23 Apr
2002
23 Apr
'02
9:10 a.m.
Rumor has it that Richard Erlacher may have mentioned these words:
Well, what I know is that my kids had a C64 before they
were both in
elementary school and had outgrown it by the time they were 10. I didn't
make
that choice, having been divorced from their mother,
but it was apparent to
her that they needed something more capable. They had PC/AT's when they were
10. Those were not great, but at least they were adequate. Frankly, if one
considers the competition, the Commodore people picked the video toy
market to
play in rather than the home computer market, because
they couldn't compete
with Apple and Radio Shack, though they attempted to compete with RS'
low-end.
That low-end, e.g. COCO wasn't much to compete
with.
Huh?
Not sure if I'm reading you right, but you make it sound as if the CoCo
wasn't a very powerful computer - *if* that's the case, let me assure you
just how wrong you are.
When I got my first 386 (sx-16 Mhz, admittedly) I couldn't believe about
the _lack of power_ it had, and relegated it to playing games because I
could get more work done, faster, on my CoCo3 with 512K & only a floppy
drive with OS-9 than my PC was with a 66Meg RLL drive, 2Megs of RAM, 512K
of VGA RAM & HD floppy... running M$ *anything*. For another 4 *years* my
CoCo was still my main work machine, until I got a 486DX66 EISA Dell
machine on "perma-loan" from my employer of the time to do AutoCAD on.
I *don't* want to get into a urinating match over Commie-lovers as to C64
vs. CoCo and all that; and yes I have Atari's too - I've prolly heard it
all. They *all* had their strong & weak points, but I think a lot of folks
here will agree with me: the CoCo was a damn powerful machine for it's day,
and the 6809 CPU has a *lot* of followers (altho the 6309 is something I
*still* drool over... ;-)...
All these were capable
if you were determined to make them into what they weren't, but if you wanted
a home computer, you were better off buying something that was alread a
computer.
Honestly, I worked on the XT's when they were out and couldn't believe how
slow they were... and things hadn't improved that much by the time 386's
hit the scene - makes me wish I'd stuck that $1800 I spent on my
Intel-based VGA grafix Nintendo in the bank instead... or at least used the
difference for a HD for my CoCo and bank the rest.
Altho, something tells me you'd be dissatisfied with a Cray... Or did
someone urinate on your Wheaties this morning???
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger --- sysadmin, Iceberg Computers
Recycling is good, right??? Ok, so I'll recycle an old .sig.
If at first you don't succeed, nuclear warhead
disarmament should *not* be your first career choice.