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In the UK we had lots of 186 based PC clones from Research Machines such as the Nimbus. They ran a version of MS-DOS and Windows but weren’t strictly PC compati

by mattl 1y ago

In the UK we had lots of 186 based PC clones from Research Machines such as the Nimbus. They ran a version of MS-DOS and Windows but weren’t strictly PC compatible. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RM_Nimbus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RM_Nimbus I had a CPC too but later bought a 3.5 inch drive for it (used from someone else who bought an Amiga) so I could transfer files easily between Windows and AMSDOS. This was how I would later update my website after initially trying to write it all via a modem connection.

clan 1y ago
The Nimbus even came with a 3,5" floppy! Do you happen to know if they shared any design? Was there a reference Intel board which most designs are based on? Reading up on the RC Piccoline I realise I misremembered. Each 4 computers shared one drive unit. So not quite terminals as I remembered. Did the UK variants have some of the same quirkiness? I see they have a "network server" (XN20) listed. I was stuck on the rare 3" size. But lived in a fishing town so I could get them a little cheaper - they where commonly used for plotters on the boats. Thanks for that hint. That was interesting. Impressed by writing a website on a CPC. You have been a true die-hard. I first saw "the web" with Mosaic on a SUN Sparcstation in 1993.
- qingcharles 1y ago
  In my school most of them booted over the network from the server and were drive-less. You always wanted to grab one of the floppy drive ones so you could play the games you'd sneaked in.
- mattl 1y ago
  Yeah my “internet” access was using Mini Office 2 on the CPC to make a modem connection to another computer and that computer had internet access. Later the Numbus machines were replaced with 486 SX 25 machines from RM (via the UK supermarket Tesco’s computers for schools program, previously they’d been supplying Acorn computers) which made things a little easier. I would later write it in Protext on the CPC and copy it to the floppy disk and IIRC remove a few control characters from the file before uploading it from one of the 486 machines. Most of the Nimbus and 486 machines were diskless and floppy driveless. Reserving one with a floppy drive was a crapshoot. Eventually one machine in the school was secretly outfitted with a small hard disk someone got their hands on from elsewhere. For the longest time I had never seen the web outside of a text browser, despite having a website (really a single page for a long time)
qingcharles 1y ago
The Nimbus was great. Just PC enough to be able to run PC games. We had a whole lab of them at our school, but computer classes were banned after my first year as the new headmaster believed computers were a "passing fad."
- mattl 1y ago
  Damn. What year was that? They were quickly replaced by 486 machines running OS/2 of some vintage (pre Warp) on a server machine. A few machines had floppy drives. A couple even had caddy-based CD-ROM drives.
  - qingcharles 1y ago
    Would have been 1988 I think.

by mattl 1y ago

clan 1y ago

The Nimbus even came with a 3,5" floppy! Do you happen to know if they shared any design? Was there a reference Intel board which most designs are based on? Reading up on the RC Piccoline I realise I misremembered. Each 4 computers shared one drive unit. So not quite terminals as I remembered. Did the UK variants have some of the same quirkiness? I see they have a "network server" (XN20) listed. I was stuck on the rare 3" size. But lived in a fishing town so I could get them a little cheaper - they where commonly used for plotters on the boats. Thanks for that hint. That was interesting. Impressed by writing a website on a CPC. You have been a true die-hard. I first saw "the web" with Mosaic on a SUN Sparcstation in 1993.

qingcharles 1y ago
In my school most of them booted over the network from the server and were drive-less. You always wanted to grab one of the floppy drive ones so you could play the games you'd sneaked in.
mattl 1y ago
Yeah my “internet” access was using Mini Office 2 on the CPC to make a modem connection to another computer and that computer had internet access. Later the Numbus machines were replaced with 486 SX 25 machines from RM (via the UK supermarket Tesco’s computers for schools program, previously they’d been supplying Acorn computers) which made things a little easier. I would later write it in Protext on the CPC and copy it to the floppy disk and IIRC remove a few control characters from the file before uploading it from one of the 486 machines. Most of the Nimbus and 486 machines were diskless and floppy driveless. Reserving one with a floppy drive was a crapshoot. Eventually one machine in the school was secretly outfitted with a small hard disk someone got their hands on from elsewhere. For the longest time I had never seen the web outside of a text browser, despite having a website (really a single page for a long time)

qingcharles 1y ago

The Nimbus was great. Just PC enough to be able to run PC games. We had a whole lab of them at our school, but computer classes were banned after my first year as the new headmaster believed computers were a "passing fad."

mattl 1y ago
Damn. What year was that? They were quickly replaced by 486 machines running OS/2 of some vintage (pre Warp) on a server machine. A few machines had floppy drives. A couple even had caddy-based CD-ROM drives.
- qingcharles 1y ago
  Would have been 1988 I think.