[rescue] AT&T 3b1 Starlan software

[Jeffrey Nonken]

On Thu, 13 Feb 2003 04:18:51 -0800 (PST), Lionel Peterson
<lionel4287 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Once upon a time, PC didn't refer to a specific processor/OS/level of
> quality - it meant a computer designed for a single user, a computer
> for one person, if you will a personal computer.

That's IBM arrogance at work. They called their operating system OS, for
Operating System, their disk operating system DOS, and later their personal
computer PC. As if there were no others.

Unfortunately, there now pretty much aren't. The IBM PC was a mediocre design
in most respects, piss-poor in many, and duplicated many of the flaws of the
first generation of PCs that most designers had already learned from and gone
beyond. There were some very nice second-generation PCs on the market when
IBM
stuck their schmeckle in. (My father owned a NEC APC. Really nice machine for
the time.) Because IBM was such a big name in the business machine world,
people adopted the IBM PC as the defacto standard -- even though the
development team apparently wasn't even trying to make a real product.
Sticking their toes in to test the water, so they claim, but apparently
forgot
the power of the IBM name.

And so we are stuck with a design that is several generations of attempts to
overcome the flaws of the original whilst simultaneously trying to maintain
backwards compatibility. *shudder*



---
"Have a ride in my new ambulance," said Tom hospitably.