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Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!tektronix!percy!parsely!bucket!leonard
From: leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: PC's are democratic; Mac's are fascistic
Message-ID: <1829@bucket.UUCP>
Date: 21 Dec 89 09:57:33 GMT
References: <6767@tank.uchicago.edu> <1989Dec17.112127.27333@me.toronto.edu> <14960@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <1210@serene.UUCP> <1989Dec18.142406.5066@hellgate.utah.edu> <1989Dec18.191117.18483@hellgate.utah.edu> <4591@ur-cc.UUCP> <1021@ndcheg.cheg.nd.edu>
Organization: Rick's Home-Grown UNIX; Portland, OR.
Lines: 32


Why should a user be able to use his old 8-bit boards in his new
$7000 EISA system? Try because if he couldn't move over the old
boards to the new system, he couldn't afford the upgrade!

I've got an XT clone at home and at work we have everything
from IBM PCs up thru 30 MHz 386s. Have you got any idea of the
kind of price difference you'd be talking about if we couldn't
keep "old" boards when we upgrade a machine? We actually figured
it out as part of a proposal to eliminate all the PCs and XTs.

The upgrades cost 1/2 as much if we move just the display, display
adapter and hard drive over. True the hard drive with slow the
performance, but we can replace it later. For a small increase in 
price we can replace the HD controller, and get a major improvement
cheaply.

The same goes for my home system. I've pretty much maxed out the XT
design. But when I upgrade, I can do it a piece at a time. If I had
to replace everything, I *could not* afford to upgrade!

Money is the reason for maintaining downward compatibility. And it is
valid. On the hardware end of things, I don't see it as causing any
noticeable problems. Software is a different matter. But then yopu've
been able to buy multiple OSes for the 80x86 machines ever since
they were introduced (the original PC had UCSD p-system, CP/86 and
PC-DOS as the options). Now there are a wide variety of choices.
-- 
Leonard Erickson		...!tektronix!reed!percival!bucket!leonard
CIS: [70465,203]
"I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools.
Let's start with typewriters." -- Solomon Short