Stuart Brady wrote:
Surely the PC must have already experienced a certain level of success
for Compaq to have considered it worth cloning. Was the original IBM PC
really that popular, or did the availability of MS-DOS on other non-PC
compatible hardware contribute? I would guess that the mantra that
'nobody ever got fired for buying IBM' played a part in all of this...
I think the cloning started as the XTbus was intended to be "open"(ish)
so 3rd party companies could and would make new and interesting
hardware. However, it would have to be licensed/approved by IBM. The 3rd
party companies decided it was simpler to just clone the whole machine
and the now well known phrase "IBM Compatible" was created.
Of course, I may remember it wrong.
As a point of (little) interest, I do have an original working** IBM PS1
here.
IMHO This is the most interesting thread we've had here for a long time.
Nev
** well it was last time it was tried.
