The Friendly Orange Glow

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1. AntiRushOct 2026
   Your book looks like it will be fascinating! I ordered through bookshop.org since I already have an account, but do you have a preferred retailer for others who might want to buy it?

   http://friendlyorangeglow.com/

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2. opoJul 2026
   >[1] No, PLATO was never nearly so widespread

   Plato often gets overlooked, but it was highly influential. A well written book on it is: "The Friendly Orange Glow: The Untold Story of the PLATO System and the Dawn of Cyberculture"

   The wikipedia page has some overview info on it:

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLATO_(computer_system)

   In terms of usage, there aren't many stats, but I saw this: "The CERL PLATO system logged 10 million hours of use between September, 1978 and May, 1985 (a period for which the most complete statistics are available).

   https://liz.nl/plato18.htm

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3. TMWNNJul 2026
   > Plato often gets overlooked, but it was highly influential. A well written book on it is: "The Friendly Orange Glow: The Untold Story of the PLATO System and the Dawn of Cyberculture"

   Quoting myself from 2023, in a discussion of computer history books:<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35405385>

   >The Friendly Orange Glow, about PLATO. Not because PLATO was super-influential on the later industry—far from it, with only minor exceptions—but that doesn't mean that it doesn't deserve examination.

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4. jauntywundrkindNov 2025
   Side question, was there a reason early CRT screens were amber? Or was this perhaps maybe downstream of PLATO & the first plasma (and touch) screens being a Friendly Orange Glow?

   Recommending Friendly Orange Glow (Doer, 2018), btw. Fun read. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/545610/the-friendly...

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5. musicaleApr 2025
   For a moment I thought you might be the Brian Dear who wrote The Friendly Orange Glow (a fascinating history of the PLATO system).
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6. musicaleMar 2025
   I recently read The Friendly Orange Glow and found it inspirational.

   Is the entire PLATO system, including courseware, available? That would be tremendous.

   [Edit: it looks like there is a lot of stuff there, so ... maybe??!]

   Of course I also want to play Moria[1], etc. ;-)

   [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moria_(1975_video_game)

   IIRC some of the PLATO courseware was ported to the TI 99/4A as well.

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