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IBM Hardware

IBM Puts PC Business Up for Sale 527

Posted by michael from the end-of-an-era dept.
valdean writes "When I was growing up (in the 80s), there were two kinds of computers that my friends (or, more specifically, our parents) had at home: Apple and the IBM-Compatible. IBM defined the PC at that time, and deserves a large share of credit for taking the PC out of the hobby shop and into the mainstream. Now it looks like IBM is getting out of the PC business altogether. CBS Marketwatch has another report."
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IBM Puts PC Business Up for Sale More

IBM Puts PC Business Up for Sale

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  • OMGWTFBBQ! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 03, 2004 @09:55AM (#10985298)
    You have to be kidding me. They would be fools to sell off the Thinkpad line! Go ahead, get rid of your desktop systems line, but *please* IBM keep your Thinkpad business. These (and the Apple Powerbooks) are the best laptops on the market today, and well worth a premium price. I've owned 5 different Thinkpads over the years, from the 701C "Butterfly keyboard" model up through the T and X series. Every one of them still works perfectly.

    If they sell the Thinkpad business to some company in China the future designs are likely to be less inventive, unique, and reliable than the current generation. I guess I'll have to buy Toshiba instead.

    • Re:OMGWTFBBQ! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Savage-Rabbit ( 308260 ) on Friday December 03, 2004 @10:01AM (#10985342)
      I guess I'll have to buy Toshiba instead.

      I'd advise against it. I had a Toshiba laptop once and it broke down more often than all my other laptops combined. The powerconnector went, the floppy disk and the display. The one good thing about Toshiba is the exellent global service, they actually don't give you lip when you try to cache in on the international warranty and the techsupport isn't bad either. On the other hand, good as the service was, having the thing in the shop half the time sucked.
      • Could just be bad luck. My parents always had toshiba laptops and they never had any problems with them at all.

        Greetings,

      • Re:OMGWTFBBQ! (Score:2, Insightful)

        by EnglishSteve ( 834757 )
        I think you can have a bad experience with a laptop from any manufacturer - in the same way that even premium automakers still make the odd lemon. I've always had good experiences with Toshiba laptops, but the Dell ones that my work purchasing dept insists on buying? Yech.

      • Re:OMGWTFBBQ! (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Jucius Maximus ( 229128 )
        I've never experienced that. Toshiba has been used in my family for years with nary a problem. The most problematic ones were NEC and Dell. We've had the best experienes with IBM, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Compaq and Apple.
      • Yeah, my Toshiba laptop is junk too. I've gone through two CDRW drives in less than a year. My current one is bound to be replaced soon, as it only "occasionally" works...
      • Well, aside from the OS (win 98se), its quality!

        Thats not to say that I didn't have to use the warranty; when I DROPPED the laptop and the 802.11b pcmcia card sticking out screwed up the pcmcia port, thats no-ones fault but mine. The rest of the laptop worked fine.

        And yes- Toshiba support was great and FAST.

        I've had it for 5 years and the only problem is the windows running on it.

      • Re:OMGWTFBBQ! (Score:5, Insightful)

        by tekunokurato ( 531385 ) <jackphelps@gmail.com> on Friday December 03, 2004 @11:11AM (#10986163) Homepage
        And I've got one that's six years old and works great.

        We can judge by this anecdotal evidence that 50% of toshibas suck and 50% are great.

        Also that you don't understand statistics.

    • Re:OMGWTFBBQ! (Score:2, Interesting)

      by tez_h ( 263659 )
      I agree to this wholeheartedly. I was just eyeing up a t42 the other day. Will they go out of business before I can save a little extra cash for one? Maybe it'll be cheaper *after* they sell out. Hmm.

      -Tez

    • Re:OMGWTFBBQ! (Score:3, Interesting)

      by swordboy ( 472941 )
      They would be fools to sell off the Thinkpad line!

