XPost: alt.folklore.computers   
   From: ldo@nz.invalid   
      
   On Tue, 5 Aug 2025 21:01:20 -0000 (UTC), Thomas Koenig wrote:   
      
   > So... a strategy could have been to establish the concept with   
   > minicomputers, to make money (the VAX sold big) and then move   
   > aggressively towards microprocessors, trying the disruptive move towards   
   > workstations within the same company (which would be HARD).   
      
   None of the companies which tried to move in that direction were   
   successful. The mass micro market had much higher volumes and lower   
   margins, and those accustomed to lower-volume, higher-margin operation   
   simply couldn’t adapt.   
      
   > As for the PC - a scaled-down, cheap, compatible, multi-cycle per   
   > instruction microprocessor could have worked for that market,   
   > but it is entirely unclear to me what this would / could have done to   
   > the PC market, if IBM could have been prevented from gaining such market   
   > dominance.   
      
   IBM had massive marketing clout in the mainframe market. I think that was   
   the basis on which customers gravitated to their products. And remember,   
   the IBM PC was essentially a skunkworks project that totally went against   
   the entire IBM ethos. Internally, it was seen as a one-off mistake that   
   they determined never to repeat. Hence the PS/2 range.   
      
   DEC was bigger in the minicomputer market. If DEC could have offered an   
   open-standard machine, that could have offered serious competition to IBM.   
   But what OS would they have used? They were still dominated by Unix-haters   
   then.   
      
   > A bit like the /360 strategy, offering a wide range of machines (or CPUs   
   > and systems) with different performance.   
      
   That strategy was radical in 1964, less so by the 1970s and 1980s. DEC,   
   for example, offered entire ranges of machines in each of its various   
   minicomputer families.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)