----- Original Message ----- From: "David McCann" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2007 4:53 PM Subject: [ql-users] Hardware and software - new horizons
> To keep an old computer going you need a reasonable user-base and a > perceived function. The Spectrum gets continued support because it had > masses of users to start with and it's easy and fun to write games for > it. Indeed. The Spectrum was a success right from the start, but the QL was seen by the experts as a failed computer practically from day one. It was the peripherals industry that turned it into a practical computer. In other words the QL has only survived for 23 years because people developed new hardware at an early stage in its life. Those of us who went to the Sinclair show in Norwich a couple of years ago had a very strong impression that the Spectrum has not moved on to the same extent as the QL. We saw stall after stall selling Spectrum hardware and software that we remembered using in our Spectrum days. The only QL stall selling similar vintage QL software was Simon Goodwins. > The QL no longer has enough users to make commercial products viable, Just as Quanta has to change if it wants to survive, so too have the traders. > Then there's the lack of USB and printer support. But just a provocative thought. Have you ever tried to connect a USB only laptop to a parallel printer? PC World don't know the answer to that one, but I do mainly because of my QL experience of looking for solutions to problems, Best Wishes, Geoff _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