      Actually, maybe not so much. They are quite a bit more expensive and, if you've ever worked in a large corporation, will notice that they're not so popular anymore. Rather, they are popular with the users (largely because of the commercials [ibm.com] (click film strips at top of screen). I was given a Dell D600 this time around the lease replacement merry-go-round and, it is garbage compared to a Thinkpad. But it was oodles cheaper even with the extra battery an

      • Re:OMGWTFBBQ! (Score:3, Insightful)

        by fhammond ( 126717 )
        Actually, for a large company, the price difference is not great (perhaps $50). IBM discounts heavily for large - or influential - accounts.
      • I've only ever had Dells in our company. We have never been able to justify the price premium that comes along with IBMs, so I have never tried one. Considering my new Dell D600 is just about to arrive, I am curious what it is about the Dell that is so bad (or Thinkpad that is so great) that makes you call the D600 garbage.

    • Different experience w/ ThinkPads (Score:5, Insightful)

      by sczimme ( 603413 ) on Friday December 03, 2004 @10:15AM (#10985487)

      *please* IBM keep your Thinkpad business. These (and the Apple Powerbooks) are the best laptops on the market today, and well worth a premium price. I've owned 5 different Thinkpads over the years, from the 701C "Butterfly keyboard" model up through the T and X series. Every one of them still works perfectly.

      I like ThinkPads very much: the TP600 has the best keyboard I have ever used on a portable machine. However, the longevity of my ThinkPads has not been as good:

      - the CMOS battery died prematurely in the TP600; now it defaults to the external display on boot and must be reconfigured manually each time it is powered up

      - the onboard NIC in the T20 appears to have died and taken part of the PCI bus with it. Three current Linux distributions (MDK10, Knoppix 3.5, RH Enterprise) hang at /sbin/loader, and XP hangs at checking devices (or whatever the wording is). As an added bonus, there is no option in the BIOS to disable the onboard NIC. (Yes, I could open it up and really disable it but that shouldn't be necessary.)

      • Re:Different experience w/ ThinkPads (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Otter ( 3800 ) on Friday December 03, 2004 @10:41AM (#10985764) Journal
        I have a work-issued T40 (and a TiBook for comparison) and was startled to learn that this slow, clumsy boat anchor is apparently highly regarded in the laptop world. If this is the best the PC side has to offer, Apple laptops are apparently even more competitively priced than I'd realized.
        • It's funny: when people ask me what type of notebook to buy, I tell them to buy a Thinkpad. I tell them that there is only one notebook better, but it's an Apple Powerbook! :)

          Oddly enough, I've been telling people that for years, but in the last year, people have been taking me seriously. They've been asking if they should buy a Macintosh. And for home, I've actually been telling them to seriously consider it... OS X really has changed the rules.

    • Re:OMGWTFBBQ! (Score:2, Informative)

      by brunogirin ( 783691 )
      I totally agree. All the laptops we have in our office are IBM Thinkpads (I am actually writing this on a T41) and they just run. I have used mine on planes, trains, cars, boats, even the London underground and I never had a problem with it. Compare this to my flatmate's Asus laptop that virtually never moved from the living room and had its DVD drive playing up after 2 months and finaly died after 2 years and 3 days (that's 3 days after the warranty expired). The premium price is well worth it. Now if IBM

    • Re:OMGWTFBBQ! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by eyepeepackets ( 33477 ) on Friday December 03, 2004 @10:26AM (#10985590)
      I suspect IBM is bailing out at just the right time and, of course, they're the ones to know when to go. Indeed, who would know better than they?

      That IBM is doing this should make your ears perk, your eyes focus and your wits sharpen: It's soon to be sea-change time in the PC world and IBM doesn't want to be holding old technology which has an obvious and rapidly approaching date with history.

      Remember that IBM targets and markets primarily to business customers, they don't much care about Jack and Jill consumer beyond how they perceive IBM in general, hence the big image advertising budget.

      Should prove to be a very interesting next five years.

      Ciao.

