Re: The Woz being inducted into National Inventors Hall of Fame

[Greg Dunn <gregdunn@indy.net>]

In article <8ici98$qp1$1@merope.saaf.se>, Paul Schlyter
<pausch@saafNOSPAM.se> wrote:

> Affordable is also a matter of comparison.  Perhaps $2000 was a lot
> to you for a computer back then, but it was certainly less than you
> would have had to pay to assemble an equivalent system on, say, the
> Altair or the IMSAI 8080 ($4000 or $5000 ?).  Not to mention what
> you'd have to pay to buy a mini-computer with similar capabilities a
> few years earlier ($20000 and up...)

Aye to that!  My Apple ][, $1100 for a bare system and 48K of RAM in
1978, was every bit as fast as the old IBM 1130 we used for a batch
system in school only 10 years before that.  OK, it didn't have that
enormous 2MB hard drive or the card reader, but... :-)

Another thing:  Software compatibility on the S100 bus machines was
through cooperation and sharing, since they had no consistent ROM
toolbox or OS at that time.  The Apple ][ provided all the core
software in one box, ensuring that the default was compatible software
from Apple to Apple.

All hail Woz!  Both my experiences meeting him are cherished memories,
for a number of reasons.