Question 1

True or false: Early personal computers could only display text and had no color graphics capability at all.

Accepted Answer

False. The Apple II (1977) and others offered color graphics; text-only was common earlier but not universal.

Question 2

True or false: The Commodore 64 was named after its 64-kilobyte RAM capacity, which was huge for its time.

Accepted Answer

True. Released in 1982, its 64 KB of RAM was groundbreaking for home computers, hence the name.

Question 3

True or false: The term 'personal computer' was popularized by the Altair 8800, a build-it-yourself kit from 1975.

Accepted Answer

True. The Altair 8800, featured on the cover of Popular Electronics in 1975, ignited the home computer revolution and brought the term ‘personal computer’ into widespread use.

Question 4

True or false: IBM's original PC (1981) used an operating system that was provided by a then-small company called Microsoft.

Accepted Answer

True. IBM contracted Microsoft to provide MS-DOS, which Bill Gates bought from another developer and adapted.

Question 5

True or false: The first personal computer to use a mouse and graphical user interface was the Apple Macintosh.

Accepted Answer

False. The Xerox Alto (1973) pioneered the GUI and mouse; the Macintosh popularized them but wasn't first.

Question 6

True or false: Most early personal computers used cassette tapes for data storage.

Accepted Answer

True. Early home computers like the Commodore 64, TRS-80, and Apple II used cassette tapes as an affordable storage medium before floppy disk drives became standard.

Question 7

True or false: The first personal computer to sell over a million units was the IBM PC.

Accepted Answer

False. The Commodore VIC-20, released in 1980, was the first to sell over a million units, reaching that milestone in 1982 before the IBM PC or Commodore 64.

Question 8

True or false: The first commercially successful personal computer with a built-in hard drive was the IBM PC XT.

Accepted Answer

True. While the Apple Lisa (Jan. 1983) had a built-in 5 MB hard drive earlier, it was a commercial failure. The IBM PC XT (Mar. 1983) became the first widely successful personal computer to feature an integrated hard drive as standard.

Personal Computer Trivia Questions