[Coco] Preserving old CoCo diskettes...

[Brian Blake]

Here's the only real problem I see on this issue. As a consumer, I don't
understand the competition aspect of this. I see innovation on both sides of
the track, that will benefit me when I decide to make a purchase. Yet, this
is not a large market, but, I'd like to think there's room enough for two
similar, but, different products. Yes, there is some apparent similarity in
function between the DrivePak and some of Cloud9's products. However, IMHO,
it's only a similarity...

Mark and Boisy, thru Cloud9, have created numerous products for CoCo
enthusiasts: SuperIDE, TC^3, memory upgrades, DriveWire, keyboard adapters,
etc... I am a customer of Cloud9, and will continue to be (I need to order
another 512k kit...)

Roger has created a number of great programs and products, and I'm
salivating while I await my DrivePak to be shipped. As you might infer from
that last statement, I am also a customer of Roger's, and will continue to
be.

Maybe in my simplistic view of the situation, I just fail to see the bigger
picture, but, here's how I see it:

FDC's for the CoCo are not being made anymore - not an arguable point.
DS/DD 5 1/4" drives are not being made anymore - not an arguable point.
CoCo compatible 3.5" (drives with jumpers for multi-drive systems) are
getting more difficult to locate.

The DrivePak eliminates these issues - I see it as a floppy drive
replacement, with benefits. The benefits being faster loading, less clutter
on the desktop, fewer disks required, and with CoCoNet, the ability to
connect to a PC via bitbanger and mount images, etc... Yes, it does step on
DriveWire functionality, however, I think there's room for both products;
competition does drive innovation. Having used DW a little, and awaiting to
use CoCoNet, I'll be in a better position comment on this when my DrivePak
comes in and I've used it.

The C9 storage solutions are just as impressive, yet fit another need - the
desire to have a real CoCo HDD setup. There is something inherently cool
about saying, "Yeah, my CoCo is hooked up to a HDD system" (one day I might
be able to say that ;-) ). I see the set up involved in this to be much more
intensive than what I know about the DrivePak, and a less advanced user may
not wish to go that route. By the same token, smaller HDD's are getting
harder to locate as well. Using a 50GB drive for a CoCo system seems like a
huge waste considering the max partition size in HDB-DOS is in the 80MB
range (if I understand the manual correctly). For these reasons, DrivePak is
a viable alternative - again, my opinion.

I only recently got DW working and have run into a couple of problems that
I'm sure there are solutions to. The ability to connect to a PC to use as an
image server is very cool, regardless of which product you use
(DW or CoCoNet), and really replaces the floppy drive by itself. The
downside is they both add to the necessary set up to load disk images to
your CoCo. Used purely as a floppy replacement, the DrivePak should shine in
this capacity.

Are they competing products? Probably - however, I see the products as
targeted to different user's skill levels.

As a consumer in this wonderful CoCo market, I would think (hope) that any
developers would show a desire to work together to produce the best possible
products. Regardless of whether they support a company or do it on the side
thru a website, this is still a hobby and nobody will get rich from it. Even
with the tenuous relationship between product engineers and coders, I'd like
to think there's room enough for all egos here ;-).

Without the products guys like the three of you create, there wouldn't be
much of a CoCo hobby here. Keep up the great work guys.


Later,

Brian