gateman9's Journal: So long, mini-"iron"

So IBM has given up on PC's. {sheds a single tear}

I think we've had an IBM in our house since ... well since IBM started making them cheap. We got our first one after my brother finally shorted out the old Tandy (I wasn't there at this point). So, yeah, my Dad, having used IBM iron in his business, decided the mini-"iron" was good for home.

And as such, we had only IBM PC's in the family until I committed sacrilege: I built a waaaay better computer for half the price of a name brand PC. And I couldn't be happier: it has more expansion space, uses components that there are many well established open-source drivers for, runs as quiet and uses a faster processor than what I could've gotten for the money.

But still, to read that IBM was selling its PC division was bitter-sweet.

It's great, since this frees IBM for tighter partnerships with its POWER chip makers and consumers and allows them to focus more again on the IRON and what I call titanium (the architectures for super-computers).

Sad in that it signals the end of era of sorts. They really brought a useable PC to the unwashed masses. Yeah, there were Tandys and Comodore's and on and on. But IBM was a name ever synonymous with quality, so people could trust it. They may have made the most beastly devices on the market, but they were rugged beasts. I once successfully put OpenBSD on an IBM PC I found in my uncle's closet.

So long IBM PC's. You were great (if not a wee-bit over priced) while you lasted. You brought the computer from the business to the unwashed masses. Which was good and bad.

Well, I guess I'll just have to mosey on over to Apple and get my Unix fix on a processor architecture developed by Big Blue.