Love these old quotes:
In 1981, IBM released their first PC. In 1984, it came equipped with the Model M keyboard. This computer keyboard was wildly successful because it was so easy to use, users didn’t have to convert their typewriters or provide their own build of keyboard to use as an input device for their computers. The Model M was a mechanical keyboard, and used the highest quality construction, giving typists the satisfaction of tactile feedback, acute accuracy and comfort. The only draw backs on this keyboard was that the “Shift” and “Enter” keys were reportedly too small for the majority of user’s preferences. Because of this, IBM made and sold “Keytop Expanders” which fit over the shift and enter key-switches to expand the keys. All of the keyboards at this time were limited in that they were only offered in two colors: beige and grey, until the late 1980s when black was introduced as an option.
The 1980s gave birth to the big beige box desktop PCs. Why manufacturers chose beige in those early days is a mystery.
These early computers required a rather large and sturdy desk to hold them.
About the time the personal computer turned 25 years old, the one billionth PC was sold.
"Beige shall be the colour of computers and the colour of computers shall be beige. Grey shalt it not be, neither shalt it be white, excepting that it then is painteth beige. Black is right out. Once the colour beige, being the colour of computers, be achieved, then thou shalt distributeth thy miscoloured components into the possesion of thine foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it."
