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Re: Poll : Which classic computer of the late 70s/early 80s is the best?

Cross-posted to 3 groups.

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On 30/06/11 23:27, Christian Brandt wrote:

> Am 25.06.2011 22:20, schrieb Ian B:
>
>> The BBC Micro was a bizarre project. I've never to this day seen a good
>> explanation of just why the BBC needed to release its own computer to
>> accompany what was really a rather unimportant television programme.
>
>   Wrong point of view.
>
>   The BBC was released as a do-it-yourself project picked up by a
> commercial market.

No it wasn't. It was commissioned by the state broadcaster from Acorn in 
a sort of fit of corporatist paternalism. And nobody* bought one.

>   There were similiar projects in germany around the same time, all named
> after the television stations running these diy projects: the
> NDR-kleincomputer, the WDR-Computer and others... some of them numbering
> several thousand systems and becoming the second most sold computer at
> that time.
>
>   If you started in 1980 building your own computer as instructed on
> television you got a Z80 system with 4kByte memory and tape support. The
> OS was a rather simplistic hex monitor.

That's absolutely nothing like the BBC Microcomputer project. Had the 
BBC programme been something like that, I - and I suspect Ian - would 
have been slightly better disposed towards it. But it simply wasn't.

The BBC decided in the early '80s that it had to produce a series of 
shows on TV and radio about computers, and therefore (for some reason) 
needed its own machine. Not its own *design* that it would show people 
how to build; its own machine, in the shops, with a BBC logo on the box 
and the newsreader Kenneth Kendall's voice in the optional speech 
device. It invited tenders for the contract requiring certain features 
(Sinclair submitted one and - according to the Beeb - failed to meet the 
spec.; it became the Spectrum) and Acorn won. The machine was then sold 
as the BBC Microcomputer.

And nobody except schools and rich parents bought one, because it was 
significantly more expensive than the competition. Even Acorn recognised 
this, and released a cut-down version under its own brand, the Electron. 
The BBC, though, defiantly - and hilariously, to we Speccy and C64 kids 
- continued to refer to it as “a typical home computer” at every 
opportunity through the 1980s. That was all they did. I don't recall it 
being used on air for anything much more technical than demonstrating, 
briefly, what the “typical home computer” could do.

The entire project was a complete waste of time and money. Sinclair (and 
Commodore) did *vastly* more for the advancement of home computer 
technology in Britian during the 1980s than the BBC.

*For certain specific values of “nobody”. Schools (whose purchases were 
subsidised) and rich kids.

-- 
Duncan Snowden.

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Poll : Which classic computer of the late 70s/early 80s is the best? "Mr.Umfrage" <Mr.Umfrage@fragen.dich> - 2011-06-24 18:54 +0200
  Re: Poll : Which classic computer of the late 70s/early 80s is the best? "Brian Gaff" <Briang1@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2011-06-25 12:12 +0100
    Re: Poll : Which classic computer of the late 70s/early 80s is the best? "Clocky" <notgonn@happen.com> - 2011-06-25 22:52 +0800
      Re: Poll : Which classic computer of the late 70s/early 80s is the best? "Ian B" <noemail@invalid.invalid> - 2011-06-25 21:20 +0100
        Re: Poll : Which classic computer of the late 70s/early 80s is the best? rogerjowett <rogerjowett@gmail.com> - 2011-06-25 18:11 -0700
        Re: Poll : Which classic computer of the late 70s/early 80s is the best? "Chris Young" <chris.usenet@mail-filter.com> - 2011-06-26 11:44 +0100
          Re: Poll : Which classic computer of the late 70s/early 80s is the best? "Ian B" <noemail@invalid.invalid> - 2011-06-26 14:13 +0100
            Re: Poll : Which classic computer of the late 70s/early 80s is the best? Guesser <alistair@alistairsserver.no-ip.org> - 2011-06-26 14:24 +0100
          Re: Poll : Which classic computer of the late 70s/early 80s is the best? "Clocky" <notgonn@happen.com> - 2011-06-27 16:59 +0800
        Re: Poll : Which classic computer of the late 70s/early 80s is the best? BloodBaz <chris.walsh@real-sense.com> - 2011-06-27 03:19 -0700
        Re: Poll : Which classic computer of the late 70s/early 80s is the best? Christian Brandt <brandtc@psi5.com> - 2011-07-01 01:27 +0200
          Re: Poll : Which classic computer of the late 70s/early 80s is the best? Duncan Snowden <duncan_s@talktalk.net> - 2011-07-02 15:09 +0000
      Re: Poll : Which classic computer of the late 70s/early 80s is the best? "Brian Gaff" <Briang1@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2011-06-26 01:07 +0100
        Re: Poll : Which classic computer of the late 70s/early 80s is the best? Anssi Saari <as@sci.fi> - 2011-06-26 19:10 +0300
  Re: Poll : Which classic computer of the late 70s/early 80s is the best? cts3000 <cts3000@gmail.com> - 2011-06-25 12:01 -0700
    Re: Poll : Which classic computer of the late 70s/early 80s is the best? "M.O.B. i L." <mikaelb@df.lth.se> - 2011-06-26 00:31 +0200
  Re: Poll : Which classic computer of the late 70s/early 80s is the best? WinstonSmith6079 <winstonsmith6079@gmail.com> - 2011-06-25 19:51 -0700
    Re: Poll : Which classic computer of the late 70s/early 80s is the best? "Tom Lake" <tlake@twcny.rr.com> - 2011-06-26 02:45 -0400
      Re: Poll : Which classic computer of the late 70s/early 80s is the best? WinstonSmith6079 <winstonsmith6079@gmail.com> - 2011-06-30 17:11 -0700
      Re: Poll : Which classic computer of the late 70s/early 80s is the best? "Daniel Mandic" <daniel_mandic@hotmail.com> - 2011-07-03 09:30 +0000
        Re: Poll : Which classic computer of the late 70s/early 80s is the best? "Tom Lake" <tlake@twcny.rr.com> - 2011-07-03 06:22 -0400
  Re: Poll : Which classic computer of the late 70s/early 80s is the best? WinstonSmith6079 <winstonsmith6079@gmail.com> - 2011-06-26 11:07 -0700
  Re: Poll : Which classic computer of the late 70s/early 80s is the best? BruceMcF <agila61@netscape.net> - 2011-06-27 10:48 -0700

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