IBM PC and open-source

Previous Topic Next Topic
 
classic Classic list List threaded Threaded
1 message Options
Reply | Threaded
Open this post in threaded view
|

IBM PC and open-source

Brad Fuller
Hey All,

I created a blog wondering that if open-source was popular when the IBM
PC was introduced (25 years ago this week), would the PC look/be any
different today, and if so, how. I mentioned Xerox PARC in the blog, but
I don't know if there was any interaction between PARC and IBM
(reportedly not, but that's just what I read.)

If anyone has insights or knowledge of the time, I sure would like to
read your thoughts by posting on the blog (no, I don't get any $$ from
this!)

While I don't believe one could consider the technology at PARC open
source, I have read and heard that PARC did try and evangelize Smalltalk
to push it out of the lab to propagate its use. Certainly it's
predecessor Squeak can, for all practical purpose (ignoring the
licensing issues), be considered open source.

Here's the link to the blog:

http://www.oreillynet.com/digitalmedia/blog/2006/08/open_source_in_1981_the_ibm_pc.html

thanks for your insights!

--
brad fuller