Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!dsinc!bagate!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: NeXT/Amiga Flamage: Get a life.
Message-ID: <20915@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 24 Apr 91 15:42:05 GMT
References: <6hdG18ik1@cs.psu.edu> <1748@sjfc.UUCP> <20875@cbmvax.commodore.com> <1991Apr23.201029.9844@wpi.WPI.EDU>
Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 55

In article <1991Apr23.201029.9844@wpi.WPI.EDU> jdutka@wpi.WPI.EDU (John Dutka) writes:
>In article <20875@cbmvax.commodore.com> daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) writes:
>>IBM PC, or the eventual clones, were worth of business computing.  Any other
>>system would be written off as a game machine, or a computer for hippies, or
>>a hacker's machine, etc.

>Much clearer now :)
>So how can the 80486 be explained?  I can't wait (grin)

Well, realize of course that's Intel, not IBM.  Intel has been riding high on
the hog all this time, since via IBM's powers, they could turn out total drek
for the longest time and still charge many times the actual cost of such toys, 
reaping obscene profits.  However, both IBM and Intel started losing control
of the personal computer market in the later 80's.  Even though the publicity
campaign and the crippled PC and clones did wonders in holding back the 
personal computer market, it didn't stop it.  And IBM failed in their attempt
to build a crippled workstation.  Well, actually, they succeeded in building
a crippled workstation, the PC-RT, but failed to trick anyone into 
standardizing on it as they did the PC.  So the heat from both personal systems
and workstations was increasing.  This didn't phase IBM all that much, but 
Intel saw the end of their joy ride looming big on the horizon.  The first 
sign of this was the 80386 chip.  Although they sold it for 10x its expected
silicon value, they had to make it reasonable to compete with 680x0 machines,
rather than extremely crippled as was the 80286.  IBM delayed a long time in
building a '386 machine, since that was too powerful for their plans, but the
rest of the industry, not subject to IBM's adjenda, went ahead anyway.  Intel,
faced not only with competition from RISC machines at the top and 680x0s in
the competing industry, got a taste of real competition within the PClone
market itself, when AMD whipped out a '286 that went faster than theirs.  At
this point, Intel decided to totally bag the IBM adjenda, and grab up cash
while the grabbing was good.  Out of this came the crippled '386SX, to
compete with AMD, and the '486, to compete with the other, faster CPUs.  They
crippled the '486 somewhat so that it would still run MS-DOS ok, but they
figured it would still be awhile before everyone chucked MS-DOS, because they
knew that the masses aren't all that clever.  After all, how else would you
explain Economy Cars.

IBM didn't stop the personal computer revolution, anymore that one guy dragging
his feet would stop a truck rolling downhill.  But IBM had big feet, and they
definitely slowed things down.  Using disinformation techniques they borrowed 
from the Bavarian Illuminati, they continue to covertly discourage the use of
non-IBM compatible systems.  After all, it has not really been that long since
they lost control of the Clone market.  After all this time, their nearest
competitor, Apple, is still trying to make the five million mark.  You see 
major computer magazines occasionally mention a few too many non-Clones, only
to mysteriously snap back to Clones-only coverage without so much as a word.
These boys are big and powerful, and they don't take defeat lightly.

>| John Dutka, Jr.      |     -Mechanical Engineers On The Prowl              |


-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: hazy     BIX: hazy
      "That's me in the corner, that's me in the spotlight" -R.E.M.