Doug, What I remember was how closed Apple was with their system versus how open IBM was. Didn't they want 3rd parties to add to their system versus Apple not really... Regards, Bob S.
On Wed, Aug 10, 2011 at 9:51 PM, Doug Franklin <[email protected]> wrote: > On 2011-08-10 22:33, Doug Franklin wrote: > >> The analogy it reminds me of is that Android is trying to do for phone >> software what the IBM PC did for commodity hardware: define the extent >> and form of the commodity. The PC did it by publishing the BIOS source >> code and hardware/software interface specs, and /de facto/ establishing >> a public programming interface for the software that would ride atop the >> hardware and BIOS. > > In passing, I should mention that was /not/ IBM's intention, based on what > I've learned about it. To this day, I've never heard from anyone, inside or > out, a reasonable justification for some of the information they freely > published, other than simply a (catastrophic) strategic miscalculation. > > An IBM PC Technical Reference Manual in 1984 or so (or PC XT, PCjr, PC AT > manuals, as they came out) cost around $250, if my memory serves me. It was > freely available to any buyer with the cash if they called IBM. Those > manuals contained: > > * all of the hardware signalling interfaces, electric, electronic, and > timing > > * all of the hardware physical characteristics, down to the drill centers, > diameters, and threading for the mounting screws > > * the complete assembly language source code for the BIOS in the machine > (and thus all of the hardware interfacing information necessary for a > cloner) > > * full interface specs for all of the ancillary hardware in the machine > (serial ports, parallel ports, ISA bus add-on cards, etc.) so that was > easily duplicated, too. > > It's like they designed the offering to be cloned. > > -- > Thanks, > DougF (KG4LMZ) > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
