On Sat, 27 Apr 2024, Gary Grebus via cctalk wrote:
By the time frame mentioned in the article (1981) there were many
commercially available applications. There was also hardware (e.g. from DEC,
DG, HP) that was of a scale where it would be dedicated to one application.
At that time I worked for a company that developed a database system. I can
think of a few trips I made to help customers bring up a new data center
dedicated to running our product.
I consider the introduction of the IBM PC/5150 (August 1981) to be
significant.
Although word processing was readily available, and Visicalc ran on the
Apple (later TRS80 versions), "home computers" didn't get any respect, and
were not taken seriously by business.
With the introduction of the 5150, business started taking microcomputers
more seriously.
Before that time, a tiny auto parts store, would be hard sold an
mini-computer, when a micro with word processing, spreadsheet, and dBase2
would do wuite adequately.
In 1979, I was using a TRS80 in my auto repair business.
And also I and a partner had a business ("Elcompco") selling hardware
(RAM, drives, lower-case mod, etc. and reselling software.
When we split the partnership, I became "Berkeley Microcomputer", and
sold the auto repair business to two of my employees.
After writing "XenoCopy" (1984), I renamed my company "XenoSoft".
But, also, starting in 1983, I was also teaching community college
full-time (FORTRAN, BASIC, Microcmputer operatoing system, etc.)
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
