Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hplabs!hp-pcd!hpsgpa!plim From: plim@hpsgpa.HP.COM (Peter Lim) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Is the XT dead? Message-ID: <340006@hpsgpa.HP.COM> Date: 28 Sep 89 03:58:46 GMT References: <1989Sep27.104957.24581@cs.dal.ca> Organization: HP Singapore IC Design Ctr Lines: 81 Here's my 0.00000002 million dollar opinion: > / hpsgpa:comp.sys.ibm.pc / lane@cs.dal.ca (John Wright/Dr. Pat Lane) / 6:49 pm Sep 27, 1989 / > Here is a question that's been sparking debate in the office here. > I'll toss it out to the net. > > Are 8086/8088-based machines obsolete? Nearly so? How long have they got? > > I don't see many ads for or hear much about XT's in the magasines lately. > Many people are saying that since XT's can't run OS/2 or certain DOS > programs today, that soon they won't be able to run most new software > and as such represent a bad investment at any price. > > Others say that's just industry hype and a machine that does what you > want today will still be able to do so as long as it holds together... > "and who needs OS/2 anyway". > > Others say it doesn't matter what you buy, its going to be obsolete > before you get it out of the box...well, sooner than you think, anyway. > But that doesn't really help you decide what to buy now. > Which is true :-). > Certainly XTs are cheap. An XT is half the price of a 286 which is > half the price of a 386 (roughly of course). One dealer told me that > they don't like selling XTs anymore because there's no profit in them. > Well, I don't know how the situation is in the States. Over here in Singapore, AT prices are not holding up. In fact, over here, no one should be bother with XT anymore, the price of ATs are getting so low that there's almost no difference in price ! For some local "brand name" AT like say Datamini (I have nothing to do with them and in fact I will buy a much cheaper no name clone given a free choice), a 16 MHz 0 waitstate AT with 1MB RAM, 40 MB 28 ms hard disk with EGA card and monitor is selling for below S$3,000 (which is about US$1,500). Actually, 386 prices are also land-sliding in the Asean region. Take away the hard disk and EGA card and monitor, you can almost get a 20-25 MHz 386 machine for the same price. > I guess for us the turning point would be when the latest release of > WordPerfect doesnt run on an XT. Of course we're already there with > Lotus 123 rel 3. > FYI, according to PC Magazine (and some may be not so reliable sources), Lotus 123 rel 3 runs like a dog even on AT's and slow 386's. > Suppose you have relatively light duty tasks that, today, would be served > adequately by XTs and don't anticipate your basic tasks changing a great > deal, and you need several such machines, what do you buy if you want to > invest wisely? Where's the "smart" money going! > > Ancillary question: How far behind the 8086 is the 80286? People have > been calling it a brain-damaged dead-end since the day it was released. > There is certainly software around that runs on 386's but not 286's. > A correction is in order here. 8086 is not brain-damaged, its problem is only its time has long passed. 80286 is the brain-damaged one. Refer to PC Magazine for Bill Machrone's comments (I think you should be able to find it in the April '89 issue, the one where they reviewed 110 80386 machines). > Note: I'm trying to remain neutral in asking this question so don't > flame me for being on one side or the other. > Sticks and stones may break my bones but FLAME never hurt me :-). My very personal opinion is that you should get a 386 or 386SX if you can find one that's cheap and reliable. 80286 is just a passing fair and 386 programs are just around the corner (even if the corner is further than expected, you can at least do some crude but real multi-tasking with environment like DesqView). Then again, it depends on what is the price difference you can get in the States. Regards, Peter Lim HP Singapore IC Design Center Disclaimer: Whatever I said is my own opinion and has nothing to do with my employer (in fact they probably don't know about this message).