the stigmata of IBM feces

From: Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
Date: Fri Feb 4 19:09:32 2005

> > Why the stigma against IBM? Is the Model 5150 not "old" enough? Or is it
> > because that its grandchildren are still in use today? (This question isn't
> > directed squarely at you, but at everyone on this list who feels the same way --
> > again, not passing judgement, just trying to understand why (mostly) everyone
> > on this list seems to hate "peecees")
>
> I don't hate ibm feces (said name pun merely language-based; I'm
> typing on one now -- I proudly drive a nash can) "...children are
> in use today..." that's I think it, for me. Too familiar to bother
> with. Each hir own, ad nauseum.


As a hardware hacker ...

I dislike the PC because of all thr totally stupid design decisions in it
(many of which seem to have been done to save a $0.10 IC and cause
headaches for users (not just hackers) for evermore). It appears that if
there were 2 ways of doing something, they picked the wrong one.

And for the time it was a pretty uninspiring design. 3 rivers had
released their idea of the personal computer of the future (the PERQ 1,
complete with bitmapped display, 24M hard disk, etc) 2 years before the
IBM PC, which had a pretty poor display and a cassette port... Hmmm...

As regards larger IBMs, It appears that they were never properly
docuemented (outside IBM, that is), and are stuffed with custom silicon.
The thread on the AS400 confirms this view -- the fact that for the CISC
machiens even the native instruction set was not published. And of course
there werr not full schematics available.

Compare that to somethign like a VAX or a PSP11....

-tony
Received on Fri Feb 04 2005 - 19:09:32 GMT

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