The Rise and Fall of the 'IBM Way'

Re:The Rise and Fall of the 'IBM Way' by gtirloni on Friday December 15, 2023 @01:10PM (#38656821)

IBM used to sell computers directly to consumers. They don't do that anymore so it's normal that IBM isn't on anyone's mind for a long time now. My mom knew IBM pretty well decades ago when she was a typist. Nowadays she wouldn't have a clue if IBM still exists or what it does.

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Re:The Rise and Fall of the 'IBM Way' by mikestew on Friday December 15, 2023 @02:11PM (#38657524)

IBM used to sell computers directly to consumers.

For a brief, maybe fifteen year period out of their 100 year history. And even those weren't big sellers. Point being, I don't know that it was ever reasonable to ask the "man on the street" what IBM does, and expect anything but a vague answer.

Hell, my mother used to program their 370s and System/38s (precursor to the AS400). I haven't asked, but if asked the same question, I wouldn't be shocked if her answer were, "wait, they're still in business?"

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Re:The Rise and Fall of the 'IBM Way' by cbarrick on Friday December 15, 2023 @03:25PM (#38658386)

> For a brief, maybe fifteen year period out of their 100 year history.

More like 34 years.

The IBM PC debuted in 1981, and they sold their PC business to Lenovo in 2005.

> And even those weren't big sellers.

Still, let's not downplay the impact that the IBM PC had on the industry.

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Re:The Rise and Fall of the 'IBM Way' by mikestew on Friday December 15, 2023 @03:46PM (#38658596)

More like 24 years, but point taken. I thought the PC end was sold off in the late 90s.

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Re:The Rise and Fall of the 'IBM Way' by bluedino on Friday December 15, 2023 @02:35PM (#38657808)

My grandmother has been retired for years, she worked as an accountant.

Any time there's a conversation about computers, she'll pipe in with remarks about how "Compaq makes the best computers".

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Re:The Rise and Fall of the 'IBM Way' by ghaff on Friday December 15, 2023 @01:43PM (#38657155)

If you go back before the IBM PC, the average consumer might well know they made typewriters and probably have some notion about them selling big computers to banks and the like. They'd almost certainly be vague on anything beyond that.

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Re:The Rise and Fall of the 'IBM Way' by cafard on Friday December 15, 2023 @07:57PM (#38660758)

Fifty years ago, when I had nothing to do with the tech industry, I knew that IBM made computers. I didn't know what those computers looked like or who used them, but I knew they made them.

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Re:The Rise and Fall of the 'IBM Way' by KyleSanderson on Friday December 15, 2023 @02:22PM (#38657654)

What? They absolutely still do, it's through Lenovo and IBM still writes the majority of firmware and drivers for it.

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Re:The Rise and Fall of the 'IBM Way' by ghaff on Friday December 15, 2023 @02:29PM (#38657745)

And Lenovo is a separate company even if IBM does some of the under-the-covers engineering. The average consumer (or even the not so average one) has no idea what firmware is or drivers are and Lenovo isn't even much of a consumer brand anyway.

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