Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcvax!fmr
From: fmr@cwi.nl (Frank Rahmani)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Re: Computers in the Eastern Bloc
Message-ID: <925@sering.cwi.nl>
Date: 20 Jun 89 04:23:36 GMT
References: <22953@santra.UUCP?
Organization: CWI, Amsterdam
Lines: 31

? In article <135900010@cdp? usagdr@cdp.UUCP writes:
? 
??In general, ownership of PC's in socialist countries is limited to official
??organizations, research institutes, universities, hospitals, large economic
??enterprises and, of course, the government.  In the GDR, for example, the
??average citizen can usually find a low-grade commodore at a second-hand store,
??but IBM-compatible PC's are very difficult to obtain.
??On the other hand, I've heard that recently officials in the Soviet Union, 
??Poland and Hungary have begun to allow private citizens to import PCs directly
??from the West.  The one obvious limitation is, naturally, valuta (hard 
??currency).  An $800 PC would simply be unobtainable for the average citizen.
? 
? One finnish computer-shop is making nice sales selling PC's to Estonia/USSR.
? The owner I personally know, has every day aprox. 2 Estonian clients buying
? PC's. The manager is having little difficulties when he is looking for
? exact info of exporting computers, but still it is legal to sell those
? 8086 / 8088 based models to be exported. When dealing with 80286's , I'm not
? sure if those are accepted by CoCom and U.S.A , and I think Russians couldn't
? buy those anyway becouse of higher prices.
Electronics giant Siemens &Halske of western Germany signed a contract
about 0.8 billion dollars comprising delivery of '286 Sinix running
AT-like workstations at the tune of 300.000 complete sets a year,
including documentation, user education and advice. This contract is
to be extended. Other major German PC makers will follow.

fmr@cwi.nl
-- 
It is better never to have been born. But who among us has such luck?
Maintainer's Motto:
	If we can't fix it, it ain't broke.
These opinions are solely mine and in no way reflect those of my employer.