Question 1

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 2

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 3

True or false: Most early PCs used cassette tapes for data storage because floppy disks were not yet invented.

Accepted Answer

True. Floppy disks existed (8-inch in 1971), but early home PCs like the TRS-80 used cheap cassette tapes for affordability.

Question 4

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 5

True or false: IBM's original PC (1981) had an operating system written 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 6

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 sparked the home computer revolution and made 'personal computer' a household term.

Question 7

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

Accepted Answer

False. The Commodore 64 sold over 12 million units by 1984, far outpacing the IBM PC in early sales.

Question 8

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

Accepted Answer

False. The Apple Lisa (1983) had a built-in 5 MB hard drive before the IBM PC XT (1983) with 10 MB.

Personal Computer Trivia Questions