hard-sector 5 1/4 disk

From: M H Stein <mhstein_at_usa.net>
Date: Thu Nov 1 14:56:33 2001

Hmmm... you don't use Windows much, do you...

------------------Original Message----------------

Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 15:29:50 -0700
From: "Richard Erlacher" <edick_at_idcomm.com>
Subject: Re: hard-sector 5 1/4 disk

The way I seem to remember it is that, back then, we were amazed when things
worked, rather than being irked when they didn't. Apple's attitude was clearl,
though, and that was that if your data really mattered, you'd certainly use a
computer and not an Apple. The Apple wasn't designed from the ground up as a
computing machine, but rather as a video toy (not in the disparaging sense) on
the order of the several other video games of the time, which, coincidentally
could also do some computing. Apple's approach was that if people were willing
to buy an Apple and then use it for useful work, they'd try to charge as much as
they possibly could, since the overall cost ostensibly would be low initially,
and then they'd make their money on the disk drives, (where they had some real
margin) and other add-ons that it took to convert the Apple into a computer
capable of doing useful work.

What makes all this crystal clear is that if I fire up an Apple today, it still
does all the stupid disk-subsystem-related crap it did back then, only, by now,
nobody would even think of putting up with that. Back then, it was about par
for the course, but it wouldn't last a week in today's environment.
Received on Thu Nov 01 2001 - 14:56:33 GMT