9 Apr
2012
9 Apr
'12
12:35 p.m.
On Apr 9, 2012, at 3:06 PM, Keith Monahan wrote:
On 4/9/2012 2:29 PM, Cameron Kaiser wrote:
Agreed, but I doubt the personal computing landscape would have looked
anything like it did without him. Sometimes you need ruthless SOBs to
get things done. You couldn't have had an Apple without a Commodore to
compete with (that's sophistry, perhaps, but I still believe it).
That's a shame. His impact on computing is
frequently forgotten these
days.
It should probably be noted that Jack was a pretty ruthless business man
and made decisions that were contrary to a stable and reliable machine
and accessories. He was famous for demanding prototypes be available
for CES, accepting
orders for something that wasn't ready for mass production, and then
forcing the engineers to release a sub-standard product.
While not optimal, this got computers into people's hands who wouldn't
have been able to afford something better. It's always a pick-2 of
getting it done fast, cheap and right, no?
- Dave