sdyer@bbncca.ARPA (Steve Dyer) (06/18/84)
I have heard next to nothing about the PC Jr in this newsgroup, presumably
because of its almost universal loathing by the press and slow acceptance
by the public. However, it has recently become much cheaper--for example,
the Harvard Coop (of all places) is selling the expanded version for $899,
which comes to about $809 with the Coop rebate. Suddenly, this begins to
sound more attractive, especially because I have a spare DSDD floppy drive
which could be used as drive B:, and Tecmar has introduced expansion memory
cards for up to 640K.
I'd be interested to hear of any positive experiences with the PC Jr or
non-flaming reasons why it should be absolutely avoided. Sounds like a
nice hacker's machine. Sure, this is old technology, but then so is the
Apple IIc, which is even more crippled in the areas of expansion, address
space and disk space. It isn't clear to me why the Apple is greeted with
applause while the Jr is reviled. Both seem to have compromises which may be
acceptable, given an appropriate audience.
I know about the slower effective speed due to CPU/video contention, the
poor keyboard and the lack of disk DMA. The keyboard problem can be solved
with a replacement if necessary, but testimonials are welcome about the
other misfeatures. An $1100 price difference can help one's patience.
--
/Steve Dyer
{decvax,linus,ima}!bbncca!sdyer
sdyer@bbncca.ARPAwjhe@hlexa.UUCP (Bill Hery) (06/19/84)
Wait a few months before buying a PC Jr. Runor is that IBM will release an improved version of Jr. soon. The improvements should include a better keyboard and the ability to expand to 256K. I believe there is an article about it in this week's Business Week. Bill Hery