains:

  Like the ZX Spectrum and other computers of the time, programs were 
  loaded onto the Galaksija from an audiocassette recorder. This gave 
  Jova Regasek, the editor of Računari, an idea for a bold experiment. 
  He got in touch with Zoran Modli, who hosted the show Ventilator 202 
  on Radio Belgrade. Modli's show was a mix of local bands and 
  contemporary chart music, but he also had an interest in computers, 
  and Regasek's idea was to broadcast the sound of a computer program 
  that listeners could tape and then load up on their home machines. In 
  effect, this was wireless downloading long before the days of wi-fi.

 In the year of Galaksija's 30th anniversary, every school in Serbia 
 is equipped with computers for students, the Internet penetration 
 rate was close to 65 percent in 2012, and visitors are often 
 surprised to find that wifi is readily available almost anywhere in 
 every city and town in the country. Over one-third of the country's 
 adult population uses the Internet daily, and the statistics are just 
 as or more impressive for Montenegro, Croatia, Macedonia and 
 Slovenia, with Bosnia-Herzegovina lagging somewhat. With much to make 
 up for after the turmoil of the last two decades and the global IT 
 industry developing rapidly, the region has yet to catch up with some 
 other high-tech markets. With the Galaxy to mark its past, many are 
 confident that the region has a bright future ahead."

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DIY Galaksija Computer, Bedrock of Serbia's IT Industry, Turns 30 (err... 35) Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> - 2019-02-01 01:43 +0000

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