Dynabook

A user has installed Linux Mint XFCE on an old Dynabook laptop intended for student use, setting up two accounts: one admin with a password and one user account with an auto-filled password. Chromium launches automatically at startup, and the user is working through how to configure the machine before handing it to the first pupil.

Alan Kay's account of the early history of Smalltalk is drawing renewed attention, tracing how the pioneering object-oriented programming language took shape at Xerox PARC in the 1970s. Readers are revisiting Kay's reflections on personal computing, the Dynabook vision, and the design decisions that shaped modern software, with the piece circulating widely among developers and programming-history enthusiasts.