Re:The Chloe 280SE, a New Z80 Microcomputer
by TheOtherHobbes on Tuesday February 04, 2020 @07:28PM
(#22242757)
Creating bespoke machines was the norm. S100 was the only standard with a history. Outside of that, manufacturers didn't do backwards compatibility.
IBM clones transformed the market because the PC standard (with MS-DOS) became a commodity, which meant you could swap software and data between machines from different manufacturers and Compaq made sure could buy the hardware via a network of dealers, like a car - something Apple originally innovated, and the S100 scene experimented with, but never quite mastered.
The compatibility was a Really Big Deal at the time. It was far more important to users than the very obvious technical limitations of the hardware. Not only could you share data, but you could take your disks to a different office with different hardware from a different clone maker and still get work done.
Incidentally, Unix would never have happened in this market because the shell syntax (all of them...) is far too hostile for most users.
IBM clones transformed the market because the PC standard (with MS-DOS) became a commodity, which meant you could swap software and data between machines from different manufacturers and Compaq made sure could buy the hardware via a network of dealers, like a car - something Apple originally innovated, and the S100 scene experimented with, but never quite mastered.
The compatibility was a Really Big Deal at the time. It was far more important to users than the very obvious technical limitations of the hardware. Not only could you share data, but you could take your disks to a different office with different hardware from a different clone maker and still get work done.
Incidentally, Unix would never have happened in this market because the shell syntax (all of them...) is far too hostile for most users.