IIRC, Gibson had never used a computer, at all, before writing Neuromancer. At most he’d seen some Apple II microcomputer affair sitting idle. Hence the cyberdeck design: compact, integrated, luggable, all solid-state components. When he finally used a PC he was primarily struck by how loud the damn thing was.
Here’s the real question: did Gibson write Neuromancer before or after Bill Gates said no one would ever conceivably need more than 640k of RAM?
I’m not sure, but I always found it mildly amusing that he wrote it on a manual typewriter.
IIRC, Gibson had never used a computer, at all, before writing Neuromancer. At most he’d seen some Apple II microcomputer affair sitting idle. Hence the cyberdeck design: compact, integrated, luggable, all solid-state components. When he finally used a PC he was primarily struck by how loud the damn thing was.