[XorNot]

Of course: but the point remains, the transistor by itself wasn't really useful - certainly not the first transistor.

It took the resources and creativity of a nation to figure out what it could do, and to make it cheap enough for its advantages to create revolutionary technology with it: otherwise vacuum tubes "would do" - and did - for a very long time.

A secret program of transistorized electronics would've been of no use at all: since all the advantages came from making them ubiquitous and cheap.

[doubleg72]

"the transistor by itself wasn't really useful"

Not to sound like an ass, and I know it is early yet here on the East coast of the US, but damn this is the most ignorant thing I have read on the internet all day! Not sure what hole you need to have your head up to not realize the impacts of the transistor that don't involve the microprocessor.

[P_I_Staker]

This is harsh, but I agree. It's baffling to me that he doesn't seem to understand this point. WTF.

I've gotten in trouble on hackernews pointing this stuff out, but this is a MASSIVE cultural problem on this site! All these SW nerds just baffled that anything exists outside their universe. (and I'm sw too)

The transistor was such an immediately obviously useful invention, it immediately became the toast of the town AT LEAST a decade before the first microprocessor.

[P_I_Staker]

Vacuum tubes suck, and everyone knew it at the time. The transistor itself was one of the single most intrinsically useful inventions ever.

It seems you have an extremely biased and narrow perspective on technology.