8 Feb
2014
8 Feb
'14
8:04 a.m.
On 02/07/2014 10:57 PM, Terry Stewart wrote:
Thanks!
Yes, the Osborne effect...lol. I did know about that and considered
mentioning it in the video but I was also aware of the "Osborne Myth"
(further down in the same wikipedia article). Given that the Osborne effect
is disputed, (and it would take time explaining it) I left it out. The
pre-announcements may have been a factor, but it seems that Osborne just
got out-competed by the likes of the Kaypro. Having both machines, I know
which one I'd rather use.
Terry (Tez)
Its really about being first vs later and more refined.
Having both I can say Osborne was first and also because of the publishing
work better known is some areas. But as a machine it was old before it
was on the street. Kaypro, was next generation and over the life of the
Z80 based machine had it grow in performance plus it had a far more
readable screen at 80 chars (VS osborne 50 char). The greatest limitation
was the drives were slow and low density.
FYI for those that have NOT used CP/M sure you could run a system with an
80K disk but by time you add utilities and desired programs your out of
disk!
Experience said that around 250K was ok and 360K was better (per drive).
When you combine the above with market (business use and students with cash)
It was the application and storage wars. By that I mean systems that
were friendly
to common and growing pool of applications that expected 80x24 screens plus
enough floppy storage to hold more than a minimal system. Those machine
were
more likely to succeed over those that were marginal. This contributed
to Osborne
going down with Kaypro growing.
Allison