[TUHS] Re: LSX issues and musing

[Paul Ruizendaal via TUHS <tuhs@tuhs.org>]

> Any ideas on why businesses didn’t pick up the H11 in 1980?
> 	[priced too high for hobbyists]
> 
> Wikipedia says:
> 
> 	1978: H11 US$1295 (kit) or US$1595 fully assembled ("4kword base system”) 
> 			display advert <http://www.decodesystems.com/heathkit-h11-ad-1.gif> $1295 kit + postage/freight, bare system, 8KB (4kword), 6 Q-bus slots free. ROM ?
> 
> 	1981: IBM 5150(PC) US$1,565 for "16 KB RAM, Color Graphics Adapter, and no disk drives.”
> 			( I only saw 5150’s with 2x 5.25” 360KB floppies included - otherwise, can’t run programs & store files)

Note that those are nominal prices. In terms of purchasing power USD 1595 in 1978 equated about USD 2200 in 1981 (https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1978?endYear=1981&amount=1595).

Otherwise agree with your observation on packaged, off-the-shelf software being the main driver. In small business before the IBM PC, Visicalc drove Apple II uptake; Wordstar, C-Basic 2 and DBase drove CP/M uptake.

Would LSI-11 hardware with LSX, ed and nroff have been competitive in small business? The experiences of John Walker (of AutoCAD fame) suggests not:

https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/marinchip/