Re: The Apple ][ was cool!

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

Paul Schlyter writes ...
> 
> In article <3B530194.2AAAC1D8@swbell.net>,
> Rubywand  <rubywand@swbell.net> wrote:
> 
> > The early PC's were, indeed, crude machines. However, thanks to
> > cloners, this situation changed fairly rapidly. By 1989 you had
> > games using 256-color VGA displays and AdLib sound. And, unlike
> > most other personal computers, the PC virtually always came with
> > a hard drive.
> 
> No it didn't.  The PC was, from the start, delivered WITHOUT a hard
> drive!  A hard drive wasn't added until the XT came along.
>

     Yes; we have a couple of those early PC's in the attic-- the ones in the
heavy metal case with two 5.25" drives (kind of tough looking computers).

    "Virtually always" refers to the normal config for PC over most of its
history. 

 
> However, from the very start, all PC's were delivered WITH a socket
> for a numerical coprocessor.  That's what I liked most about that
> machine: in comparison, most other contemporary micros (including
> the Apple II as well as the Apple Mac) were toys.  Which makes some
> sense - after all you use toys to play games....
 ....

     If we equate "entertainment" to "toy", perhaps. (You would also need to
include music playing & composition, greeting card/certificate printing, baby
sitting, BBS communicating, and bunches of other mainly fun-oriented
activities.)

     Entertainment was and is big business. The main reason most people bought
a computer in the 1980's was not to balance checkbooks; it was entertainment.

     Computers which could deliver colorful graphics with music and sound
effects and which had large bases of entertainment software-- like Apple II and
C64-- were, in many respects, better computers than PC for most of the 1980's.



Rubywand