Morning Steve,
Not always. Once the ZX Spectrum+ came out the manual had been shrunk to
almost nothing. It was practically a guide to plugging it in, switching
it on and loading a game from tape.
I never had a Spectrum+, was that actually Sinclair or had Amstrad taken
over by then? I can't remember.
Microsfot always thought that you should pay extra for any information.
Indeed!
As for XP being "0w3d" withn 10 minutes, yes, that was a major
silliness, but only affected the "Home" edition.
Again, I'm not 100% sure, but my Pentium 4 Sony Vaio had the blank
password and I'm sure that came with XP Professional installed. I could
be wrong as I eventually wiped it completely and re-installed OpenSuse
on the entire disc rather than as a dual boot.
Actually, with Linux half the information *ISN'T* there as either the
coders thought it was "obvious" or they were too lazy to document it.
This may be true, and I agree. But at least you have the source code as
well to look through. Now I agree that not everyone wants to. But it's
there if they do.
Even when documentation is there it's often so out of date to be useless
or is very poorly written by someone who hasn't a clue about technical
writing.
This is the case with everything software in my experience!
Sadly, I also write documentation - and mine is currently out of date as
well! :-(
Actually, Acorn were just as good in this respect. The BBC manual was an
excellent primer. The Advanced User Guide actually went way beyond the
Sinclair manuals, but it cost money.
I never had one, so I'm unable to comment. I occasionally used one at
College, but I never saw the manuals.
The whole bedroom coding thing came from the manuals rather than the
specific hardware, in my opinion. This is why I was a little dismayed
when the Raspberry Pi project decided to drop the idea of commissioning
a tutorial and technical manual to go with the device.
Bad news! And kind of defeats the purpose of the Pi - to encourage the
"bedroom coder" habit!
Cheers,
Norm.
--
Norman Dunbar
Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd
Registered address:
Thorpe House
61 Richardshaw Lane
Pudsey
West Yorkshire
United Kingdom
LS28 7EL
Company Number: 05132767
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