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From: henry@ginger.sri.com (Henry Pasternack)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.m68k
Subject: System builders versus the IBM PC.
Message-ID: <8176@unix.SRI.COM>
Date: 18 Jan 90 21:19:11 GMT
Sender: news@unix.SRI.COM
Reply-To: henry@ginger.sri.com (Henry Pasternack)
Organization: SRI International
Lines: 18


   Is it my imagination, or have Intel and the PC clones entirely
taken over the computer market?  I got it into my head the other day
that I wanted to build an "embedded-system" game-playing machine.
Plunking down six bucks for a copy of Byte and Dr. Dobbs, I found
nary an advertisement for useful hardware or software, except for some
very expensive commercial cross-compilers which run under MS-DOS.  The
whole world seems to have gone PC-compatible.  Byte doesn't even have
the Circuit Cellar any more.

   It's only been a couple of years since I was last interested in
this kind of stuff.  What is going on?  Is there any kind of organized
support for computer hobbyists?  Are there any inexpensive operating
systems for non-PC machines available?

   Yuck.  I'm pretty discouraged.  Advice is solicited.

-Henry