[Coco] The COCO vs The Apple II

[Steven Hirsch]

On Sat, 10 Jan 2015, Tony Cappellini wrote:

> How did the Apple II being having such a primitive basic, DOS, & CPU outsell
> and be so much more popular than the Coco? The Apple II was approximately
> 3-4 times the cost of the Coco.

Having the expansion slots available was the motivation for my foray into 
the Apple 2 world.  An incredible number of cool peripherals were 
available, including dozens of coprocessor boards if you were inclined (as 
I was) in that direction.  The Apple 2 with a PCPI Applicard made a 
top-shelf CP/M machine, for example.

Another factor that has not been mentioned in this thread:  Documentation. 
While a lot was written about the Coco, I think it palls in comparison 
with the sheer volume of books and magazines related to Apples.  Apple's 
own documentation was absolutely top-shelf.

There were also some surprisingly sophisticated development tools 
available, although I suppose this is a subjective opinion.



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