🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <721@bu-cs.UUCP>, bzs@bu-cs.UUCP (Barry Shein) writes:
> 
> There was an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal a few days
> ago saying that Convergent Tech (maker of the UNIX/PC) is basically
> in deep s**t over this product as AT&T has cut orders to almost nil.
> I think they said a total of 10,000 were sold, around 7,000 of those
> internally to AT&T. There was some mumble therein about it not being
> compatible with International Business Machine's computers and it may
> have been "ahead of its time".
> 
> Too bad, I think it *is* ahead of its time and I also think its probable
> death as a product can be laid to blame on letting the guys in the
> twelve-piece suits do the product strategy. Sigh. And I am sure they'll
> point to it and use it as an example of *ANYTHING* but their own stupidity.
> 

He goes on to suggest that Universities would have been a good target for
the Unix-PC's salesmen.

I was excited about the Unix-PC when it came out.  I stayed excited until
I found out that AT&T was keeping all the important details about the
hardware and software secret.  Not just secret as in "sign this nondisclosure
agreement before we give you the info you need", but secret as in, 
"agree to buy vast numbers of PCs before we start talking."  I heard
(strictly as a rumor) that Convergent started this by refusing to let
the hardware details be known.  If this is true, I think they have nobody
but themselves to blame if the Unix-PC fails.  If it's not true, find the
person who decided the machine should be closed in all senses and lay
the blame at his feet.

Peter Dibble