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An open system
PC-compatible computers are what is called an "open system". When IBM designed the first one, they left it to other companies to build specialist cards to add to the computer; they were not interested in small production runs. What they did not anticipate was that some companies, at first illegally, cloned the entire design, thereby starting the wide range of clones, or PC-compatible computers we know today.
The downside of the open design is that are many millions of variations in design and sometimes this affects the way software runs, or doesn't run.
The hints in this section relate purely to the hardware - the computer and its peripherals - and not to the interaction of software and hardware. We hope to cover warranties, maintenance and choosing new hardware. Check back occasionally to see what we have added.
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