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Re: Harvest time!

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On Fri, 02 Oct 2026 18:17:24 GMT, Charlie Gibbs wrote:

> On 2026-10-02, Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 1 Oct 2026 20:05:04 -0700, Lars Poulsen wrote:
>>
>>> On 10/1/2026 15:11, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
>>>>
>>>> The STRETCH machine was mentioned as failing to meet its
>>>> performance goals; that was part, perhaps even the start, of
>>>> IBM’s long history of overpromising and underdelivering.
>>>
>>> I feel there is a bit more snark here than I find justified. The
>>> goal was a very large stretch, and the attempt to reach it did
>>> indeed advance the state of the art a great deal, paving the way
>>> for the 360 series.
>>
>> That, too, led to another instance of overpromising and
>> underdelivering, with IBM’s FUD campaign to stop potential
>> customers buying machines from CDC.
>
> To be honest, though, this was standard behaviour throughout the
> industry. I worked for Sperry->Unisys for four years, and saw many
> instances of lowballing memory requirements to get a sale (the
> customer would later have to spring for additional memory, but the
> sale had been made by then). I finally left when I got tired of
> keeping salesmen's promises for them.

IBM went much, much further. Remember, they pioneered the concept of
“FUD” (“Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt”) to scare customers off rivals’
products, as notoriously happened with CDC. They didn’t have product
superiority, but they had marketing superiority. Their products were
clunky, expensive and inflexible, as well as being outdated in many
ways, but they still dominated the market (at least for mainframes)
because “nobody got fired for buying IBM”.

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Harvest time! David Lesher <wb8foz@panix.com> - 2026-10-01 02:06 +0000
  Re: Harvest time! Anton Antimo <anton@safunu.org> - 2026-10-01 11:26 -0300
    Re: Harvest time! Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson <johann@myrkraverk.invalid> - 2026-10-01 23:44 +0800
    Re: Harvest time! David LaRue <huey.dll@tampabay.rr.com> - 2026-10-01 21:22 +0000
  Re: Harvest time! Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-10-01 22:11 +0000
    Re: Harvest time! Lars Poulsen <lars@beagle-ears.com> - 2026-10-01 20:05 -0700
      Re: Harvest time! Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-10-02 04:50 +0000
        Re: Harvest time! Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2026-10-02 18:17 +0000
          Re: Harvest time! Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-10-02 21:44 +0000
            Re: Harvest time! Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2026-10-02 13:43 -1000
              Re: Harvest time! James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-10-03 19:31 +0000
                Re: Harvest time! Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-10-03 21:43 +0000
                Re: Harvest time! Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2026-10-03 16:16 -1000
                Re: Harvest time! James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-10-06 21:23 +0000
  Re: Harvest time! John Levine <johnl@taugh.com> - 2026-10-02 01:48 +0000

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