Re: Apple and the Holy War

["Chippy" <chippys@earthlink.net>]

It ran even deeper than that. Back in those days of mainframe glory IS 
managers had enough problems keeping the mainframes going. VLSI technology
was still about a year from market and mainframe systems had a tendency to
fail under stress. In 1979 and 1980 we were mildy amused by
"micro-computers" which were nothing compared to the "big iron". By the end
of 1980 we were talking about bringing "desktop" computers on board because
the accounting managers wanted the spread sheet capabilities. We recomended
Apple II's but the mentality was "If IBM makes a personal computer, then
we'll buy IBM personal computers."  You have to understand that when a
component fails and all your components are IBM, you know immediately who to
call. A lot of IS managers bonuses were tied directly to "up time". Downtime
had to be minimized at all costs. That was the IS manager mentality we dealt
with, that is why "The IBM Personal Computer" sold so well. The IBM logo
legitimized the PC as a business machine. We didn't find out until later
that they and Microsoft were "less-than-professional". IBM mainframe field
engineers used to laugh when they'd talk about the new "KOM-POOTERZ" IBM was
going to sell. It seemed to be an inside joke and most techs that I dealt
with from IBM at the time felt PC's were just a fad, like quadraphonic
sound. We are stuck with that legacy because harried IS management thought
only Big Blue could make "real" computers. Oh, well, we got stuck with VHS
too ;o)

--
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Eric  <chippys@earthlink.net>


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In article <390CA645.4CE5@houston.rr.com>, Robert Boucher
<rboucher@houston.rr.com> wrote:


>  When Purchasing asked IS for a
> recommendation, they only computer IS knew was Big Blue (main frame).