Drobe was a computing

Computing

Computing is usually defined as the activity of using and improving computer hardware and software. It is the computer-specific part of information technology...

 news web site with a focus on the operating system

Operating system

An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...

. Its archived

Archive site

In web archiving, an archive site is a website that stores information on, or the actual, webpages from the past for anyone to view.-Common techniques:Two common techniques are #1 using a web crawler or #2 user submissions....

 material is retained online, curated by editor Chris Williams.

History

Drobe was founded in 1999 by Peter Price. In 2001, Peter handed the site over to Chris Williams as editor. After , it closed as a news site in 2009. It is retained as an historical archive. A few weeks after the site's closure Williams posted articles on Micro Men

Micro Men

Micro Men is a one-off BBC drama television show set in the late 1970s and 1980s, about the rise of the British home computer market, particularly the rivalry between Sir Clive Sinclair who developed the ZX Spectrum, and Chris Curry - the man behind the BBC Micro; played by Alexander Armstrong and...

, the television drama about the rivalry between Acorn

Acorn Computers

Acorn Computers Ltd. was a British computer company established in Cambridge, England, in 1978. The company produced a number of computers which were especially popular in the UK. These included the Acorn Electron, the BBC Micro, and the Acorn Archimedes...

 and Sinclair in the 1980s. He subsequently stated that such articles may continue to appear periodically.

Main features

The site features archived articles, news and other media

Digital media

Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital form. It can refer to the technical aspect of storage and transmission Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital (as opposed to analog) form. It can refer to the technical aspect of...

. It also hosts an online emulator

Emulator

In computing, an emulator is hardware or software or both that duplicates the functions of a first computer system in a different second computer system, so that the behavior of the second system closely resembles the behavior of the first system...

 for the BBC Micro

BBC Micro

The BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, was a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers for the BBC Computer Literacy Project, operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation...

, using the Java Runtime Environment.

Registered users were able to apply for user webspace in order to host their own projects. These subsites continue to be hosted by Drobe.

Drobe

• BBC Micro emulator
• File archives (mirror
  Mirror (computing)
  In computing, a mirror is an exact copy of a data set. On the Internet, a mirror site is an exact copy of another Internet site.Mirror sites are most commonly used to provide multiple sources of the same information, and are of particular value as a way of providing reliable access to large downloads...
  
  s of popular FTP sites, etc.)
• Reference material (various /Acorn
  Acorn Computers
  Acorn Computers Ltd. was a British computer company established in Cambridge, England, in 1978. The company produced a number of computers which were especially popular in the UK. These included the Acorn Electron, the BBC Micro, and the Acorn Archimedes...
  
  hardware)

External links

• Diodesign (Editor/curator Chris Williams's website)
• Drobe article statistics (subdomain hosting, adopted by Drobe)