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From: bj@well.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.m68k,comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Minor historical point: the origin of ms-dos
Message-ID: <2520@well.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 2-Feb-87 00:09:42 EST
Article-I.D.: well.2520
Posted: Mon Feb  2 00:09:42 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 3-Feb-87 02:58:00 EST
References: <8520@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> <1270@cbmvax.cbmvax.cbm.UUCP> <1486@rayss
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db.RAY.COM> <5428@amdahl.UUCP> <1341@kontron.UUCP>
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Reply-To: bj@well.UUCP (Jim Becker)
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In article <1341@kontron.UUCP> cramer@kontron.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) writes:
>> In article <1486@rayssdb.RAY.COM>, rxb@rayssdb.RAY.COM (Richard A. Brooks)
>> writes:
>> >                                                          (could any-
>> >  thing with the IBM name flop??)
>> 
>> This is a joke, right?
>> 
>> Things with the IBM name flop all the time. Look at the PC Portable (IBM's
>> answer to Compaq) or the PC Jr (who could forget that?).
>> 
>> And don't forget about the 8100.
>> -- 
>> John A. Muth           ...!{ihnp4,hplabs,sun,nsc}!amdahl!muth
>
>And the 4" microfloppy standard that IBM adopted -- then quietly dropped
>when everyone adopted the Sony 3.5" microfloppy standard.
>
>IBM is NOT 10' tall -- their success is at least partly the quality of
>their manufactured products and documentation.  If they were a small
>company producing what they have produced, they would become a big company 
>eventually.
>
>Clayton E. Cramer


The success of IBM is not particuarily due to their products, from a 
HISTORICAL viewpoint. The success of IBM has to do with their abilities in
those avenues that attract the customer, marketing - sales - customer support.

If you look at the philosophy of the company from day one and what they have
done over the years you will realize that they are not the innovators but
they provide the support for their products. You also notice that Apple has
taken up this role as a second to IBM. They are supporting their products
and developers and customers and dealers. There are a lot of Apples 
everywhere. I am currently reading the book "The Home Computer Wars", about
Commodore and Jack Tramiel. Commodore does not have this approach to the
world. They are out there to sell numbers for cheap cost, dealer support and
enduser support are not part of it. 

If you are developing for the Amiga assume that there will be little 
support at getting the computer marketed. You are going to have to do it
on your own. Commodore has always been in this mode since Jack Tramiel
started the company and you should be aware of it. I personally love the
Amiga and have written a lot of code to utilize it, being the author of
the InfoMinder product. But you should understand that you are fighting 
every inch of the way creating products for this great computer, Commodore
has historically not been supportative in the things that make a company
last for the long run, good marketing and SUPPORT OF CUSTOMERS. There are
seven million C64's out there but I bet that there are more Apple IIs being
used day in and out, the Commodores are in the closets - like the Atari 2600s.

Enough said, I hope that this raises the level of discussion on this topic
to a higher level and provokes a lot of flames and hate mail. I think that
a lot of you are assuming a lot about the acceptance of the Amiga in using
it as a comsumer good. If you are vertically integrating it you are ok but
the lowly (!) developer creating products for this machine should understand
the field. This is the view from my terminal, what is yours ???

-Jim Becker[A
-Jim Becker
Terrapin Software