1 Feb
2007
1 Feb
'07
1:36 p.m.
On 1 Feb 2007 at 13:35, Jim Isbell, W5JAI wrote:
The apple was a flop, yes. The Commodore also was a
flop. Just look at the
numbers. The apple was a flop because it was marketed as entertainment and
drawing pictures (which it excelled at) while the TRS-80 was a scientific
machine that crunched numbers. Yes, today the tables are reversed, but back
then, those of us who were into computers (I had been in computers since
1960 on the IBM 7070) were looking for computing power for serious work.
Golly, I hope you've got your tongue firmly planted in your cheek
here! In 1960, if you were looking for serious computing power for
number crunching, you got a 7090 and ran FMS. The 7070 was strictly
for the BDP crowd.
You can't have it both ways--if you were serious about computing
power, there were more powerful S-100 and Multibus boxes --with more
expandability and peripheral choice--and just about any language
choice that you could imagine. .
No--you said "personal computer". The Apple II was just that--and
enormously successful as such. One thing that it accomplished was
that it established Apple in the educational field. I think that had
Apple not had its educational discount program, it wouldn't be around
today.
(I've never owned an Apple II of any flavor)
Cheers,
Chuck