For me it was all about OS-9 at the end

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS-9

which had a decent C compiler at the very least. I was checking out everything I could about Unix from the public library and creating my own version of as many Unix tools as I could. In terms of OS, the Coco 3 was head and shoulders over anything else you could get up to that point. It even had a windowing system that was a lot like Plan 9.

At some point though I was frustrated with there not being a lot of software for it and I did a data processing job for my Uncle Bob that paid for a new 286 machine although if I knew how much value it made for him I should have asked enough for a 386. The 286 was a massive step up in performance -- in high school I developed a CP/M program for a teacher using a Z80 emulator that was 3x faster than any Z80 could you buy!