On August 12, 1981, was born the machine that would shake the very core of computing
On August 12, 1981, was born the machine that would shake the very core of computing
Every day, several new products are introduced by the IT industry. Many of them die a quiet death, while some of them live for a brief while before becoming obsolete. In this context, one might ask why should one remember the original IBM PC, the ancestor of the computer that sits on your desk today?
We know that you will laugh if we just said that it has to do primarily with the keyboard and the reference manual but read on, and you will find this is being said verily in truth.
Cool manual
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The man and his machine: Philip Donald Estridge, the father of the IBM PC, with his brainchild pic/ibm.com |
One of the greatest things about the IBM PC was the open architecture. Today, this word is widely used, but the IBM PC perhaps defined this word. While IBM had usually made all the components itself, with the IBM PC, it decided to use off-the-shelf components and encourage third-party manufacturers to make peripherals without licences.
In fact, IBM went so far as to sell the IBM PC Technical Reference Manual, which gave complete details about the circuit schematics, the ROM BIOS source code, and other technical data. In some ways, this purple binder for that was its colour did more for promoting the IBM PC architecture than anything else.
This was because, in those days, no vendor ever gave out any details of his product. But IBM decided to buck this trend, and this is what led to the rise of IBM PC compatibles and today, if you have a PC made by other companies like Dell, HP and Sony to mention just a few, you have this humble purple binder to thank.
In fact, the venerated Jargon File says that the original IBM PC Technical Reference Manual was the only PC documentation in the original-issue package that was considered serious by real hackers.
User comfort
Today, many companies go out of their way to make their products both hardware and software usable, but IBM is perhaps one of the pioneers in this field and this is best reflected in their keyboards.
No, we are not referring to the lightweight excuses for keyboards that most vendors dole out with their PCs today. The IBM PC came with a great keyboard, a keyboard that allowed you to feel the words getting formed under your fingertips. So good was this keyboard that Byte Magazine in 1981 actually said that the keyboard was 50 per cent of the reason why you should buy an IBM PC.
So now you know.
QUICK TAKE>>The IBM PC revolutionised computing
>>Much of it is thanks to the open architecture
>>The product also had a great keyboard
If they made wine...Both Apple and IBM took radically different approaches to building their systems. While IBM allowed anybody to create their own systems, Apple was more rigid and frowned upon the concept of anybody other than Apple building an Apple computer. This makes us wonder what would happen if they made wine. With IBM, the answer is simple IBM wine would be open source, the recipe for making it would be displayed on the label, and anybody can sell IBM-compatible wine. With Apple, these restrictions might apply:
>>Only Apple makes Apple Wine. Period.
>>You can only drink Apple Wine from the Apple Glass. Usage of third-party glasses is forbidden.
>>Before using the Apple Glass, you need to use the Apple Wing Corkscrew to open the bottle. Use of a third-party corkscrew opener is not permitted.
>>The Apple Glass mentioned above comes with an Apple Coaster. Usage of the Apple Glass with any other coaster is a breach of the End User Licence Agreement agreed upon between Apple and the user when the Apple Glass was purchased.
>>You will not be permitted to sniff the wine and appreciate its rich fragrance because Apple will fear that you are trying to reverse engineer the wine.
>>You can consume stuff like chips and other assorted side items, but you have to only purchase them from the Apple Wine Store. Only Apple can decide what to put in the Apple Wine Store because only Apple knows what is good for its users.
>>Music is encouraged while consuming Apple Wine, but you can only play music from an Apple iPod.
