Merced - and the ol' Unix story (was Re: OT, but info needed: RAM uprade)

From: Miles O'Neal <meo_at_netads.com>
Date: Sat Jan 16 15:34:41 1999

Someone asked:

| *Why we are limited to 2 floppy drives in DOS

The same reason there are absurd memory limitations, etc.

Someone wasn't thinking very far ahead.

   ``Why would anyone *ever* need more than [amount] [thing]?''

The problem was that the people doing the PC development
weren't looking at micros as real computers. They saw
them as little more than toys - they just happened to be
toys you could sell to companies to put on the desktop.

Very few people in the computing world at the time really
expected micros to replace anything. The policy makers
still foresaw all the ``real work'' being done on mainframes
and minis.

I can prett well guarantee you that nobody was any more
surprised than IBM at the revoltioon - and its impact on
the mainframe and minicomputer marketplace.

-Miles
Received on Sat Jan 16 1999 - 15:34:41 GMT