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From the (e)Bookshelf: Commodore: A Company on the Edge
In delving into the particulars of computers from the 1980s as if to know now what I'd missed then (which might be no better or worse than grown adults buying up the toys they hadn't had as kids), period sources are useful but works made with the benefit of hindsight would seem to offer important perspectives too. A fair while ago, I managed to hear about a book by Brian Bagnall said to provide the history of Commodore computers; by the time I had, though, it seemed to have sold out. I then heard he'd split off the first part of his book and revised it with promises of a similar revision to the history that followed, but in the process I did start wondering about other things I'd heard. It might be one thing to say that "the survivors, at least, have written the history books," but from what I heard Bagnall was insistent on putting down Apple Computer in particular, even "the hacker-friendly Apple II crafted by that lovable 'Woz.'" It felt somehow a bit less like "the truth since obscured" and more like "grinding a particular ax, one familiar to this day."
When The Digital Antiquarian mentioned Bagnall had started a Kickstarter to fund his follow-up history of the Commodore Amiga, though, I went ahead and pledged for electronic versions, including that first book; I might have thought a bit of "I shouldn't shy away from opinions just because I think I'd disagree with them." It took a while for the follow-up to be written, and in the process it grew so much it was split in two with the last years of the 1980s and the company left for a follow-up. In the process, some pre-release drafts were offered to the backers to see the work in progress. I did notice Bagnall putting down the Macintosh in comparison to the Amiga by saying launching an early Macintosh application off a floppy disk that didn't also have the System files on it would mean lengthy bouts of disk-swapping. That particular case would happen, certainly; I'd supposed, though, that the first Macintosh applications were supposed to be kept to a size that would fit alongside the System files on one floppy disk, and that even some blithe users might manage to sort out what ought to be done with perhaps some help from the literature. It did leave me wondering about his take on the history just previous.
Eventually, the book was finished, and I had my chance to download both it and the previous instalment of what's now a promised trilogy. Starting off with that earlier book at last, it was interesting enough to read about Chuck Peddle and a small team creating the MOS 6502 microprocessor, Jack Tramiel's company buying Peddle's, and Commodore moving up from consumer electronics like calculators (my family did have a Commodore calculator in a desk drawer) to a fully packaged computer. At the same time, Bagnall went well past "as one small startup among many, Apple didn't sell anywhere near as many Apple IIs in its first months and years as you might think" to never seeming to miss a chance to belittle that computer. Again, most of what he said seemed true in the strictest sense, but even as I took note of the way he was pitching it he did once seem to try and slide a whopper past his audience in saying the computer with its removable lid (at another point, he jumps on a comment in the first BYTE review about having had some problems with the lid) was somehow the same as the TRS-80 in having a "warranty void if seal is broken" warning. (There might have been a warning on the Apple II's power supply box.) That in turn, I suppose, lets me bring up how Bagnall, in trying to dismiss any distinguishing feature of the Apple II he couldn't belittle to play up the Commodore PET as better-selling, seemed just a bit more perfunctory in putting down the TRS-80 while still mentioning once or twice it had sold better than the PET.
Later on, after mentioning Jack Tramiel had noticed Clive Sinclair's ultra-low-cost British home computers and decided to move downmarket to hold off an expected Japanese invasion (which just might have eventually tied into my own impressions of the book getting me to think Tramiel wasn't very interested in the "firmware" of his company's computers even if Commodore was programming and selling games), Bagnall does get to play up the Commodore 64 as selling massively well and pushing some competitors out of the market. Implying every new computer of other companies from the same time were direct attempts to respond to it, though, did seem a bit of a stretch, and I happened to think that Bagnall dismissed the TRS-80 for good in passing without quite seeming to distinguish the Z-80 powered machines that had wound up possibly pitched at small businesses from the Color Computer "home" machine. Despite having to coexist with the Commodore 64, it had been upgraded at last to the Color Computer 3 and stuck around to the end of the 1980s. I do fear that in the place of seeing new perspectives (however familiar "inexpensive can be thoroughly adequate" does seem in the end) I was just goaded to defend my own, but I did at least pick up on a number of anecdotes.
When The Digital Antiquarian mentioned Bagnall had started a Kickstarter to fund his follow-up history of the Commodore Amiga, though, I went ahead and pledged for electronic versions, including that first book; I might have thought a bit of "I shouldn't shy away from opinions just because I think I'd disagree with them." It took a while for the follow-up to be written, and in the process it grew so much it was split in two with the last years of the 1980s and the company left for a follow-up. In the process, some pre-release drafts were offered to the backers to see the work in progress. I did notice Bagnall putting down the Macintosh in comparison to the Amiga by saying launching an early Macintosh application off a floppy disk that didn't also have the System files on it would mean lengthy bouts of disk-swapping. That particular case would happen, certainly; I'd supposed, though, that the first Macintosh applications were supposed to be kept to a size that would fit alongside the System files on one floppy disk, and that even some blithe users might manage to sort out what ought to be done with perhaps some help from the literature. It did leave me wondering about his take on the history just previous.
Eventually, the book was finished, and I had my chance to download both it and the previous instalment of what's now a promised trilogy. Starting off with that earlier book at last, it was interesting enough to read about Chuck Peddle and a small team creating the MOS 6502 microprocessor, Jack Tramiel's company buying Peddle's, and Commodore moving up from consumer electronics like calculators (my family did have a Commodore calculator in a desk drawer) to a fully packaged computer. At the same time, Bagnall went well past "as one small startup among many, Apple didn't sell anywhere near as many Apple IIs in its first months and years as you might think" to never seeming to miss a chance to belittle that computer. Again, most of what he said seemed true in the strictest sense, but even as I took note of the way he was pitching it he did once seem to try and slide a whopper past his audience in saying the computer with its removable lid (at another point, he jumps on a comment in the first BYTE review about having had some problems with the lid) was somehow the same as the TRS-80 in having a "warranty void if seal is broken" warning. (There might have been a warning on the Apple II's power supply box.) That in turn, I suppose, lets me bring up how Bagnall, in trying to dismiss any distinguishing feature of the Apple II he couldn't belittle to play up the Commodore PET as better-selling, seemed just a bit more perfunctory in putting down the TRS-80 while still mentioning once or twice it had sold better than the PET.
Later on, after mentioning Jack Tramiel had noticed Clive Sinclair's ultra-low-cost British home computers and decided to move downmarket to hold off an expected Japanese invasion (which just might have eventually tied into my own impressions of the book getting me to think Tramiel wasn't very interested in the "firmware" of his company's computers even if Commodore was programming and selling games), Bagnall does get to play up the Commodore 64 as selling massively well and pushing some competitors out of the market. Implying every new computer of other companies from the same time were direct attempts to respond to it, though, did seem a bit of a stretch, and I happened to think that Bagnall dismissed the TRS-80 for good in passing without quite seeming to distinguish the Z-80 powered machines that had wound up possibly pitched at small businesses from the Color Computer "home" machine. Despite having to coexist with the Commodore 64, it had been upgraded at last to the Color Computer 3 and stuck around to the end of the 1980s. I do fear that in the place of seeing new perspectives (however familiar "inexpensive can be thoroughly adequate" does seem in the end) I was just goaded to defend my own, but I did at least pick up on a number of anecdotes.