25 May
1998
25 May
'98
12:17 p.m.
Sam Ismail wrote:
Check out Tandy's version of history from their web page:
"1977 TRS-80 Model I Personal Computer introduced.
(First mass-marketed personal computer. In contrast to
build-it-yourself computers available at the time, the TRS-80
was fully-wired and tested. Sold at a breakthrough price of
$599. More than 200,000 TRS-80 computers were sold from
1977 to 1981.)"
Ok, let's conveniently forget about the Apple ][. This is the most
blatant denial of reality and outright lie I've ever seen a company
publicly endorse.
Well, I've seen companies publicly endorse far bigger lies. It is
true that the Model One shipped to _end users_ in quantity before
either the Apple II or the Pet, despite those systems being
announced and advertised months earlier -- since the TRS-80 wasn't
announced until 5000 of them had actually been built. Beyond that
it depends on the definition of "mass-marketed" -- since Tandy had
a large retail chain, and Apples and Pets were sold through mostly
smaller outlets.
"1980 TRS-80 Model 100 Portable Computer
introduced.
(First computer ever to feature five programs and a
telephone modem built-in. Used by journalists throughout
the world.)"
First I question the year (I know it was later than 1980). This claim is
dubious at best. Mostly its broad and irrelevant. It seems they're
trying so hard to make this seem like a breakthrough (it was) that they
forgot to mention the real reasons why.
It was 1983 and I personally addressed several hundred of them to
the Los Angeles Times.
"1984 Tandy 1000 Personal Computer introduced.
(First PC-compatible personal computer. Within one year,
the Tandy 1000 became the best-selling PC-compatible
computer.)"
God, what a load of chicken turds. I think they missed this distinction
by 3 years and umpteen other companies. I'd like to kick the guy who
wrote all this crap in the nuts.
There I can agree, it wasn't even Tandy's first PC compatible, which
was the Tandon-built Tandy 1200 piece of crap. It _was_ outselling
either IBM or Compaq within a year despite my best efforts.
--
Ward Griffiths
They say that politics makes strange bedfellows.
Of course, the main reason they cuddle up is to screw somebody else.
Michael Flynn, _Rogue Star_