    • Think.... Pad. (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Genady ( 27988 )
      Okay so the subject is semi-lame. BUT.... here's a cool what if. What if a company committed to the high-standards of the Thinkpad line snaggs that part of the business? People are willing to pay the Apple Tax for quality, would they be willing to pay the Thinkpad tax? I think maybe there's a future for the Thinkpad in a niche market just like the Apples.
    • I agree completely. As far as non-Apple laptops go, I've always known that I could trust IBM Thinkpads to be of excellent quality. Yes, they're more expensive, but IMO, absolutely worth it to know you have a computer that will last a long time and not break down.

      Admittedly, other companies have improved their laptop offerings to nearly the same level. The Dell Latitude is solid, without too many problems, and Toshiba laptops have progressed leaps and bounds in the last four years. Perhaps the performance g
    • So true. I bought me a laptop last year and decided to go for a second-hand Thinkpad T20 with a P3/750MHz, despite the fact that with the same money, I could've gotten some new laptop with a faster CPU and a bigger screen. However, the ones I looked at in the computer store felt really flimsy and plasticy compared to the sturdy titanium-reinforced IBM. The decision wasn't that difficult and I've been quite satisfied with my T20. which hasn't been giving me any problems whatsoever.

      Oh yeah, and those touchpa

    • You'd be amazed at the number of people, particularly over 50, who'll only buy IBM PCs. I'm talking about people who'll still buy IBM even if they're $500 more than the exact same PC or laptop without the IBM badge.

      Actually most of the 1st tier venders sub-contract their laptop manufacturing to firms like Twinhead, Quanta, Compal, Mitac, Arima, Inventec & Vecta in Taiwan & often these firms will sell exactly the same laptops out the backdoor with generic branding, & I wouldn't be surprised if I

  • Who would have guessed... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by superdifficult ( 720702 ) on Friday December 03, 2004 @09:56AM (#10985301) Homepage
    ...that IBM would end up making Apple's processor.
    • I would've thrown it out there as a possibility, oh, 12 or 13 years ago.

      (hint: there's a reason why the AIM alliance was formed)

    • Or that Microsoft would end up making their OS, for that matter.

      When it comes right down to it, they probably figured they had two choices: quit, as the difference between them and their competitors was no longer worth the effort; or make desktops with PPC chips running their own optimized version of Linux. They must have figured that an IBM branded desktop with an IBM PPC would be too difficult to gain market penetration, esp since now OS X resembles linux in many ways. Can't say I agree; I would've

  • Who Will Buy It? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by keeleysam ( 792221 ) on Friday December 03, 2004 @09:57AM (#10985308) Homepage Journal
    The reason people buy Thinkpads are because they are IBM thinkpads. So, lets say Dell buys the business, we get "Dell Thinkpad"... Does that sould stupid to anyone other than me?

    • IBM's motto or slogan or whatever was "Think" (Score:5, Informative)

      by HWheel ( 444926 ) on Friday December 03, 2004 @10:37AM (#10985700)
      Throughout the 60's and 70's, IBM was famous for their "Think" motto. Apparently that's missed by a lot of youngsters today, but that's why they're called "ThinkPads," I believe.

    • Re:Who Will Buy It? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Alomex ( 148003 ) on Friday December 03, 2004 @10:51AM (#10985901) Homepage
      Not true. I bought a Dell latitude without thinking twice about the name. It sucked. The next laptop I bought was an IBM since all my friends spoke highly of them. Mine is rugged and has worked like a charm for three years. I'll continue to buy thinkpads so long as the quality is there, which I doubt it will if the business is sold to a low cost Chinese company, as the article claims it might.

      This has nothing to do with the name.

      • This is no mere "low cost Chinese company". This is Legend, one of the largest manufacturers of PCs in the world. Do you seriously think that Chinese companies can't make products as good as those made by IBM in America?

        Open your beloved Thinkpad. Check out where the components are made. Do you still think Chinese can't make quality products?

        Seriously, enough with that "China = low quality" already.
        • Open your beloved Thinkpad. Check out where the components are made.

