NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/comp/sys/acorn/10530

Text File | 1993-01-25 | 1.9 KB | 39 lines

Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Path: sparky!uunet!pipex!warwick!nott-cs!unicorn!rsxdp
From: [e-mail] (D.Pead)
Subject: In defence of RM Nimbus
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]
Organization: Shell Centre for Maths Education, University of Nottingham
References: <ssudavss.727956414@reading> <[e-mail]>
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 93 15:23:32 GMT
Lines: 27

Now come on, lets be fair to RM.  The Nimbus PC186 was launched yonks
and yonks ago, before the IBM PC gained it's stranglehold.  It used DOS
as it was originally intended - as a DISC operating system providing
a standard interface for file and character I/O.  At the time, there were
several other machines that ran MS-DOS but were not IBM compatible (e.g.
the Sirius and Apricot). The Nimbus was FAR superior to the original IBM
PC - it didn't have the silly 640K memory limit, it's XBIOS had proper,
high-level graphics facilities, optimised for running WIMP operating
systems (in those days MS Windows V1) and it's graphics made CGA look
pathetic (O.K - Big Deal). Remember - the so-called "PC Standard" is
non-existent - the only parts of the PC that were designed as standards were
 the basic I/O capabilities of DOS (files and dumb TTY) and the
format for expansion cards.  The BIOS/XBIOS code that made a PC a PC was
proprietory to IBM (and they were having legal battles with cloners).

Sadly the PC took off, and software houses started writing applications
that accessed the IBM PC XBIOS and hardware directly, and the superior
DOS machines like the Nimbus got marginalised.

What *was* naughty was the way in which Nimbii were later promoted by
RM enthusiasts (I don't know that it was RM themselves) because they
"Ran Industry Standard MS-DOS" even when most PC software would only
run on the Nimbus under the rather flakey PC emulator.  Mind you, at the
same time, Acorn Evangelists were plugging Acorn's PC board, which never
materialised...