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The comment below the original Commodore PET keyboard (The 'Chicklet' style) says that for reasons 'lost to history' belies the failure of the article's author to do any substantive research. The reason why Commodore selected this awful keyboard was to use internal economies by making use of calculator keyboards and that technology that Commodore (which was a big calculator manufacturer in the 1970s) already owned. Further information behind this design decision can be found in the excellent book of Commodore history by Brian Bagnall called: On the Edge - The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore

Linky (I think).

The pre-seventies stuff exists in some format, but was cut from the final book. One bonus chapter about KIM-1 one board computer is available for free from the www page of the author: http://www.commodorebook.com/view.php?content=bonu s

I've really enjoyed it. It was well written and told a great and entertaining story.

You can download free chapters at http://www.commodorebook.com/

They offered free shipping when I bought mine from the site.

Sorry parent poster, you're wrong. The Commodore Amiga came out with a full-screen, 4,096-color palette, high-resolution monitor, with sound and a multitasking OS all in 1985. It was far more advanced than the Mac of the day.

As memory fades, we tend to remember the PCs that have lived on until today, notably the IBM PC and the Apple Mac. But just because these PCs are around now does not mean that they were necessarily the better computers then. Far from it.

At the time of the Amiga's release, Apple was still selling the monochrome, single-tasking Macintosh and for roughly three times the price, and the Apple bosses were sick with worry.

In fact, Apple considered buying the Amiga and selling it as their own product. Look it up. I'd recommend reading On The Edge if you need a reference.

If you like this kind of stuff, you might be interested in On The Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore. A very interesting read to anyone who was around at the time, in my case for the C64 and Amiga era - I missed out on the PETs.

The book talks about brushes with both Jobs and Woz as well - in fact it's significantly less than flattering to Apple and isn't exactly shining about Woz's ability as an engineer. I'm an Apple fan and have a number of their machines, but I've read enough positive things over the years to find it quite refreshing to read a negative view as well. The book is, to descend into cliche for a moment, a rattling good read.

Cheers,
Ian

If anyone wants to read about the battle between Commodore and the other companies, there's a new book called "On the Edge: the Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore"

http://www.commodorebook.com/

If anyone wants to read about the battle between Commodore and the other companies, there's a new book called "On the Edge: the Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore"

http://www.commodorebook.com/

A lot more adventure and excitement than I had expected. Also gives a different (sometimes flattering sometimes not) of Apple, Atari and Radio Shack.