Comments by "Siana Gearz" (@SianaGearz) on "The Unlikely Rise and Collapse of the Bulgarian Computer" video.

Timeline. Apple 2 is one of the first personal computers. Eastern bloc ZX Spectrum clones weren't really a thing until 1988 or so, way after Bulgaria chose to enter personal computers. But of course others made their entrance with teletype based CP/M business machines instead, based around 8080 or z80 clones, way before ZX Spectrum clones.
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Bulgaria is also just about the only country far and wide where there are almost as many women working in tech as men, and more in science. I wonder how that came about?
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These both stories sound like myths. One is that Japanese labour is expensive while materials are cheap; so disassembling keyboards wouldn't have been profitable. Disassembling is actually more effort than assembling. The problem with the other one is that it describes Clean Room re-engineering which is a way around copyright... but Bulgaria did not allow enforcement of international copyright on its territory until 1996, nor did any communist country in the 70s and 80s! So there was no point doing that, you could just steal the BIOS as-is. And if you have business partners that demand you buy their BIOS or they won't ship you something else that you need, then you can't weasel yourself out of that application via Cleanroom.
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@Bialy_1 You say "personal size computer" which is true and impressive but a little sneaky since it's a mini- not microcomputer, with the corresponding complexity. Still, it's a feisty thing and should have been manufactured and would have been immensely useful and given a good headstart. I just don't think Soviet Union had the money for that and didn't deem digital technology important enough (strategic mistake), and yeah Western companies wouldn't want to tie themselves down to stuff from behind Iron Curtain due to being afraid Soviets would forbid exports or sanctions would interfere with parts import to Poland, leaving the customers abandoned. Better to have something more expensive and slower than a surprise brick. Nobody gets fired for buying IBM. In a small configuration, its performance should be comparable to 6502 running at 3MHz. If you grow it with expansions to cabinet size, it wins on capability obviously.
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