Re: computer history

From	Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca>
Newsgroups	comp.misc
Subject	Re: computer history
Date	2015-07-17 15:49 -0400
Organization	National Capital Freenet, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Message-ID	<alpine.LNX.2.02.1507171544240.23089@darkstar.example.org> (permalink)
References	<mo10fq$8o2$1@dont-email.me> <160720152250081512%timstreater@greenbee.net> <mobb7g$th2$1@dont-email.me> <alpine.LNX.2.02.1507171356310.22821@darkstar.example.org> <mobhkd$jpp$1@dont-email.me>

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On Fri, 17 Jul 2015, Scott Alfter wrote:

> In article <alpine.LNX.2.02.1507171356310.22821@darkstar.example.org>,
> Michael Black  <et472@ncf.ca> wrote:
>> Microsoft came out with that Z80 board for the Apple II.  It came early
>> enough that it was relatively "new".  I still don't get how that happened,
>> it's not like Microsoft was in the hardware business at the time, yet they
>> offer this board (rather than Apple) and the board is used to run CP/M,
>> which belonged to Digital Research, Microsoft's nominal competitor.
>
> If I had to guess, Microsoft was primarily a programming-languages vendor at
> the time.  They already had money coming in from their BASIC interpreter
> shipping in every Apple II (not counting the first year's production that
> shipped with Integer BASIC, which Woz wrote himself), but a card that would
> enable the Apple II to run CP/M would've given Microsoft the opportunity to
> sell its CP/M-based language products to Apple II owners.
>
I've heard that before, it's the only explanation I've seen.  I can 
believe it, yet at the same time, I'm not sure it worked out for 
Microsoft the way they wanted it.  They had all those fancy languages, but
how many running CP/M on the Apple II actually used them?  I have no idea.

I gather the board might have been the reason IBM went to Microsoft first
when looking for an operating system for their "PC".  They assumed that if
Microsoft sold the Z80 board, then they were the source of CP/M.  I can't 
remmeber if I thought of that, or someone suggested it over the years.  It 
seems a bit much, but who knows.

> (All that's just a guess on my part.  I didn't get my first Apple II (a IIe,
> more specifically) until 1985, which was more than a little bit past CP/M's
> heyday.  I have a Softcard clone kicking around somewhere, but have never
> done much with it.)
>
I wanted an Apple II when they came out, had to settle for an OSI 
SUperboard in 1981 for reasons of money.  I finally got a pile of Apple II 
stuff in the early nineties when someone I knew was moving and needed to 
clear out the old, and then found an Apple IIGS at a school rummage sale 
for five or ten dollars.  And other than turn them on, I've never used 
them.  By then, I wasn't going to use them, and thus I didn't have enough 
reason to get good at them.  So they just sit there.  I have an AMiga 500 
that I got at a rummage sale, I think I paid five dollars for it with a 
Commodore monitor, something that was so exciting at one point, but when I 
got it about 1995, nothing practical.

   Michael

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