          Korea and Taiwan, mostly. Only the new battery I just bought comes from Chine.

          Do you still think Chinese can't make quality products?

          I did not say such a thing. My contention is that a low cost Chinese company likely won't focus on quality as much as IBM does.

  • what about the thinkpad? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by CheechBG ( 247105 ) * on Friday December 03, 2004 @09:58AM (#10985319) Homepage
    I understand they are getting out of the biz, but I really hope they sell or license the IP for the Thinkpad, those are some quality built machines.

  • Interesting idea (Score:5, Insightful)

    by transformer_dp ( 725430 ) on Friday December 03, 2004 @10:01AM (#10985343)
    This is interesting only for the fact that it would allow IBM to further distance itself from Microsoft and Intel. There is no doubt in my mind the big-wigs at IBM are really annoyed their predecessors got punked by Redmond. If they're successful in selling the unit, it would be interesting to see if they would begin migrating their server product lines away from Microsoft as well. There is already much publicized talk about IBM corporate going from Microsoft OS's to linux, perhaps this is just a step away from license dependent products. It isn't as though IBM needs the revenue from the PC business.

    • Re:Interesting idea (Score:3, Insightful)

      by yog ( 19073 )
      it would allow IBM to further distance itself from Microsoft and Intel.

      I don't quite follow your logic here. The manufacturer has the most control over the product. If IBM wanted to, they could manufacture desktops and laptops that conformed closely to Linux specifications and the heck with what Microsoft wants. They could make Linux their internal corporate standard, roll it out to 100,000 workers, and promote it heavily to their partners. This might cost them a couple billion dollars but that's a
    • Microsoft and Intel

      MS is in the OS business -- not the OEM building computer business -- and Intel is in the chipmaking business -- not the OEM business. Thinkpads only ship with MS operating systems and Intel chips. That means IBM's OEM business doesn't infringe on either MS or Intel's business; the OEM business competes with Dell, HP, etc.

      By ending the OEM to focus on other things -- like PowerPC and Cell chips or Linux -- IBM is getting closer to direct competition with MS and Intel, not further away.

    • Re:Interesting idea (Score:3, Insightful)

      by iBod ( 534920 )

      There is no doubt in my mind the big-wigs at IBM are really annoyed their predecessors got punked by Redmond.

      I really doubt that.

      Being "really annoyed" about something that happened in the (relatively) distant past, and allowing that to influence your strategic business planning is not a professional attitude.

      In my experience, IBM execs are (in the main) sharp, and nothing if not professional.

      If they are moving out of the desk/laptop hardware market then there's a good reason for it - i.e. it doesn't

  • Makes sense (Score:5, Informative)

    by magefile ( 776388 ) on Friday December 03, 2004 @10:01AM (#10985345)
    They're not good at it anymore - desktop-wise, at least. You can get a superior computer from Dell/Compaq/etc, and it'll be cheaper, even after the 5% employee discount (from personal experience).

    • Re:Makes sense (Score:3, Informative)

      by codeguy007 ( 179016 )
      Yeah I don't think you can consider Dell Desktops to be superior to anything. Sure some models are alright but their bottom line stuff is complete crap.

      BTW IBM hasn't made their own desktops for years, they just brand them. Like most of HP's products now. (Hmm I wonder if HP makes desktops anymore. They don't make scanners, CD/DVD Burners, Not many printers)
      • Yeah, Dell is mostly crap, but by "superior" I mean, "a machine that will run the latest games".
        • but by "superior" I mean, "a machine that will run the latest games".

          Slowly. Man if you want to play games, you don't buy from major OEMs. You either build your own or buy from a smaller manufacturer like Alienware that specializes in gaming.
    • My company uses mainly IBM desktops and think pads. We love them they just keep working and working and do not cause problems. I guess they may not be the fastest or the cheapest but for trouble free you can not beat them.

