beige rant (was Re: IBM 5150 with red case on ebay)

[Chuck Guzis]

On 05/16/2016 11:19 AM, Brent Hilpert wrote:

> I'm not a proponent either way, but I guess the difference is the
> panda/archistrat was 10 years earlier and breaking the monoscape of
> the beige boxes, while the Vento was following a 7-year-old trend
> initiated by the iMac.

It wasn't for want of trying.  Back in 1980, the company I worked for
investigated making a lower-priced system for more economical customers.
 Expandability would be limited, but we had to use existing parts.

What was proposed was to paint (the shells were all structural foam, so
even the "regular" stuff was painted) some triel systems various bright
colors, including red, orange, green and blue.  These were turned over
to marketing for customer reactions.

The dogs wouldn't eat it.  Same box as the beige and brown ones, just a
different color.  No one surveyed displayed any interest at all.  Some
actually hated the things.

That probably explains IBM's abandonment of custom colors for their
mainframes.

Don't blame the manufacturers.  I note that no one ever proposed a
bright yellow case.

Some made a point of the lack of color.  Witness the Rair "Black Box".

--Chuck