16 Feb
1999
16 Feb
'99
10:11 a.m.
My $0.02. Nothing is ever gained by flaming machines
that others collect,
no matter what bad experiences you had with them. I learnt that the hard
way after a rather memorable flamefest involving the Apple ][...
Fact is, the Sanyo can be a somewhat interesting machine. It is not a PC
compatible, and it shouldn't claim to be. It is a classic (10 years or
more old) 8088 box. And for that reason it's on-topic here.
Personally, I find the non-compatible 8088/8086 machines (Sanyo MBC550,
FTS88, HP150, Apricot, Sirius, etc) to be rather interesting and worth
collecting for that reason alone. Nobody is saying you have to do real
work on them, or not own any other computers.
In a way, the non-IBM-compatible 80x86 boxes are probaby one of the few
really interesting MS-DOS boxes from a historical standpoint. They
represent a dead evolutionary branch- one where it was felt that a
company could survive on sheer MS-DOS compatibility.
Of all those, the Sanyo is probably the most unique. While most of the
non-compatibles tried to be superior (Tandy 2000, TI Professional) or
have an "edge" (Dec Rainbow with its dual processor architecture),
the Sanyo seems to have been based around trying to build the most
"cost-reduced", minimal box.
<<<John>>>
P.S. I gave mine to Tony Eros because I never could find a keyboard.
OTOH, I think I still have the monitor around here somewhere.