25 Apr
2002
25 Apr
'02
5:33 a.m.
From: Doc <doc(a)mdrconsult.com>
:
You're calling the entire DECstation 5000/2xx line "products intended
for the toy market as opposed to one intended to be seen as a computer",
since they have no internal mass storage.
I guess he thinks Sun 3/50's are toys too. Sigh.
Al.
25 Apr
25 Apr
9:01 a.m.
From: Doc
<doc(a)mdrconsult.com>
:
You're calling the entire DECstation 5000/2xx line "products intended
for the toy market as opposed to one intended to be seen as a computer",
since they have no internal mass storage.
I guess he thinks Sun 3/50's are toys too. Sigh. 
3:45 p.m.
I don't know where you guys who keep harping on this think I said external
"disk drive==toy." I did, however, say that if the disk INTERFACE is
external, i.e. if the ability to interface to a disk drive is external to the
unit, as is the case with the COCO, among many others, then until it has that
interface, it's a toy. I doubt that anyone thinks a machine with 16KB of ram
or less and no mass storage of any sort is capable of doing much computing.
It's more like the early pocket caclulators, though it won't fit in a pocket.
Even before microprocessors, there were calculators that would fit in your
pocket that would do more useful work than some of those storage-less
quasi-video games that were sold in the early '80's.
What this implies about the mfg's attitude is that the mfg figured it would do
its job without disk storage. If that's the case, and since this was before
ethernet, then it's a toy.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andy Holt" <andyh(a)andyh-rayleigh.freeserve.co.uk>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2002 8:01 AM
Subject: RE: Micro$oft Biz'droid Lusers (was: OT email response format)
If they were used with
external local disks they were reasonable - in fact
pretty good for the era.
If they were used as diskless workstations they shared the "toy" status of
all such (and of Xstations).
IMNSHO
Andy
From: Doc <doc(a)mdrconsult.com>
:
You're calling the entire DECstation 5000/2xx line "products intended
for the toy market as opposed to one intended to be seen as a computer",
since they have no internal mass storage.
I guess he thinks Sun 3/50's are toys too. Sigh. 
4:13 p.m.
On Thu, 25 Apr 2002, Richard Erlacher wrote:
I don't know where you guys who keep harping on
this think I said
external "disk drive==toy." I did, however, say that if the disk
INTERFACE is external, i.e. if the ability to interface to a disk
drive is external to the unit, as is the case with the COCO, among
many others, then until it has that interface, it's a toy. I doubt
that anyone thinks a machine with 16KB of ram or less and no mass
storage of any sort is capable of doing much computing. It's more like
the early pocket caclulators, though it won't fit in a pocket. Even
before microprocessors, there were calculators that would fit in your
pocket that would do more useful work than some of those storage-less
quasi-video games that were sold in the early '80's.
What this implies about the mfg's attitude is that the mfg figured it
would do its job without disk storage. If that's the case, and since
this was before ethernet, then it's a toy.
Does this mean that a network-capable controllerless machine isn't a toy?
Peace... Sridhar
--
"How do you fight such a savage?"
"With heart, faith, and steel. There can be only one."
-MacLeod and Ramirez, "Highlander"
8292
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3 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
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alan.pearson＠cramer.com -
andyh＠andyh-rayleigh.freeserve.co.uk -
edick＠idcomm.com -
vance＠ikickass.org