[vcf-midatlantic] IBM PC near-compatibles
Herb Johnson
hjohnson at retrotechnology.info
Tue Oct 24 14:15:42 EDT 2017
On 10/24/2017 1:08 PM, Ethan wrote:
>> can you point me to an exciting YouTube video of a PC non-compatible?
>> What is exciting about a box with a keyboard, and a CGA or VGA or EGA
>> monitor?
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLnTAYMMLOc Only has 60K views versus
> the newer stuff which gets 250K+ quickly IIRC
This video, is about a Kaypro and Osborne "find" on Craigslist. Yeah,
it's a video about "boxes", stuff in boxes actually. Those are
familiar-enough computers. Getting one, has some interest, or is at
least familiar. But that was not really my question. If I stated it
poorly, my apologies.
My question was "...of a PC near-compatible", not just any vintage
computer.
As I said, and you quoted:
>> It may be technically interesting if it has advanced graphics or
>> faster speed (Compaqs draw some interest). It might be visually
>> interesting if the case styling is unique. Those provide "interesting"
>> attributes, but videos are not needed for those.
You may be missing my point. Maybe you don't know what I mean by "near
compatible PC" or what that means.
As I previously said - these are NON-distinctive old kinda-PC's. So they
are like all the other old PC's - all boxes with ISA slots (maybe),
that ran MS-DOS 2 or 3 or whatever. So that makes them "undistinctive"
"clones", and therefore boring.
But it gets worse. They are NOT clones, they did NOT quite run the same
way, or support the same software or hardware. In a way, they are losers
TWICE. ONCE, they got beat by the Tiawan PC clones, and better systems
from IBM (and Compaq and a few other better-known brands). And they got
beat AGAIN, because they just didn't run every vintage thing you MIGHT
want to run TODAY; like memory upgrades, games, commercial software, etc.
It's like a broken clock - which is right twice a day, but useless as a
timepiece. It's only interesting if the broken clock has a brand, or
style, or history that makes it interesting.
What makes THESE interesting? And how does a video "show" that, over
some photo and some text?
YOu said:
>
> I see the videos as the gateway that the newer crowd is finding out
> about the retro stuff. - Ethan
That may be true, in general. Videos are popular. I get that. But in
particular - given what I just said, about all the things these
near-compatible PC's are NOT - what's left of interest, to make a video
about one of THESE worth watching? Or worth creating?
Herb Johnson
retrotechnology.com
--
Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA
http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net
preserve, recover, restore 1970's computing
email: hjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT com
or try later herbjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT info
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