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Quotes that led to Blunders

Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2005 11:17 am
by anjanesh
IBM's Chairman T.J. Watson's 1945 explanation of why IBM was not getting into the computer business :
"Four or Five computers should be enough for the entire world until the year 2000".
In 1977, Ken Olsen was president of Digital Equipment Corporation, then the number two computer vendor in the world (after IBM). When asked why Digital was not going after the personal computer market in a big way, he said :
"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home".
History showed otherwise and Digital no longer exists.

Source : Computer Networks by Andrew S. Tanenbaum

Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2005 11:29 am
by feyd
sorry.. DEC is still around, granted as part of Compaq, a lot of their developed technologies are making their way into personal computers.

...and I don't think IBM has ever been hurting, considering the number of technology patents they own.


realisticly, it would have been very difficult to imagine the explosion that computers and technology has had 10 years ago, let alone more than 50 years ago.

Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2005 12:37 pm
by timvw
Funny, because i've been reading that Tanenbaum book this week too (although i got the Dutch version).

The man himself has made some nice quotes in the well-known discussion with Linus on comp.os.minix


Then again, i think we all the funny stuff Bill has spread :p

Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 10:02 pm
by evilmonkey
feyd wrote:sorry.. DEC is still around, granted as part of Compaq, a lot of their developed technologies are making their way into personal computers.
...And compaq is now (and has long been) a part of Hewlett-Packard....