PC hardware had a long story of miserably performance:
* 80386 / 80486
* ISA (Jumper hell)
* EGA
* Beep-beep
So why did manages decide to buy the crap. Well IBM has a history since WWII in big iron computing. And the PC was from IBM so it must be good.. doh! It's a good example of evaluating the PR rather than what's actually involved.
Key is also that workplaces as a consequence got it. And then workers had access to it "on the job". And wanted one hope to continue work at home etc.. Which platforms developers like and use also have big say because they actually make new applications happen!
Only this hardware made it possible overthrow Amiga:
* Pentium
* PCI
* VGA
* Soundblaster
And ofcourse low prices on Ethernet and DRAM. This especially became obvious when it became chepaer with an 80286 doing ISA-Ethernet + RS232 than buying an ZII Ethernet.
Nlandas, At this point I'm not so sure the source would be benfitial. The API is known. And there's clever people around
We don't even have the chipmasks for A500. Still we have Minimig.
Win3.11 was a PAIN. But then Linux came to rescue. And FreeBSD was even smoother
The darkside is kept inside sandboxes where it belongs.
