[Coco] CoCo TALK #18 an introduction to OS9

[Kip Koon]

Hi James,
On behalf of all who continually improve the Coco, thanks a bunch!
That suggestion of yours sounds like an interesting project for someone!  Hint, Hint...  :)  

Kip Koon
computerdoc at sc.rr.com
http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/User:Computerdoc


-----Original Message-----
From: Coco [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On Behalf Of James Jones
Sent: Sunday, July 23, 2017 10:10 PM
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [Coco] CoCo TALK #18 an introduction to OS9

Hmmm. I would have to say I can't recall any OS-9 user who wasn't/isn't willing to share information and help someone get started or get ahead with OS-9. The things that Kip, Curtis, and more other people than I can name offhand are doing and have done are evidence thereof, and they have my thanks and respect.

Acting so as to keep the community small and exclusive would be and is counterproductive, and would've been especially so back in the day--all the software intimately tied to every wart of the CoCo hardware is a large part of what precluded improvements to the CoCo, so you want as many people comfortable with OS-9 and writing software for OS-9 as possible.

Remember back when Microsoft Windows started coming with Internet Explorer, making it far easier, especially in the days of modems when we were all amazed when it only took *four minutes* to download a whole megabyte of data, to just go along with IE and not bother to install those other browsers, so that Joe Average thought IE *was* the Internet? And how it was close to impossible to buy a prebuilt computer that didn't just come with Windows, so that Joe Average didn't have to do anything to run Windows, and thought Windows was free? In the same way, the CoCo just came with whatever flavor of Color BASIC. If Tandy had really been interested in promoting OS-9, the CoCo 3 would by default have come with OS-9 on ROM--to make it sort of a better equivalent of what people were used to, it could boot up in BASIC09, and have some option so that later on as a user gained experience and wanted to customize, one could boot from a floppy. (Still want to use Color BASIC? Pay extra to get the ROMs with it and get them swapped in.)

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