Exactly. Very limited utility for punched cards as a user interface. Various green screen terminals resulting in VT100 family and TN3270(E) family (S3x+/AS400), now replaced by PCs, laptops, cell phones running green screen emulators or converting to web pages or even apps.
Not to mention Internet of things, such as point of sales scanners, cash registers, credit card readers (often mentioned as big mainframe users), automated Weather stations, toll road pass readers, etc. On Mon, Aug 7, 2023, 13:33 Jon Perryman <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Monday, August 7, 2023 at 11:02:23 AM PDT, Bob Bridges < > [email protected]> wrote: > > Just to keep things complicated, if I sell X to company M, > > IBM has the right to sell anything it owns even if its to Bill Gates. It's > not hindsight to say IBM has a lot of software that simply exists. They > sold software that wasn't as profitable as MVS but not a complete loss. > They didn't see the potential of selling lots of small stuff (MS Windows & > Office) and decided to concentrate on MVS. Microsoft net worth is now 100X > IBM. Once IBM decided it was a mistake, they started investing into OS/2. > How do you rate these businesses choices? > > On Monday, August 7, 2023 at 11:02:23 AM PDT, Bob Bridges < > [email protected]> wrote: > > Just to keep things complicated, if I sell X to company M, and company M > makes a mint on it, it doesn't ~necessarily~ follow that it was a mistake > for me to sell it. Could be that M was likely to make a mint on X and I > was not. > > And after all, is IBM worse off because Microsoft is selling PCs to the > world? Seems to me you could argue that the ubiquity of PCs is ~helping~ > IBM mainframe sales. > > --- > Bob Bridges, [email protected], cell 336 382-7313 > > /* I will frankly admit that I'm afraid of medical care. I trace this fear > to my childhood, when, as far as I could tell, the medical profession's > reaction to every physical problem I developed, including nearsightedness, > was to give me a tetanus shot. -Dave Barry, 1996 */ > > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf > Of Jon Perryman > Sent: Monday, August 7, 2023 13:27 > > On the whole, I consider IBM excellent compared to how other companies but > it's undeniable that they have made some bonehead choices. Was it a smart > decision for IBM to sell the software that became Microsoft?.... > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > On Monday, August 7, 2023 at 11:02:23 AM PDT, Bob Bridges < > [email protected]> wrote: > > Just to keep things complicated, if I sell X to company M, and company M > makes a mint on it, it doesn't ~necessarily~ follow that it was a mistake > for me to sell it. Could be that M was likely to make a mint on X and I > was not. > > And after all, is IBM worse off because Microsoft is selling PCs to the > world? Seems to me you could argue that the ubiquity of PCs is ~helping~ > IBM mainframe sales. > > --- > Bob Bridges, [email protected], cell 336 382-7313 > > /* I will frankly admit that I'm afraid of medical care. I trace this fear > to my childhood, when, as far as I could tell, the medical profession's > reaction to every physical problem I developed, including nearsightedness, > was to give me a tetanus shot. -Dave Barry, 1996 */ > > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf > Of Jon Perryman > Sent: Monday, August 7, 2023 13:27 > > On the whole, I consider IBM excellent compared to how other companies but > it's undeniable that they have made some bonehead choices. Was it a smart > decision for IBM to sell the software that became Microsoft?.... > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