  • Oh, no! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Theseus192 ( 787156 ) on Friday December 03, 2004 @10:03AM (#10985374)
    Does this mean the end of OS/2?

    • It's Kind of Fitting (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Greyfox ( 87712 ) on Friday December 03, 2004 @10:23AM (#10985559) Homepage Journal
      Since IBM PC Co played a major role in the death of OS/2 to begin with. A lot of customers were understandably dubious of an operating system that even its creator wouldn't bundle on their systems.

      Anyway, we all remember what happened to Lexmark, right? They used to be the under-performing IBM printer company until IBM spun them off. Now they're one of the more successful printing companies in the industry? Coincidence? Maybe their productivity shot up when they got out from the IBM mandate that everyone in the company use Lotus Notes.

      Speaking of non-strategic underperforming dogs, I wonder when IBM is going to jettison Lotus. It really seems like the only people in the industry who use Lotus software these days are IBM themselves. I think it's time the company put that 6 billion dollar mistake behind them.

      • Re:It's Kind of Fitting (Score:3, Interesting)

        by zulux ( 112259 )
        Speaking of non-strategic underperforming dogs, I wonder when IBM is going to jettison Lotus.

        Have you actually used Lotus Notes / Domino recently?

        In the two years or so, it's gone from horrably sucky to downright cool.

        The time to get rid of Lotus was three years ago, but why switch when now it's good?

  • Good Riddance (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Now if only Sun would shuffle off this mortal coil, we can pave the way for a new device that is NOT a piece of shit. Dell sucks ass. HP/Compaq sucks ass. It's time for Alienware to dominate the PC market with PowerPC based systems running MorphOS [64.246.36.198]!!!! Go Amiga!!!!!

    We want neon kits! We want neon kits! We want neon kits!! (Say it with me brothers!!!)

  • Time to rename IBM? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by hrvatska ( 790627 ) * on Friday December 03, 2004 @10:04AM (#10985380)

    I suppose at some point IBM will get out of hardware entirely, and then it can re-name itself International Business Services or something else more appropriate.

    If you are ever near Endicott, NY (birth place of IBM), try to get into the IBM heritage center at IBM's former Endicott facility. It traces the long heritage of IBM as a provider of machines, computer and otherwise, to business. Lots of vintage equipment on display. A very nice exhibit.

    • Re:Time to rename IBM? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 03, 2004 @10:10AM (#10985432)
      Yeah, that'll sell. IBS, great name for a service company.

      "So, would you like to buy a service contract from IBS?"

      "Excuse me, you what?"

      "A service contract. Would you like to buy one?"

      "No, you said something--"

      "Would you like to buy a service contract from IBS?"

      "You what? I'm sorry, I'm going to have to go now. We're a business, we don't take calls of that nature."

      CLICK

    • You can blame them for the US's voting mess (Score:4, Informative)

      by DABANSHEE ( 154661 ) on Friday December 03, 2004 @12:35PM (#10987358)
      IBM & other business machines firms of the 19th century owed the US census for their existence, but that market wasn't big enough for them, so they lobby state legislators & county managers to introduce voting machines, leading up to the mess we have today of even single states having a dozen different types of machines.

      But for them the US would still have the most simplest user friendly & quickest system of the lot - hand counted 'tick the box' plain paper ballots, like most of the rest of the western world. Although in many other places its the 'number the boxes in order of preferance' preferential varient, like here in Oz. But even having to number all the boxes in the huge upper house (Senate) ballot it still only takes me 20 minutes to vote, & that includes driving to the local school, parking, queueing up, voting, buying a BBQ sausage & onion sanga from the parents raising money from the school on the way out, & driving home. Bugger spending 30 minutes to 6 hours in a queue & then having to buggerise arround with bloody levers & punchcards, like they do in the US. No wonder most Americans can't be bothered voting. Compare that with Oz where some 90% of those legible are registed & over 98% vote (contrary to popular belief it's not compulsary for adults to register to vote in Oz & it's not comulsary for those that are registed to actually vote either. It's just compulsary for those that are registed to turnup to vote, IE get their names crossed off. Once one has one's name crossed off one need not vote if one doesn't want to). Yet even with attendence figures more than double the US, it's still only take some 20 minutes for some 90% of Australians to vote, including travelling & parking time.

