"More details that may help with your IBM PC info inquiry."
John and others interested in this topic,
I just had some time to get back to this since some projects I was doing finished early – it happens, but rarely !
I may have not been clear enough previously – my Kaypro book on my website stresses “ website references “ and not books.
Also, many lists of many books on many topics, including computing, will be added to my website when it is eventually updated.
I used websites and not books since older books are difficult to get – e.g. by swap sites, local libraries, friends, etc.
Newer books are different, but many do not even cover the vintage computer era and many important points of that period.
In addition, many of the authors of books may be compromised for various reasons to present only the most favorable or unfavorable aspects of a topic – e.g. Carly Fiorina formerly of HP and now running for office in California – good news – she says she has beaten breast cancer !!!
I am now reading her book on “ her version “ of what happened – fascinating – who is right or are all of them from their personal perspectives ?
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I explore briefly this “quest for truth of the matter” in my Kaypro book – the murder mystery – who did it ? – so many witnesses saw it very differently – why did Osborne & Kaypro, along with IBM, “ fail “ so dramatically and Compaq “ succeed “ so dramatically in PC’s!
Excel spreadsheets and graphs / charts illustrate these “dramatics” so well in this Kaypro book – “ case closed “ – Compaq won hands down – the others never had a chance – their only real choice - drop out and pursue other interests – they clearly saw the hand writing on the wall, as painful as it was - and they did !
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Also, as many know, some organizations will go to great lengths to protect their “perceived” reputation.
In addition, website references may be more recent and by multiple authors, besides alerting you to many other references, including books, particularly newer references.
Books become so outdated so fast and they are “cast in stone / print.” Web material can be updated at will, so can be very current.
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Unfortunately, a lot of vintage computing info is scattered about in many books, web sites, etc.
We need some people to bring it together in a logical and chronological order.
But many just concentrate on a specific topic and explore that.
I am trying, but it takes a long time – there is an awful lot out there.
A lot of the “mindsets, tunnel vision, corp policies / tradition – it worked in the past so it will work now and in the future, etc.” preordained how some big companies, computer companies included, would respond to new challenges.
This just set them up for failure.
But could anyone really know what to do in such a rapidly and dramatically changing environment like the early computers of the 1980’s ?
That is what I explore in my Kaypro book with Osborne, Kaypro, IBM and Compaq.
More books before and after are in the works, but it takes a lot of time, especially since “tidbits” of info is scattered all over the place. Challenge is not only to find it, but to put it together in some coherent and readily understandable fashion that can be used to better understand the evolution of computing and STS in general.
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But specifically, a few books that may give you and others interested some insight into
“ early / old ” IBM, along with details of how the IBM PC really developed, I have found so far are –
“The Computer Establishment” by Katharine Davis Fishman 1981
“The Coming Computer Industry Shakeout” by Stephen McClellan 1984
Even the two [2] Xerox books I am now reading show some of IBM –
Xerox was into copiers – IBM needed to be too
IBM was into computers – Xerox needed to be too
Both used technologies to make copies – one with a copier and one with a computer – obvious competition – who would win or both fail – some favor the latter ??? So they had to compete to continue to exist and grow. Fascinating story both ways.
“Fumbling the Future” by Douglas Smith and Robert Alexander 1999
“Dealers of Lightning” by Michael Hiltzik 1999
Xerox was not stupid – they missed computing, but for many complex reasons, even though they had great advantages – IBM also !
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Very simply - but much more complex -
IBM's decision to use " off the shelf parts " set the tone for ultimate failure !
They usually used their own proprietary parts - took longer but locked in the market, or so they thought.
They wanted to get to the market fast and they did with "off the shelf."
But that opened up "clones" and Compaq took advantage of that.
They found a way to do the IBM BIOS legally and then they were off !!!
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Goggle searches identify so many areas to explore. No one can do it all. We need many doing it also because they bring their own “take” on the issues.
Also, just a quick check on Amazon and
WWW.PAPERBACKSWAP.COM indicated many books on IBM from many perspectives.
One I found particularly helpful when I read it was –
“Big Blues – The Unmaking of IBM” by Paul Carroll
A real surprise from this search was –
“IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America’s Most Powerful Corporation” by Edwin Black
But not surprising from a corporation perspective – many corporations were involved with such alliances in those years – a search will provide some contacts.
For a rather “irreverent” look at computing, including IBM [he has a real case against them apparently] –
“Accidental Empires…….. by Robert X. Cringely
And on and on – depends a great deal on your specific interests.
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As noted earlier, my STS research tries to explore the general “patterns” involved so we can better understand and manage STS issues in our everyday lives, even including the corporations we work for.
More to come after I update my websites with some books, articles, other forms of publication, etc. on many of these aspects I have researched and developed over the past few decades.
Many of my current PowerPoint presentations present the “skeleton” of what these books will flesh out.
My Kaypro book is a start and lays some of the “ basic initial groundwork / patterns “ based on those early years of personal computers of
the 1980’s.
Amazingly, some of the “ same patterns “ continue today in so many ways and not just in computing – will we ever learn - can we ever learn even – or like the “ hamster in the revolving cage “ – just keep going around and around over the same things forever ?
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Locally, the giant of the USA steel industry, Bethlehem Steel in nearby Bethlehem, PA USA – has long since been gone – bankruptcy – some local people are still in a state of shock –who could imagine such a giant just gone – the area looks like something out of a WW II bombed out city – blocks and blocks of decaying old buildings, etc. – the city still is trying to recover.
Who is next ?
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All related to computing also – what is up with Microsoft [another Bethlehem Steel – as incomprehensible as that may seem?] ? Did Gates get out just in time ?
Apple now seems to be well ahead in many ways, but including other things “not” PC’s !
Is Jobs a genius or what ??? Certainly very controversial from the " get go ! "
Not too long ago many were thinking Apple was the next to bite the dust in the computing world !
How times change so fast for very unpredictable reasons.
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So do your own research and let us all benefit from it if only by just posting it on this web site or others – even your own web site, blog, etc.
You have your own special perspective from being from UK, especially since we are all so “global” today and need to understand how so many others perceive things.
Thanks for your interest !
All the best in all you continue to do always.
Frank
P.S.
Since you are in the UK, you may be interested that a “ central focus “ that got me started on all this was the expansion of the British Navy before WWI and Churchill !
Before that, the Boer War provided many good illustrations of some of the simpler “patterns” of STS that continue even today.
Check my website for lists of some of these initial PowerPoint presentations.
The folder “Literature” gives some background info.
Then the great STS escalation of warfare in WW II required “ computing “ in so many ways and we were on our way into what we now call “vintage computers” in so many aspects, so much involved in UK of course !
Note –
In the future it may be best for us and others interested to PM each other and / or you can use the email contact on my website, so we do not take up so much space on this website.
