1983 Micro prices (was Re: The Origins of DOS)

[Jules Richardson]

Chris M wrote:
>>> What this implies is that the PC was several years
>> delayed in UK.
>>
>> No, this implies I was quoting from a magazine.
> 
>  I've heard stuph to the effect that there wasn't alot
> of Big Blue stuph in the UK, at least not in the early
> days.

Not on the desktop - I think there were a fair few 'server' class systems 
around though. But yes, my understanding is that the PC just didn't take off 
in the UK like it did in the USA (and elsewhere?).

Remember that the UK had a massive amount of choice when it came to general 
desktop machines - quite probably more so than the USA did. UK society at the 
time was very much "squeeze every last possible drop out of what you had", 
whilst the impression I've got of the US was that people were far more willing 
to upgrade systems reasonably frequently to whatever the latest thing 
available was.

> Research Machines was a big name though, and common.

In education, yes. Not so much for home or business use, though. What 
timeframe are we talking - say 1982 to 1985 or so?

The education market was split primarily between Research Machines and Acorn, 
with a few others picking up the scraps.

The home computer market was amazingly diverse, but frequent names were 
Sinclair, Acorn and Commodore.

The corporate world of desktops was similarly diverse (with the likes of CP/M 
crates, Commodore, Apple, and IBM all featuring) - but there were also a huge 
number of business people making use of the same machines that were found in 
the home. Often these people were talented enough to write their own bespoke 
software to manage their business, but there was a healthy market in 
'business' software written for these machines too.

A while back I came up with a list of early-80s UK computer manufacturers (in 
order to see how much space we'd need for a UK-specific room at the museum). 
It ended up being pretty massive...

> I still want the blooming Nimbus

Good grief, why? They're pretty nasty. If you want something from RML, go for 
a 380Z or a 480Z - those are 'real' computers; the 380Z has that lovely rugged 
'military' feel to it with all the fun of a modular system (albeit without a 
rigid backplane :-) whilst the 480Z is a great example of good design, both 
hardware and packaging.

cheers

Jules