  • Too bad (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jfmerryman ( 670236 ) on Friday December 03, 2004 @10:05AM (#10985385) Homepage
    I have to say this stinks. IBM was one of the few PC makers that endeavored to build innovative, high-quality products (like the T42 I'm typing this on). The others (Dell, HP/Compaq to name a few) appear to be focusing on building cheap plastic boxes at the lowest possible price. I hope whoever buys the business doesn't forget that there is a high-end segment of the market that cares about more than just price. At least we still have Apple...
    • My company switched to IBM desktops ~18 months ago. While we have had our share of problems with the desktops (S42 and S50 in particular), the laptops have been awesome. We've used the T30, X30, T41, T42, and the X40. The only complaint I have, and it is more to do with our sourcing model, is the @#$%&^# 1024x768 screen on the T42 that I have.

      We evaluated Compaq (HP) and Dell as well. I liked the Compaqs of the time (N610c) but HATED the Dells. They felt like hollow boxes of plastic.

      IBM ThinkPads are

    • Re:Too bad (Score:2, Interesting)

      by oldmanwalt ( 836960 )
      Is it time we consider the implications of where and what we purchase? I went through several vendor laptops before paying extra for the IBM. I have been very happy with all 12 units. I have never been pleased with the others (Tosh, Hitachi, Compaq, HP, Dell, etc...) This is just another casuality in the price vs quality war. I guess I will have to shop at Wal Mart. Long live low prices, long live low prices :)
  • without ibm setting the standard, will computers still be ibm compatable?

  • If only (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Apreche ( 239272 )
    If I had enough moneys I could buy the business. Then I could stop dealing with MS (save costs) and sell the PCs with a real linux build on them. None of this Sun and Lindows stuff. I'd build a gentoo or a debian and setup the desktop all nice with some easy gui tools for updating software. I'd stop making desktops and stick to thinkpads. By taking the windows tax off the price of the laptops I can beat everyone else on price. All the nerds and poor college students would buy them. It would rule.

    Oh, but I

  • Corporate Profits (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Sammy76 ( 45826 ) on Friday December 03, 2004 @10:10AM (#10985430)
    The article cites that one reason for the sale is the slim profits on the PC business, and gives as evidence the $100M profit IBM will make on the division this year.

    I agree for IBM that in terms of outlay:return, that is probably a pretty slim profit. But the division is profitable, most of the time. Furthermore, I assume quite a few jobs are going to be lost if they sell to an asian (Chinese) producer.

    So, it saddens me to see more jobs leaving the US not because the product can't compete or is unprofitable, but because it not profitable enough. Especially for IBM, where even though their business model has been changing over the last 15 years, PCs are still a sort of "core competency." It seems sort of like if GM sold its car production business to focus on its more profitable credit operations.

    Anyway, I wonder what will happen when IBM outsources its "services" jobs to some companies in India or Eastern Europe.
    • It's all about the profit margins. If your division has a profit of $100,000,000 and your outlays for that division were 10,000,000, your're doing quite well.

      However, if the PC division made a $100,000,000 profit by spending $10,000,000,000, then that ain't good. Those $10B could be better speant elsewhere in the company for greater returns.

      --Paci

  • ...and announces the Power Alliance (Score:5, Informative)

    by turgid ( 580780 ) on Friday December 03, 2004 @10:14AM (#10985473) Journal
    Maybe it has something to do with the Power Chip Alliance [com.com] they announced the other day?

    One goal of the alliance is to make Power chips used in high volumes. IBM has shipped more than 1 million PowerPC 970 chips, it said. The more widely used the Power processors are, however, the more directly they compete against the dominant x86 family such as Intel's Pentium and Advanced Micro Devices' Opteron.

