I cannot share Mr. Challacher's glee at the supposed failure of MSX in the UK (issue 87). I have seen a similar response to a Japanese product in the past; in that instance it was the supposed reluctance of the British to accept Japanese motorcycles. This 'head in the sand' attitude played a large part in the decline of the motorcycle industry in this country and its subsequent domination by the Japanese, who still make a consistently high-quality product at a competitive price.

Manufacturers, such as Sinclair and Commodore, seem to produce their systems to be incompatible with software from the previous machine, or in some cases, hardware too.

Would it not be nicer to be able to upgrade or change manufacture of your machine and still retain your expensive peripherals and/or software?

I, for one, would welcome this. I am stuck with a Commodore 64, printer, and disk drive and would like to change to an Amstrad machine, but the inability to use any of my existing hardware with the Amstrad deters me.

The Japanese manufacturers are astute and adept at exploiting weaknesses. These weaknesses that will put the British out of the home computer market.

Andy Anderson
Morden, Surrey

Compatibility is nice but it isn't the last word in computing. And why blame Commodore for the fact that you bought the wrong machine for your needs? - Ed