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Jun. 18th, 2011 09:43 amApparently Robert X Cringly, one of those professional bloggers who occationally makes comments picked up by /. is claiming IBM didn't invent the Personal Computer.
The Altair 8080 (of wargames fame) was probably the first fairly affordable, mass produced personal computer. The Apple II Predated the IBM PC, and was one of the first affordable personal systems..
And the vikings found north america way before that uppety Spaniard.However, it STAYED discovered after that...and i can run software created for the original 8086 powered PC on a modern x86 system.
And really, that's IBM's legacy. While it wasn't their intention, IBM created the first 'open' standardised PC, which interchangeable components. Its cause of their design choices - interchangable parts and modularity that we have the 'pc' - the generic, and infinitely customizable boxen of so many different sizes, and yet, compatable with each other in so many ways.
We have commodity hardware, instead of various competing standards. You could go get a shiny little alienware system, or build an identical one about it.
Perhaps Ed Roberts invented the personal computer, and Woz and Jobs made the computer industry's model T Ford- but really the IBM PC is the spiritual, and in every real sense the true ancestor of almost every modern desktop and server system in use now - unless of course ARM gets headway .... but that's another rant
The Altair 8080 (of wargames fame) was probably the first fairly affordable, mass produced personal computer. The Apple II Predated the IBM PC, and was one of the first affordable personal systems..
And the vikings found north america way before that uppety Spaniard.However, it STAYED discovered after that...and i can run software created for the original 8086 powered PC on a modern x86 system.
And really, that's IBM's legacy. While it wasn't their intention, IBM created the first 'open' standardised PC, which interchangeable components. Its cause of their design choices - interchangable parts and modularity that we have the 'pc' - the generic, and infinitely customizable boxen of so many different sizes, and yet, compatable with each other in so many ways.
We have commodity hardware, instead of various competing standards. You could go get a shiny little alienware system, or build an identical one about it.
Perhaps Ed Roberts invented the personal computer, and Woz and Jobs made the computer industry's model T Ford- but really the IBM PC is the spiritual, and in every real sense the true ancestor of almost every modern desktop and server system in use now - unless of course ARM gets headway .... but that's another rant