The Origins of DOS

[Stan Barr]

Hi,

Jules Richardson said:

> Stan Barr wrote:

> > Both Apple and RS were big enough in the uk circa 1978/9 on to support a 
> > number of dedicated hardware and software suppliers. Both were used
> > quite a bit by small businesses* that couldn't afford cp/m kit, as
> > well as hobbyists like me.  (I got a TRS-80 Model 1 around the beginning
> > of '78 - still got it...)
> > The Apple II was also rebadged and marketed by ITT, in a silver case IIRC. 
> 
> That's interesting, because I don't know where they've all gone! We see far 
> more surviving CP/M machines and things like Nascoms and equivalents than we 
> do Apple and RS systems in the UK. That would suggest that people tossed out 
> the Apple and RS stuff, but held on to other machines for some reason.
> 

They still crop up, TRS-80s anyway.  There are a couple on eBay atm, 
including a 4P, the (trans)portable one that I might put in a bid for.
 
> Later on of course UK people seem to have largely made do with the same 8 bit 
> machines that the games / education market used - I get the impression that 
> the acceptance of IBM PCs and compatibles happened *much* sooner in the US 
> than it did elsewhere.

IBM PCs were a bit expensive* for the home or samll business  user until 
clones appeared, but they were bought in some numbers by larger firms.
I remember examining some of the first ones in the country at an exhibition
and being very underwhelmed by MSDOS :-)   Our firm bought a number of
ATs as soon as they became available, I've still got a low-numbered UK one
I got from work, built late '85 I think, two full-height 20Mb disks.

* In 1982 IBM PCs were advertised at "from 2,800 pounds" (at about 2 dollars
to the pound, I think) for a dual floppy machine with monitor.  That would
buy you two Apples with dual floppies and monitors and still leave change.


-- 
Cheers,
Stan Barr  stanb at dial.pipex.com

The future was never like this!