8 May
2009
8 May
'09
5:26 p.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Friday, May 08, 2009 6:20 PM
Subject: Re: The IBM (I've Been Mulling) PC
On 8 May 2009 at 15:47, Teo Zenios wrote:
Lotus was in a steep decline before IBM purchased them having lost the
office desktop wars at the time. A shame realy since I liked Lotus Ami Pro
for Windows 3.1 quite a bit (which I think they purchased from somebody
else?). I have a boxed Copy of Lotus Suite 3.0 for Win 3.x and someday I
might find the OS/2 native version.
I am sure somebody would have coded Lotus to some
other desktop x86
type PC and it would have taken off. The Apple II took off just
because of visivcalc. I view the apps as being more important then the
hardware. The IBM PC became a huge hit because it was an open
architecture and it had IBM backing, the clones just made it more
universal with companies having the expensive IBM and Compaq machines
and home users had the lesser clones. I don't think the PC explosion
would have come about without the clones.
The curious thing is that IBM was extremely weak when it came to PC
software (just look how Lotus' fortunes have slid since they were
acquired by IBM). What IBM-developed PC software helped the PC
accumulate market share? Topview? OS/2? I imagine that if IBM had
acquired Microsoft, we'd all be running some flavor of Unix now.
Maybe not a bad thing...
--Chuck