Re: Delphi compared to Visual Age C++


> As far as hardware is concerned, IBM is top notch. Their notebooks have
> always rated very high in customer satisfaction. Their development
> tools is another matter and have always been complex to use, and only
> people roped into IBM products continue to use many of them. Key point
> is VisualAge is all but dead.
>
Don't buy the IBM Optical mice. I had to send back a batch of them I
bought for my office. More than half of them were defective. They were
very inexpensive and manufactured in China (where else?). I will say
that I did buy a batch of really, really inexpensive IBM keyboards (made
in China, of course) and they seem fine (so far). Seems like IBM
doesn't have a problem in putting their name on just about anything made
anywhere these days.

As far as the mainframe days, I remember IBM as by far the worst systems
I ever encountered and I had hands on experience with Univac, Burroughs
and CDC mainframes. The competitors all had operating systems far
superior to IBM's in terms of ease of use, productivity and cost per
run. You didn't need to hire a staff of expensive IBM gurus to run your
jobs, you didn't need to learn arcane Data Definition language to set up
a job, and their machines, while fast, were inferior in technology to
other systems (shorter word lengths, etc). But IBM had a great sales
department and a gilded name so at that time, few IT Directors had the
guts or brains to use anything but IBM. So IBM prospered and everybody
else eventually bit the dust. I cringe when I remember working on those
IBM 360 systems. IMO, CDC had the best equipment and operating systems.

The weirdest thing is, Microsoft started out as the underdog vs. IBM in
the PC world, underpricing IBM at every turn and offering simplicity vs.
the overly complicated/expensive IBM way of doing everything. Now, the
tables have turned and MS has become everything that IBM was and IBM is
trying to play the good guy vs. MS.

Mark J. Wallin, Ph.D.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: FBA rant was Re: IBM S/360 series operating systems history
    ... which gives 15 tracks per cylinder ... We are awkwardly shoe horning FBA ... In the restructuring they should look at what the other IBM operating ... Subject: FBA rant was Re: IBM S/360 series operating systems history ...
    (bit.listserv.ibm-main)
  • Re: Youll never guess what HP advertised
    ... >>want and if HP is really committed to any of these operating systems. ... Honda sells sedans, SUVs, sports cars, generators, ... Its always a mistake to compare IBM with OpenVMS's owner du jour because ...
    (comp.os.vms)
  • Re: VMS on IBMs Itanium
    ... Inquirer.net has been forwarded to me for review and response. ... You ask why it would not make sense for IBM to buy the OpenVMS ... UNIX-based operating systems approaching similar levels of reliability ...
    (comp.os.vms)
  • Re: Linux is KING - Couldnt be hacked - Mac, Vista went down in flames
    ... Ric Moore wrote: ... a version of BASIC that for several operating systems. ... feature limited interpreter. ... IBM went with Microsoft because they arrived for a meeting with Gary, ...
    (Fedora)
  • Re: Proposed Assembler Commands
    ... IBM had planned a special operating system for it ... allowed a single 360/67 to simulate multiple machines of various models. ... This turned out to be very useful for developing operating systems. ... enhanced instruction set, called System/370. ...
    (sci.electronics.design)