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From: karl@sugar.hackercorp.com (Karl Lehenbauer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.cbm,comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: What is the All-Time Best-Selling Computer ?
Message-ID: <5680@sugar.hackercorp.com>
Date: 9 May 90 15:39:45 GMT
References: <1455@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca> <29462@cup.portal.com> <17782@well.sf.ca.us> <2426@uniol.UUCP> <2428@uniol.UUCP> <23118@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> <16058@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <29747@cup.portal.com>
Reply-To: karl@sugar.hackercorp.com (Karl Lehenbauer)
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In article <29747@cup.portal.com> FelineGrace@cup.portal.com (Dana B Bourgeois) writes:
>I propose that the term "personal computer" be defined before any
>more opinions are placed in this thread.  Until an agreed upon definition
>exists this subject is going to be one of the all-time net-bandwidth-
>wasters.

>Who's first?

OK, it has to have a typewriter-style keyboard, a CRT display capability and a
mass storage device.  (Hmm, that would include the Sinclair ZX-81, which is
pretty marginal.)

Really I think a floppy drive is also required.  I think random access mass
storage, even of only a hundred kilobytes, really made the difference in
whether PC's were usable or not for anything other than games, and almost
certainly for development.  My first PC was a 48K Apple ][ with a floppy,
for this reason.  I decided this was a requirement while panting over the
PC's of the time (IMSAI 8800, Heath H8, etc), and I actually had the maturity
to wait -- after using a mini in high school and minis and mainframes in 
college, audiocassettes were just too gross.
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