[Coco] A bit more of CoCo history dies...

[Christian Lesage]

Bill Cousert wrote:
> But I don't think the situation is as bad as it looks. 30 years ago, a TRS-80 model I with dual drives, expansion interface and 48k RAM cost nearly $5,000 (probably more than $10,000 in 2009 dollars). 

5 grands? I don't think so. Here are the 1979 prices:

TRS-80 Model I System w/ 16K RAM Level II....... $988 (includes monitor)
Expansion Interface w/ 32K RAM............................ $697
Disk Drive #0........................................................... 
$499 (includes TRS-DOS)
Disk Drive #1........................................................... 
$499

That's "only" $2,683. And in 1980, the first two item were about $100 
cheaper ($849 and $597 respectively). On the other hand, I agree that 
some printers were quite expensive (ranging from $220 to $1600).

> Today I can get a really nice notebook computer for less than $400. I think the savings more than make up for it.
>   

Well, in terms of money, it looks like it makes sense. But the cheap 
prices don't make up for the huge, growing electronic waste problem that 
the world is facing. Moreover, we no longer can buy "Made in the USA" 
(or Canada, Australia, France, UK, etc.) consumer electronic devices, 
which means we "benefit" from some other people's cheap labor in other 
parts of the world... probably the same people to whom we ship some of 
our hazardous electronic waste.