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From: bill@bilver.UUCP (Bill Vermillion)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix,comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.unix.xenix
Subject: Re: IBM and Apple Operating Systems (Re: dosread.c again)
Message-ID: <337@bilver.UUCP>
Date: 1 Nov 89 02:33:56 GMT
References: <6661@ficc.uu.net-> <10609@cbnews.ATT.COM> <143@asihub.UUCP> <6723@ficc.uu.net>
Reply-To: bill@bilver.UUCP (Bill Vermillion)
Organization: W. J. Vermillion, Winter Park, FL
Lines: 41

In article <6723@ficc.uu.net-> korenek@ficc.uu.net (Gary Korenek) writes:
->In article <143@asihub.UUCP>, jmp@asihub.UUCP (John Pantone) writes:
->> Microsoft and IBM simply blew it when designing MSDOS and the PC...
....
->3.  IBM put it's tail on the line in introducing the IBM PC.  No one
->    knew it would take off like a rocket.  It was a huge gamble.

This was IBM's THIRD attempt at a small-business computer.  It was not a huge
gamble, because they didn't put that much into it - particularly in comparison
to their later units.  They seem to hit about 1 in 3, but that's not too bad.
 
->5.  Compared to the 8 bit stuff available at the time, the IBM PC (and
->    MS-DOS) was a step forward.

I didn't think so.  After sitting at a PC in Aug/Sep 1981, I found that I had
more power and faster operations in my Z80 based systems.  It only had a SSDD
160k disk,  while others out there had 360k AND 720k. - and 1.2 megs if you
count the 8" systems.  Maybe you and I were looking at different things then,
but I stayed away until Dos 2.0 came out.  That's when I made the move, and
then after a year, I backed away.  I just couldn't get used to a system that
slow.  Only when the AT architecture came out with the '286 did the machines
become useable for my tastes.  PC was my 4th or 5th machine (I think).

->7.  Look at consumer VHS video technology.  It's in a parllel situation
->    to IBM-PCs and MS-DOS.  It started as breakthrough technology.  We
->    went out and bought tons of the stuff.  We demanded higher performance.
->    The original design has been enhanced to meet market demands.  It now
->    seems ordinary, commonplace, and almost obsolete.  Again, at the time
->    of introduction, this was breakthrough stuff.

My 1977 Beta I still outperforms most VHS machines, but that's another story.
->
->8.  The point to all this:  companies take massive gambles with new
->    products.  If it had not been for the original IBM-PC and MS-DOS,
->    we would not even have what we have today.

That's absolutely true.  We probably would have had something much better.

-- 
Bill Vermillion - UUCP: {uiucuxc,hoptoad,petsd}!peora!tarpit!bilver!bill
                      : bill@bilver.UUCP