Comment by TMWNN

4 days ago

> I mean, in 1978 Tandy used standard drives and a disk controller IC, and still managed to sell a whole 16K TRS-80 system with disk drive for the same price

The Tandy products were utter garbage.

Controller = Unreliable. Expansion Interface required for the controller = So unreliable that a robust third-party alternative market developed, including Steve Ciarcia's version. TRSDOS = So unreliable that Tandy has the dubious distinction of being the 8-bit system with the most third-party operating systems.

Reliability greatly improved from the Model III onward, but by then it was too late: Tandy had a) destroyed its reputation (the "Trash-80" nickname did not come out of nowhere) and b) surrendered its colossal market lead to the tiny startup founded by two California college dropouts.