Gavin Haines wrote:

Not that I am Oirish or anything, but having used the C64 and the Apple II, I am bound to say the disk access time on the Commodore machine was extremely s-l-o-w. So slow that you could load a cassette in quicker with a turbo load program.

Using the Commodore 1541 drive's BUILT-IN DOS this is true. However, the Graphic Environment Operating System (GEOS) rewrote the DOS as well as the interface. Disk access was FAR faster under GEOS than under standard Commodore mode.

Also, there were several utilities out there that were designed to speed up the 1541. I had one myself that worked rather well. It wasn't perfect, but it DID help. :)

Actually, Commodore computers had a truly elegant feature that, to the best of my knowledge, was unique to Commodore. Unlike all other computers on the market that had to allot precious RAM memory in the computer to hold their respective DOSes, DOS on a Commodore machine was held in the DISK DRIVE ITSELF.

Inside all Commodore drives, including (but not limited to) the 4040, 1540 and 1541, there was a miniature computer that could operate INDEPENDENTLY of the computer proper. The disk drives had their own microprocessors, RAM memory AND DOS embedded in ROM chips.

(GEOS actually used the internal RAM in a 1541 for its own version of DOS, which is why I couldn't turn off the drive while GEOS was operating, like I could under the original Commodore 64 OS. Doing so would reset the RAM in the drive and completely erase GEOS's DOS and GEOS didn't know how to communicate with the 1541 using standard Commodore DOS).

No computer in that era could run more than one program at a time. Commodore computers were no different in that respect. HOWEVER, the disk drive could LITERALLY operate WITHOUT the computer's help, since it had its OWN microprocessor and memory.

If you wanted to format a floppy disk on other systems you'd have to sit there and WAIT for it to finish, since the computer was controlling the disk drive through DOS in memory, and the computer could only do one thing at a time.

With COMMODORE computers, on the other hand, you could issue the format command to the disk drive and the drive would busily format your disk on its own while you went on to do a few other things, like print a document for example. :)

This actually gave the Commodore 64 a SMALL advantage over the MACINTOSH of that era. Even Macs back then couldn't run more than one program at a time, so when you wanted to format a disk you had to WAIT. On an early Mac, it was a LONG wait. It was the ONE thing I HATED about those old Macs. I was late for more than one class for need of formatting a disk. :/

On the 64 I'd just issue the format command and get on with other business while the drive did its work.

Of course, while GEOS made the 64 almost as easy to use as the Mac, ALMOST was the operative word. This small advantage wasn't enough to elevate the 64 above the Mac. The Mac has ALWAYS been my favourite computer since I was first exposed to it in high school in the late 1980s and it will ALWAYS be my favourite. :)

Another advantage of the Commodore DOS arrangement is that DOS did NOT have to take up a chunk of memory in the computer. Commodore 64 users had the same amount of memory to work with whether they were working with cassette OR disk. On other computers, using a disk drive usually meant losing at least some RAM memory to a DOS.

The 1541 may have been slow, (it was universally hailed as one of the slowest floppy drives ever built), but it was slow because of its safety features. It was designed to check and re-check its data when it was written, to verify it was written correctly, plus it had features designed to help reconstruct corrupted data as well.

The Commodore 1541 was more RELIABLE than ANY other disk drive on ANY machine of its time. I know - I did NOT treat my disks well - dust and hair balls out the yin yang and no sleeves - but still I RARELY had a disk fail. :)

Gavin Haines again:

The C64 was definitely good for games, but pretty useless for things like word processing spreadsheets and accounts.

I don't know about accounts, but I used to do spreadsheets and word processing on the 64 and found it great for both. In fact, I wrote my first teleplay and some of my first screenplay on the 64. Teleplay/screenplay format is notoriously difficult to do on a standard word processor. :)

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