    Look out Wintel! Look out Sun?

    • Re:...and announces the Power Alliance (Score:5, Insightful)

      by RetiredMidn ( 441788 ) * on Friday December 03, 2004 @10:51AM (#10985900) Homepage
      Maybe it has something to do with the Power Chip Alliance they announced the other day?

      My thinking exactly. Cut loose the standard now dictated by Microsoft anyway, and establish a new one around Power and Linux. IBM could define a new generation of personal computer that complements its server line better than Windows and still, hopefully, embraces open standards and put the world on a better interoperative (sic), *nix-based footing. Leaving Microsoft out in the cold would just be a (sweet) side bonus.

      A Power/Linux offering would appear to be direct competition for Apple, but I suspect they'd retain (or strengthen) their consumer niche if the business world shifted toward Linux, especially on the Power architecture.

  • Hewlett Packard (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jepaton ( 662235 ) on Friday December 03, 2004 @10:16AM (#10985497)
    This announcement has implications for Hewlett Packard, as they spun off everything but the PC and server business. As the real innovation of the old company is now in Agilent, I can't see long term prospects for HP being favourable.

    [Note to HP: Invent, not rebadge]
  • When I was growing up (in the 80s), there were two kinds of computers that my friends (or, more specifically, our parents) had at home: Apple and the IBM-Compatible

    In the 80s, me and my friends had Commodore 64s, 128s, Amigas, and Atari STs -- there were a couple Apple IIs and one Mac, and one guy had a Tandy IBM-compatible PC.

    It wasn't until the 386-era (with Windows 3.0 and/or Geoworks) that we all gradually migrated to PCs -- although some guys held on to their Macs and Amigas like their lives depend

  • TFA has a strange perspective (Score:4, Insightful)

    by RealProgrammer ( 723725 ) on Friday December 03, 2004 @10:22AM (#10985548) Homepage Journal
    • In the 23 years since I.B.M. lent its prowess in mainframe computers to the production of desktop machines, it has been widely criticized for having destined the machines to commodity status by giving Microsoft and Intel the rights to those essential standards.

    Widely criticized? No, it's been widely noted that IBM's decision not to keep a tight grip on the architecture and the OS led to the adoption of standard technology, which in turn got us where we are.

    It's a hypothetical exercise to ask whether they should have written their own OS and designed their own chips. It's sort of a retroactive attempt to kill the goose laying the golden industry. Sure, they could have done it, but no, it wouldn't have helped them, and certainly not us.

  • What the hell am I supposed to do with all of those micro channel cards I've been hoarding?

  • My favorite peripheral (Score:3, Insightful)

    by MrLint ( 519792 ) on Friday December 03, 2004 @10:24AM (#10985573) Journal
    Is still my genuine IBM PS/2 keyboard. It stil has great feel and great clacky sound. And its heavy enough such that I could still bludgeon to death a rabid spammer and then keep on ircing into the night.

    its still my one computing true love.
  • I liked IBM PCs for a number of things. They were very durable and had very good keyboards. Even today, an IBM keyboard can with-stand coffee and hard strokes from a frustrated programmer.

    But if I were IBM, I'd still maintain a presence in the PC business because it is this business that made IBM a household name. The same thing may happen to DELL or HP.

    I see executives using HP or DELL at home and asking themselves: "Why not use DELL/HP for the serveices IBM wants to remain focused on?" IBM will discov

  • IBM defined the PC at that time, and deserves a large share of credit for taking the PC out of the hobby shop and into the mainstream.

    A strange comment. At the time, the Apple II+ was the serious computer, with stores devoted just to selling 'em. VisiCalc--the ultimate business software--was written for the Apple II.

