Quite right, my first computer was a 600XL, because I had seen my uncle struggling with his C64 and ultra-slow floppy disk drives. I wouldn't call the Atari 8-bit series a flop though, it was rather succesfull in Europe, although not as succesfull as the C64.
A well, history shows that the "better" system always looses:
VHS-Beta & V2000
C64-Atari 8-bit
Windows-Mac
I've learned so much about computers from that first 8-bitter.... I still have a 130XE and a PAL 800(those are RARE !).
However, ZakMcKrakken was on the ST, not on the 8-bit series...