There once was a little orphan computer named TS 2068. Like all orphans, it was not responsible for being an orphan. In fact, it was well designed and a pretty little thing. However, its parent, Timex, decided that raising the infant through proper marketing and support would not be a financially rewarding experience. So it was abandoned before its first birthday. Timex is alive and marginally sound but I for one have not been able to use their watches since that fateful day.
Along came the carpet baggers. Ramex was just one of many of this specie. They sought to exploit the poor orphan by making grandeous additions. When the orphan was unable to support their standard of living, they abandoned their addition.
None of these wonderful people ever made an effort to simply expand their arena of endeavor the way so many other computer oriented companies were doing. No, if they couldn’t have all their eggs in one basket, they would put them all in another basket and too bad about the old basket.
Maybe this is a little cynical but that is the way I see it. Too many trying to make too much money from too few. Well now it is just us enthusiasts. We can and will keep the orphan alive until there are no more parts to fix them. Maybe by then we will know enough to be able to design replacement parts ourselves. Companies are proving every day that chips can be reverse engineered without breaking any patents. As long as we support each other and don’t get greedy, we can and will keep this computer alive!