... when was that, Tony? How long after the original CoCo was sold before
the whole "shootin' match" could be bought at the RS?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tony Duell" <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2002 2:25 PM
Subject: Re: Micro$oft Biz'droid Lusers (was: OT email response format)
> >
> > I keep coming back to the distinction between what the systems in question
did
> > as shipped by the mfg, vs. what they COULD be persuaded to do with the
> > application of appropriate pressure.
>
> I don't know what planet you're from, but back here on Earth, Radio Shack
> sold the CoCo, a disk drive for the CoCo, OS-9 configured for the CoCo
> and all the languages I mentioned.
>
> In other words, this was _exaxtly_ what the manufacturer said you could
> do with it. Buy the CoCo. Buy the disk drive _from the same company_. Buy
> OS-9 _from the same company agains_. Plug it all together, type in one
> command ('DOS' IIRC) and you were running a real operating system. It did
> not necessarily involve any 3rd party hardware or home hacking.
>
My point in this case is that a long time went by between when RS put out the
"toy" version, the "original," and when the other hardware/etc. was complete,
just as did the folks from Commodore, Atari, and others, all of whom were
primarily in the toy market. Once it became apparent that money could be made
by selling add-ons for their toys, they did that. Commodore, among others,
made it very difficult to use conventional hardware, but that didn't stop them
from pushing their own stuff. As I've mentioned before, Commodore tried to
prevent folks from using conventional (Centronics-interfaced) printers, so a
guy here in Denver made millions on an adapter from the silly GPIB version
they supported to an Epson-compatible interface. The Commodore folks behaved
just as toy vendors in other areas did, limiting their toys to be used as they
intended. I know DEC did that to some extent, but their prices clearly
defined their products as being outside the toy market.
Dick
Received on Thu Apr 25 2002 - 18:11:02 BST