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IBM Turns 100
adeelarshad82 writes "On this day in 1911, IBM started as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (C-T-R). It wasn't until 1924 that the company changed their name to IBM. Needless to say that a 100-year milestone is quite the feat. While some of us might know IBM for its recent "Jeopardy"-playing Watson computer, a look back shows that IBM has a long history of innovation, from cheese slicers (yes, really) and the tech behind Social Security to the UPC bar code and the floppy disk. One of the most notable leaps of faith IBM took was in 1964 with the introduction of System/360, a family of computers that started the era of computer compatibility. To date the company has invested nearly $30 billion in technology."
A fantastic achievement, Here's to the next 100 years.
Hope is the currency of fools
Hitler used IBM punchcard systems purchased in the 30's to facilitate the Holocaust. Of course, if IBM hadn't sold them the punchcard machines, the Holocaust would never have happened.
Next up, we'll tackle Boeing's complicity in 9/11.
Computers in the 1930s weren't the general purpose machines we have today. You didn't just buy a computer, bring it home, and plug it in. There was no off-the-shelf software. Computers came with a team of IBM engineers in white lab coats.
If Boeing's engineers had been in the cockpit on 9/11 and had been paid to fly in to buildings, then Boeing would be as complicit in 9/11 as IBM is in the Holocaust.
And no one is saying it would not have happened without IBM. But that does not diminish IBM's role.
and then there are the ways that the subsidiaries, after the war, were brought back into the fold of IBM, along with all the profits they had reaped from their wartime experiences, which were meticulously recorded
You're right - IBM should have forced those subsidiaries out of business for their complicity in the German war machine. In fact, all companies in Germany that helped out the Nazi regime should have been closed down. All those horrible people should have been forced into bread lines for their crimes.
I mean, that's basically what they did after WWI, and it seemed to work out pretty well.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
'There is a reason...' is something of a historical mess of a sentence. At the release of 8088-based IBM computers, one could still buy Apples (6502, not macs), trs-80's, commodore systems, atari, several 8080 and z80 systems/OS's (mostly CP/M), international alternatives (Acorns, Sinclairs), and niche business systems (wasn't OS-9 out by this time?). Apologies to fellow oldsters for not digging up a comprehensive list or missing your pet system -- many more existed when the IBM PC was released.
Skip ahead a few years, and there were newer commodores, apples, ataris, other brands and various Radio Shack schlockery. There'd also been all sorts of changes on OS's, all sorts of changes under the hood. By then, there was a burgeoning PC-compatible market... and it was beginning to be clear that 'PC-compatible' was going to dominate the future. But the category didn't exist initially, and pretending that it was ever an apple/ibm/microsoft triumvirate is just silly.
Having said that, around this time (1977-1985) nobody seriously considered IBM innovative. Their dominant strength was in delivering stodgy b-side computational function that companies could rationalize buying. Any innovation seen pc-side sprang to life as a 3rd-party product. After a few years, IBM might deign to make their own version.
During their existence, Apple deservedly gets credit for innovation, even if part of their genius has been recognizing underappreciated good ideas and pushing them (xerox parc, etc.).
Through all of this, many other companies should get credit for innovation in networks, printing, software (visicalc, sidekick, turbo * compilers), modems, displays, input, storage, etc.