[cctalk] Re: For Fred, especially: "Everything I know about floppy disks"

On 09/10/2023 3:00 PM CDT Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>

On Sun, 10 Sep 2023, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote: Amdek? sold a dual 3" drive in USA, marketed as external drives. There were ads for it in one or more of the Coco magazines. And there were ads for it as external drives for Apple2! Q: were those different electronics? OR did they include an FDC for Apple2? 3.25: The three leading contenders for "Shirt pocket disks" were 3", 3.25", and 3.5". There were many others, such as a 3.9" that IBM was rumored to be planning. But, for shirt pocket puspose, 3" seems the most promising. There was extensive argument in the trade journals. George Morrow said, "Why don't we get the clothing industry to make shirt pockets 5.25 inch?" Dysan did not want such an extreme retooling, so they were pushing the 3.25", which was basicaally a smaller 5.25", with a metal hub. They reasoned that whichever size had the most software would end up being the winner. So, Dysan set up an enormous software publishing venture. Before there were any machines using 3.25", you could purchase most of the major software packages on 3.25" disks! I ended up with a few drives and disks from Micropro. But, then HP and Apple both went with 3.5". When IBM went with 3.5" (PS/2, PC-DOS 3.20), the coffin was nailed shut. Seequa Chameleon 325 seems to have been the only machine that made it to market with 3.25" drives. Dysan had invested so much into their software publishing venture to promote 3.25" that, when 3.25" died, they couldn't ever recover. R.I.P. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com