>> but the cheapest computers in the first half
of the
>> 1980s cost $100 and were practically useless for anything except
>> programming in Basic
> citation, please
On Thu, 7 Mar 2013, Dave Caroline wrote:
1977 for UK ?39.95. I still have mine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MK14 programmed in assembler
$100 did NOt buy you anything that could run
CP/M, MS-DOS, Apple-DOS nor
ANY other operating system.
A computer is a computer regardless of OS or
otherwise.
["cheapest computer in the 1990s was $2000"!]
citation,
please
My MOTHER was able to find a mass-marketed machine with drive and OS for
$500.
Cannot have looked hard
Exactly. No, she didn't look very hard,
and wouldn't have
known where and how to look. She most certainly, in spite
of no knowledge of the field, did NOT have to spend $2000.
1980
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zx80
1981
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zx81 ?69.95 assembled, 1.5 million,
I call that mass market
But the Timex would not have been suitable for her as a
word processor.
(Her computer needs are not the same as ours)
and either seems to refute "cheapest computer in the 1990s was $2000"
I still maintain that
"cheapest 1980s $100/cheapest 1990s $2000"
is either comparing two different categories of computers (as time
goes on, our interests do change), OR is looking at some very VERY
odd category of computers! (perfectly reasonable, IFF category is
identified!)
Either bare machine (including RPI) or "full system" are valid
subsets, but comparisons of them require appropriate adjustments.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at
xenosoft.com