    "IBM defined the PC" is a phrase I don't know how to interpret. I guess, yes, IBM created the original x86-based computer with the monicker "Personal Computer" on it, aka the PC. But we a
  • Now the next time they upgrade they will actually have to think and do price comparison for their next PC Upgrade! If IBM PC are no longer IBM PC who will NYS buy from! This will be caos! State Employees actually working and making a decision on what they should upgrade too.
  • It is sad to see what a company that has revolutionized computers is doing. They should put more stock into business and got at it more aggressively than trying to sell those AS/400's and other proprietary stuff. When will companies realize that proprietary stuff doesn't sell anymore.
  • Many companies have IBM PCs on Lease, the reason they choose IBM was because it was a company they knew will stay thus maintain a consistant support service on their leased equipment. Will IBM support all there systems that they Leased or will NeoIBMPC Company handle the leases? Do they need to renagoate their contracts?
  • People speak highly of the IBM warranty, do you think they'd repair/replace the screen on my T23? Warranty is up early in 2005. There is a group of small white smudges on the screen at the bottom, an inch or two up. It's not a group of stuck pixels, or something stuck on the screen, it looks more like a defect in the screen.

    If you look really closely at it, oddly enough the smudges blend in. It's only when you're a foot or two away that it becomes noticeable.

    Also, if you move the screen, it visibily

  • Wow. (Score:2, Funny)

    by drwiii ( 434 )
    Kind of gives new meaning to "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM".
  • They are working a deal with Apple to start manufacturing and marketing an IBM branded Mac. Wait n see.

  • Profitable Technology (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Gates82 ( 706573 )
    IBM is all about profitable technology. When a product does not yield a decent return they drop the line. Consumer Hard Disk Drives make very little margin, so IBM sells off 70% of the Consumer HD production to Hitachi, this still gives them room to use technology inovated by Hitachi in the IBM owned server disk drive market (high yeild). IBM stopped selling computers in retail store several years ago, they were moving away from the average low yeild PC user, and moving to a more to a sole business machi
  • If you think about it, IBM selling off their PC unit is good business- take a product that has razor thin margains and sell that capacity to someone else who has lower costs. Keep the cash and move upscale on what you want to continue to build.

    The did with the Global Network (sold to ATT) and now they'll do it with PC's. At some point they'll spin off the high end stuff when its no longer needed.

    Its the same argument you see with outsourcing today (or logic as they call it)-- keep spinning off lower-entry

  • The brick shithouse of notebook computing (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Yankel ( 770174 ) on Friday December 03, 2004 @11:01AM (#10986036) Homepage
    I must admit, these suckers are the most stable - in terms of software compatibility and durability. I've had a 600x and a T40 - and both are wonderful.

    I did hear about some potential hard drive problems with the T22 or T23 models, however, they did a mass recall. At work, IBM brought a crew in that backed every unit up and restored the image on a new hard drive.

    It's not only the hardware I'm going to miss, it's the servicing.

    I only wish my employer would allow me to buy it back when the lease ends.

    Yankel
  • But I have noticed that IBM only puts very old or very sucky video cards in them. And then they want to charge a premium for the laptop. I just can't buy that kind of a product.

  • Sad, but predictable (Score:3, Insightful)

    by petrus4 ( 213815 ) on Friday December 03, 2004 @12:08PM (#10986975) Homepage Journal
    There's one thing I've been saying for a long time.

    IBM has never fundamentally understood the personal computer. Sure, they helped bring it to market...but the entire reason why Microsoft were originally able to get ahead of IBM with DOS was because at the time, IBM still had doubts that the PC was ever going to go anywhere. I remember when I installed OS/2 once...there were tons of communications protocols for connecting to *mainframes.* The only protocol for inter-PC communication that I saw just about was TCP/IP itself.

    IBM were originally a mainframe company...that is what brought about their heyday...it's what they've been doing since the second world war...it's primarily what they know. In that sense, their length of history with mainframes was working against them...they were so used to mainframes being the answer, that as ESR might say, on a gut level they just didn't truly grok the concept of the PC.

    This is still a sad day however, because they were instrumental to the contemporary PC's adoption...Even if most of the time it was probably in spite of themselves.

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