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

[Charles Richmond <richmond@dallas.net>]

Paul Schlyter wrote:
> 
> In article <39498D6F.2C0AF09B@dallas.net>,
> Charles Richmond  <richmond@dallas.net> wrote:
> 
> > Greg Buchner wrote:
> >
> >> Just read the following on Macintouch <http://www.macintouch.com/>
> >>
> >> Personal computer pioneer and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is among
> >> seven inventors who will be inducted later this year into the National
> >> Inventors Hall of Fame for bringing about "advances in a broad range of
> >> technologies, including computers, medicine, manufacturing and
> >> communications." Specifically, Wozniak was honored for the "Apple II
> >> personal computer, which brought together the central processing unit
> >> (CPU), keyboard and disk drive in an affordable unit."
> >
> > Affordable is a matter of opinion...the Apple ]['s in the 1970's were
> > *very* expensive from my perspective.  In 1978, my dad bought us a
> > 6800 system for around $400 (an APF Imagination Machine).  Although
> > it did *not* have the programs available or the sophistication of the
> > Apple ][, it was a nice machine to hack around with (it had a
> > rudamentary machine language monitor). As I recall, an Apple ][ in
> > the same time frame sold for over $2000. I could *not* afford that...
> 
> As you just said, affordable is a matter of opinion.  Unless you
> really were poor at that time, you couldn't "afford" the Apple II
> because you preferred to spend your $2000 on other stuff (A car?
> Entertainment?  Travelling?).  So it's really a matter of priorities.
> 
> 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...)
> 
I guess you are right...I would have a hard time then justifying to
myself the spending of $2000 for a personal computer. But I was a poor
student who had *no* credit at all... And, knowing something of IC's
and such, I felt that the $2000 price made the Apple ][ somewhat 
over-priced for what it contained.  Of course, I think Apple has always
had somewhat pricey computers, even today.  Even the IMac and IBook have
a hard time competing with the PC world on price...but I would *not*
consider buying a PC, so I got a Mac.

PS: I do have some PC-style hardware running Red Hat Linux, though...

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|     Charles and Francis Richmond     <richmond@plano.net>   |
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