One of the good things was in San Diego my favorite vendor could get spares from the Mexican factories without going through IBM at half price. They were at least “gray market”, but they were identical without the IBM packaging or labels.

You still needed an original for the ROMs, but the IBM pricing for parts was death for small shops. A number of shops would simply swap boards to fix the problems and work on the bad boards during down time, which is pretty much how we used to repair minicomputers – swap boards until it worked, and send the used boards back to a depot.

The basis for the PC was in fact an attempt by IBM to get into the cash register business (again). The story goes that NCR discovered IBM’s project and immediately released a new advanced and cheaper electronic cash register. IBM decided it would be pointless wasting any further funds on the project and dumped the components they had already produced into storage for some future fate to be determined. Someone discovered this and thought that with a few other parts (mostly from other abandoned projects) and some kind of OS, they could be converted into some kind of personal computer. IBM said that would be foolish as nobody would have a use for such a thing. LOL However, the case was made that it would make a lovely gift to their corporate clients as a kind of amusement, and they could get rid of a lot of junk in the process. You know about the fateful story of the OS of course! *sigh* That was a very sad day for the World!

The original intention, I was told, was that there were enough parts to build several hundred machines. People got wind of it and started to petition IBM to sell them one. A group at IBM decided to test the waters and produce 10,000 machines. After that, IBM could barely keep up with the demand even at the high price of the units! LOL

That’s why the motherboard was so obviously patchwork. It was a prototype for the new electronic cash register. When they decided to produce more, they were copied as was, down to the patch wires. 🙂

And you are correct. It triggered a LOT of infighting at IBM!

I remember selling a basic XT in the early 80’s with no screen and 1 FDD for around AU$4k!

If you look at an original 64K motherboard you’ll see the palm tree trademark of the company that actually designed and built it.

The 5100 was a real IBM desktop but was too expensive, so they went cheap with the 5150 and were ready to flush the whole thing if it didn’t sell.

The “Boca boys” really ticked off their IBM brethren by rejecting IBM components from other divisions as too expensive, and made the entire system unbelievably open from an IBM standpoint. It was almost a hobby project, from the corporate stand-point.

They tried to reenter the IBM fold with the AT, including designing in the IBM only 128K memory chips, but then they found out that piggy-backed 64K chips would work and were cheaper. That motherboard is a spider-web of jumpers and patches if you look at the underside, because it was rushed to market.

IBM stood ready to pull the plug at any time and blame the fiasco on Estridge.

That’s what they were saying in SoCal. The best things about them were the cases, binders for the documentation, and the monochrome monitors.

I was dealing with IBM at the time and heard the story from an Engineer who worked on the project over dinner and drinks. He was rather annoyed with IBM. LOL

i am so happy i did.

In those days the first commandment was: “No one has ever been fired for selecting IBM” and that has evolved [or been intelligently designed] to now mean “No one has ever been fired for selecting Microsoft.”

Inertia is a major PITA, but it exists in all large organizations.

Before I got too ill to work, I was an engineering & IT consultant. A LOT of engineering firms still use DOS and even Windows 3.11. Seriously! Most Mining companies would shoot anyone who suggests they move from DOS! Also, A lot of Pharmacies also use Windows 3.11. Because the software they use is very specialized and does exactly what they need on very low cost computer systems on very old OS’s. They don’t care if M$ supports them, it’s dead easy to find a DOS /3.11 guru. I did an update a few years ago for a large Pharmacy group, and I never heard a peep for support from them since. It just works. Compared to organizations I worked with that migrated to XP which generally kept me insanely busy for months! In one case for a very large Retailer here, they were forced to upgrade in October ’02 and their Payroll system (for thousands of employees Nationally) had to be completely rewritten! It refused to run under XP (or 2000 etc). It was a 24/7 job and was finished 2 days before the Christmas payroll and bonuses were due. In the meantime, we ran it on a small 3.11 network and manually transferred the data. Because of the issues they had migrating to XP, there is no way in hell they will move to Vista (and I have been told that by IT people I know in those companies).

I honestly do not understand how M$ got so *popular* given that many organizations I worked with considers them a nuisance at best.

I make my sometimes pathetic living with a computer, Lady Min, and am subject to the whim of clients, but so far they are all avoiding Vista like the plague. Only one of them tried it and went back to XP almost immediately because one of the pieces of equipment that they need won’t work with it. As that piece costs in the 6 figure range, I don’t see them upgrading it any time soon.

That’s the real point, isn’t it, Steve – XP is “good enough” as Jerry Pournelle says.