Still have a non-color monitor?

A question just occured to me, does anyone here access the Internet on a non-color display? Like monochrome or greyscale?

10 or 15 years ago plenty of people had monochrome or greyscale monitors, but I can’t think of the last time I’ve seen one except maybe on cash registers.

I didn’t even know they ever made those.

Greyscale monitors? Sure, like the older Macs. http://www.fyre-fraust.ca/maclegacy/classicII.jpg

Most PC people seemed to graduate from monochrome to color in the early/mid 1990s. From what I remember grayscale 14" or 15" CRT monitors were available, but weren’t a lot cheaper than color (RGB) monitors.

10 years ago? Very, very few people were using monochrome monitors in 1998. Heck, even 15 years ago in 1993 it was pretty uncommon. My family’s first computer was a Commodore 64 bought in the 80’s, and even that thing was color.

You probably used a TV with your C64.

When I started college in 1989, I don’t know if Macs other than the ones like control-z linked to were even available. The one I bought in 1989 had a black&white monitor–I don’t know if it was even grayscale! (it was an SE/30 if anyone cares) Within a couple of years, Macs with separate monitors were available and the price had come down a lot. Most people who had regular monitors had color ones.

BUT (and this was the big but) if you wanted a portrait monitor, they were only available in monochrome. IIRC, a grayscale portrait monitor was about the same price as the color regular monitor. But the “portrait” shape was considered a huge selling point–you could see a whole sheet of paper at once on the screen. But the portrait-shaped monitor obviously did not catch on. I think this was for two reasons. First of all, monitors in general got bigger, giving everyone more flexibility. Second, I think people just got used to not being able to see the whole sheet of paper at once on the screen.

Anyway, by 1993 when I graduated, getting a general-use Mac without a color screen would have seemed absurd.

n.b. I was at Carnegie Mellon, which was a pure Mac shop, and was generally ahead of the curve as far as computer stuff. So my experience supports what control-z said.

By the way–in the above post, by “pure Mac shop” I meant that IBM-type computers (what we now call PCs) were barely used. People did use Unix systems and there were some NeXTs floating around. But virtually no IBMs. Somebody will be along in a moment to point out an exception, I’m sure. None of this applies to computer science students who were building their own robots or whatever.

Speaking of NeXTs, the workstations shipped with a (beautiful) greyscale monitor.

As I recall, the C64 had a color monitor available, which had a sharper resolution than a television and was quite the envy of ones fellow nerds unlucky enough to use a television. Even the early Atari computers were color. I remember some of the early macs as mono, but I don’t remember when those came out. I think around the same time the C64 did.

I’m going to guess that the most recent monochrome business use would have been mainframe terminals. These were just monochrome CRT’s and keyboards connected to the company mainframe computer, which did all the processing. At least up until very recently in Pittsburgh, bank tellers had green monochrome monitors. Other mainframe users were using mono terminals as recently as the mid 90’s. From what I’ve seen this is now mostly done on a modern PC with multicolor mainframe emulator software.

I just purchased my first color TV last year.

We were still using monochrome monitors on the Macs in high school 15 years ago. However, by the time I went to college, when the WWW was a baby, they had already switched to color. I’ve never used the Internet on a monochrome monitor.

I wonder if there is anyone still using the old green-and-black monitors like were generally used with the old Apple II family.

Yes, the Macintosh II was introduced in 1987, the IIx was out in 1988, and the IIcx was out in early 1989. All models of the “II” series supported at least 8-bit color, as well as grayscale video modes.

In general though these machines were beyond the budget of most college students.

Very likely it was black & white only. All the Macs having that classic form factor — except for the explicitly-named Color Classic models — were 1-bit black and white.

The first Macintosh came out in 1984 (the C64 was out in '82), and like Green Bean’s SE/30, was pure black and white.

Those of us who own Apple IIs still do. :slight_smile:

But, I don’t use mine for the Internet.