Comments on: I have, in fact, lived to see the day: Macs at IBM http://robcottingham.ca/2008/04/i-have-in-fact-lived-to-see-the-day-macs-at-ibm/ Meeting your social media humor needs since 1963 Wed, 16 May 2012 11:12:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: David Drucker http://robcottingham.ca/2008/04/i-have-in-fact-lived-to-see-the-day-macs-at-ibm/comment-page-1/#comment-165286 David Drucker Mon, 28 Apr 2008 04:05:49 +0000 http://www.robcottingham.ca/?p=1512#comment-165286 Despite my glee of learning this, I haven't seen any change whatsoever at the IBM's Pacific Development Centre in Burnaby, where my contract continues until next Friday. When I started there some 10 months ago, I was dismayed at being issued one of those bland, black Lenovo Thinkpads. Having to work with that slab of ebony plastic made me appreciate all the more how much easier I find working on a Mac. What's more IBM does all of its email and meeting scheduling on Lotus Notes, which is so bad (it's not really an email package at all - email and calendaring is sort of tacked on), that I actually longed to go back to the days of using Outlook. You couldn't even book a room while issuing a meeting request; you had to launch another unrelated Notes DB and book there, and then send out a meeting update. And don't get me started on Visio, a graphics application that I hope I won't have to use much in the future. I'm counting the days when Visio wireframes will be just something I include in my resume. Omnigraffle on the Mac drop-kicks Visio into the next galaxy. Despite my glee of learning this, I haven’t seen any change whatsoever at the IBM’s Pacific Development Centre in Burnaby, where my contract continues until next Friday. When I started there some 10 months ago, I was dismayed at being issued one of those bland, black Lenovo Thinkpads. Having to work with that slab of ebony plastic made me appreciate all the more how much easier I find working on a Mac.

What’s more IBM does all of its email and meeting scheduling on Lotus Notes, which is so bad (it’s not really an email package at all – email and calendaring is sort of tacked on), that I actually longed to go back to the days of using Outlook. You couldn’t even book a room while issuing a meeting request; you had to launch another unrelated Notes DB and book there, and then send out a meeting update. And don’t get me started on Visio, a graphics application that I hope I won’t have to use much in the future. I’m counting the days when Visio wireframes will be just something I include in my resume. Omnigraffle on the Mac drop-kicks Visio into the next galaxy.

]]> By: Jan Karlsbjerg http://robcottingham.ca/2008/04/i-have-in-fact-lived-to-see-the-day-macs-at-ibm/comment-page-1/#comment-160198 Jan Karlsbjerg Sun, 20 Apr 2008 02:42:44 +0000 http://www.robcottingham.ca/?p=1512#comment-160198 About the "clone" thing: IBM thoroughly documented the hardware of the IBM PC and then published everything so that others could build compatible hardware (computers as well as expansion cards). It was their plan and hope to become owners of a platform, not just of a particular machine. @Dethe Thanks for the detail about IBM and Apple corporate culture meeting in the middle (jeans and white shirts). About the “clone” thing: IBM thoroughly documented the hardware of the IBM PC and then published everything so that others could build compatible hardware (computers as well as expansion cards). It was their plan and hope to become owners of a platform, not just of a particular machine.

@Dethe Thanks for the detail about IBM and Apple corporate culture meeting in the middle (jeans and white shirts).

]]> By: Dethe Elza http://robcottingham.ca/2008/04/i-have-in-fact-lived-to-see-the-day-macs-at-ibm/comment-page-1/#comment-159384 Dethe Elza Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:53:50 +0000 http://www.robcottingham.ca/?p=1512#comment-159384 I'm old enough to remember when IBM and Apple were working on joint ventures together, like Taligent, Pink, and OpenDoc. To make each other more comfortable and relaxed, the Apple engineers wore white shirts and neckties, while the IBM engineers wore blue jeans. I’m old enough to remember when IBM and Apple were working on joint ventures together, like Taligent, Pink, and OpenDoc. To make each other more comfortable and relaxed, the Apple engineers wore white shirts and neckties, while the IBM engineers wore blue jeans.

]]> By: Jan Karlsbjerg http://robcottingham.ca/2008/04/i-have-in-fact-lived-to-see-the-day-macs-at-ibm/comment-page-1/#comment-159176 Jan Karlsbjerg Fri, 18 Apr 2008 06:51:48 +0000 http://www.robcottingham.ca/?p=1512#comment-159176 I'm old enough to remember when IBM made their own PC operating system (and I used to use it too). IBM of recent times is all about hardware diversity and putting the emphasis on software and services. (Sure Java was made by Sun in an effort to battle Microsoft, but Java's real benefactor has been IBM; also IBM sold their own PC production unit to Lenovo a couple of years ago) If IBM wants to give their researchers a shock to the system, exposing them to a minority computer platform is a clever way to do it. I’m old enough to remember when IBM made their own PC operating system (and I used to use it too).

IBM of recent times is all about hardware diversity and putting the emphasis on software and services. (Sure Java was made by Sun in an effort to battle Microsoft, but Java’s real benefactor has been IBM; also IBM sold their own PC production unit to Lenovo a couple of years ago)

If IBM wants to give their researchers a shock to the system, exposing them to a minority computer platform is a clever way to do it.

]]>