Well the official line was NT = New Technology. It should have been called TG for Turf Grab. The plan was to move from Windows to OS/2 (which was a real OS) jointly developed by MS and IBM to run on the PS/2, the PC replacement. But Gates, who was more a monopoly guy than a technology guy (the late Paul Allen was the techie) did the dirty, hired Cutler (who I think created the biggest dog in history, the Windows Registry) and the rest is history, as they say.
The joke is IBM didn’t need DOS, they already had a far superior single user OS called CMS, but is was part of the Mainframe division and the PC was developed by the General Systems Division. In those days IBM divisions didn’t talk to one another, in fact they competed against one another.
Another little known fact is that IBM saved Intel. They’d selected the intel 8088 (a bizarre decision in itself as it was inferior to the 8086) and then as Intel was about to go tits up (as we say in the trade) IBM bought a ahed load of shares to bale them out. Then, when intel was back on its feet (because of the PC success) they sold them… Duh!
I have no doubt that IBM has created more wealth for other companies than for its own shareholders (and it’s created a lot for those). Without INM there would be no Microsoft, Intel, Oracle (IBM invented the Relational Database), EMC (based in IBM disk drive technology), etc. etc.
All because during a critical phase, the Company was run by accountants and lawyers and despite an gigantic R&D budget and wonderful technical talent many key inventions were never exploited. Protecting mainframe profits (accountants) and fending off antitrust (lawyers) crippled the Company.
I think Win10 was an attempt to achieve the same usability as Mac OS 10 (I don’t buy the lame excuse for skipping the Win09 name either). But instead of stripping stuff away they piled more stuff on. The updates are just an example. If I have bought the licence for an OS I object to the vendors forcing me to apply fixes. Especially at the end of a slow internet link. It’s as Michael says above, if it’s an appliance OK, but they are not (yet). On a Mac you can avoid updates and using Terminal you can fiddle around with any of the settings, just like the old days Probably 99% of users don’t but that’s fine as long as I can. If they removed that capability I would move lock, stock and barrel to Linux (though I prefer to think of it as UNIX with a GNU license).
I’m not sure Apple laptops are over priced but the initial investment is high. When I was working I used to get a new Thinkpad every year because they were clapped out, and I was an exec not a techie pounding the keyboard 24/7.
We moved as a family to Macs in 2010. A Macbook Air for my wife, a Pro for my daughter (university workload), a Pro for me and an iMac to pull it all together. All performed rock solidly, the only thing I did in the first four years was to upgrade the Pro disks to 1TB (primarily for music and photos). My daughter and I were in the States in 2014 and the Apple prices were good so we bought a new Air for her (university workload had decreased) and a Pro for me. Her Pro was passed on to her boyfriend and my Pro to my sister. Here we are six years later and both of those machines are still going strong, as is my daughter’s Air and my Pro. I’m tapping this out on my (now) old Pro. I think I could get another five years out of it no problem and the ten year old iMac is still running like day one. However I was seduced by the Apple silicon.
I have no doubt that over the same time period I would have spent more on replacement Windows machines and I would have been driven loony by Windows.
Can’t remember downloading it or using it but for some time now I have been getting notifications from them to say that it is discontinued and should be uninstalled.
Not knowing anything about it I have followed the principle ‘if it (ie the computer not Adobe) ain’t broke don’t fix it’.
Very nice! I think I will do the same this spring when the new MacBook Pro comes.
No Windows in this household either, Mac and Linux. By the way, I’m an ex-IBMer also ::
Thanks for that Paul. I’d never heard of it. I’m surprised Windows is so modular. I couldn’t find the latest disk image 2004 because the server has been shutdown (seems MS don’t like this initiative for some reason) but I’ve downloaded a previous build 1903 from an other unnamed site. Which some commentators seem to prefer. I won’t have a chance until February but I’ll install it under Parallels and see what happens. All the documentation seems to be available.
The reason a dual boot system has a “dead” Ethernet interface if windows is booted first is down to how Windows leaves the card, but Linux fails to reset it properly - I’m counting that as a Linux fail.
In the same system Linux can get the ageing AMD Radeon R9 270 to drive the monitor at its native resolution of 3440x1440 without difficulty, Windows with the current Radeon drives cannot. Score one for Linux.
I changed the network around a bit recently with the result that my wife’s desktop Windows machine takes ages to pick up an IP address - I finally realised that this is because of the bridge forwarding delay on Linux, scoring that as a draw - Windows and Linux working as advertised, it’s just me that’s a numpty
Ah, thanks for the heads up that it has been “censored”. Slowly downloading a pre-built copy of 1903, however it should be possible to follow their instructions and do it manually.
My Pro is a new one Krister, with the new M1 chip. I have to say I’m delighted with it, specially the touch sensor. Still coming to terms with the touch bar though. Pretty well the only difference between my Pro and my wife’s Air is the touch bar and her’s doesn’t have a fan, but is much thinner.
Both are lightning quick. I’ve long been a fan of RISC (reduced instruction set) processors. The Intel CISC (complex instruction set) chips are like Scania trucks, RISC chips are like Ferraris . They both produce about the same power but one goes a lot quicker than the other.
The fan in the Pro is only useful if you’re going to do compute intensive stuff, like video editing and rendering for longer periods. So unless you do that, save a few bob and buy an Air
There were some postings on Ask Ubuntu about this… seems UEFI grabs the interface when dual booted between Win and Linux and the resolution is, I think, to disable UEFI mode in the BIOS. Here is one reference but I’m sure there are many others already in your sights. This AU reference might also help as it it non Ubuntu specific
Linux fail or incompetent Windoze
Yes, the M1 chip is wonderful. With “new” I meant the next model, maybe with a “M2” chip and a new screen technology, miniLED. At least, that’s the rumours. As they say, avoid version 1; wait for version 1.2 at least.
If I would have Intel shares, I would sell them as soon as possible.
I moved to Linux from my mid-2010 MacBook Pro (which I sold for 200€ last summer ), on a Lenovo Ideapad. I have been tinkering with Raspberry Pi for some years, so Linux is not that new for me.
We still have an 2008 iMac as the office machine, but it’s stuck on El Capitan level of macOS, so definitely in need of replacement. Maybe two MacBook Airs?
In this case (Intel I217-V with the e1000e driver) the problem is that Windows shuts down leaving the card asleep with Wake On Lan enabled - the Linux driver does not recognise/reset this.
The solution is to either disable WOL in W10, make sure there is a full power cycle before bringing Linux up or manually reset the Ethernet card on Linux boot (echo “1” > /sys/bus/pci/devices/$DEV/reset - whree $DEV is the PCI bus ID for the card).
Yes I was a bit cheesed of when my wife’s machine couldn’t upgrade OS because it didn’t have “Metal” support. My old Pro did. I thought about waiting but there are a lot (billions) of ARM based processors out there, many designed by Apple and in iPads and iPhones, so I made the leap. Plus from what I’ve read M2 etc. will be performance upgrades rather than architectural ones. So destined for faster and more expensive machines.
When I bought my last Pro it was about €2k for the fastest chip, max memory and max SSD (1tb) storage. This time the M1, max storage (still 16gb) and max SSD (2tb) was €2.4k. I think that’s the most I can really justify for a laptop (and I’m really good at retroactive justification of impulse purchases ).
I called my boat HAL as IBM shares paid for her. 
Even had the eight bar logo (which was probably a trademark violation).
site. Which some commentators seem to prefer. I won’t have a chance until February but I’ll install it under Parallels and see what happens. All the documentation seems to be available.
