Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen From: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.COM (Wm E Davidsen Jr) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Is the XT dead? Summary: Partially true Message-ID: <627@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> Date: 29 Sep 89 12:55:21 GMT References: <1989Sep27.104957.24581@cs.dal.ca> <340006@hpsgpa.HP.COM> <2576@netcom.UUCP> Reply-To: davidsen@crdos1.UUCP (bill davidsen) Organization: GE Corp R&D Center Lines: 39 In article <2576@netcom.UUCP>, harnyo@netcom.UUCP (Suwandi Harnyo) writes: | > Are 8086/8088-based machines obsolete? Nearly so? How long have they got? | > | | In my opinion, as long as the 8088/8086 based machines constitute | more than 50% of the total PCs out there, I would not worry too | much. The reason is if I am the software developer, I would make | sure that my software would run on all type of PCs, instead of | abandoning the other 50% of the potential market. PC's are 50% of the market, but only a fraction of the market. The software people care about users who will buy their software, and that means business. Most large business (yes, yes, not all) are probably only 10% 8 bit machines, and the person who still uses an XT is probably (a) running a limited set of apps and not interested in buying more, or (b) not authorized to buy anything. Therefore the market is the people with AT's or better, for the major business software. The XT market is important for games and <$100 utilities, which are in the price range of a private user. | | My suggestion is if your main use is to do simple word-processing, | and light, personal use, then may be you may want to get XT. It's cheaper | too. On the other hand, if you are using it for software development, | or heavy database or spreadsheet calculation, go for the 386 or 386SX. | Judging from the prices for 286 and 386SX, I would recommend getting | the 386SX directly. looking at the real 386 prices, there is no reason to stop at SX unless $ are VERY tight. The performance is about 2:1 better (depending on use and clock speed) and the incremental cost for 20 and 25MHz machines is only about 10-20% of the TOTAL machine cost. That's cost effective for a business, and cheap thrills for an individual. -- bill davidsen (davidsen@crdos1.crd.GE.COM -or- uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen) "The world is filled with fools. They blindly follow their so-called 'reason' in the face of the church and common sense. Any fool can see that the world is flat!" - anon