Why did the IBM PC survive?

[aimeeandbeatles]

I read somewhere that most PCs today are based on IBM PCs, although back in the 80s there were also other types of computers (I think some of them were the C64, the Atari, I think Amiga, if there's others please say)

Why did the IBM PC (and also the Mac) survive?

Thanks ahead of time.

 

[Cutlass]

The backing of IBM gave the PC an advantage over the others when it came to making inroads into business uses. And the open physical architecture of the hardware, as compared to the others, meant that there were more hardware makers involved. And that lead to rapid hardware advances and and since people were able to more customize the machine to their wants and needs, it appealed to more people. Apple's biggest weakness has always been its lack of compatibility to hardware and software from other makers. Meaning if you had something from Apple, you either had everything from Apple, or you did without. The PC could have both hardware and software from many makers. That made it much easier to use, and much more versatile. The PC has also always had an advantage when connecting to a network (at least until fairly recently). Apple's proprietary network protocol really was only efficient with small numbers of other Apple computers. While the network protocols PCs used were easily scalable to networks of any size, including the internet.

What it really amounts to is that the IBM compatible PC was made with fewer mistakes and more adaptability than the others.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Good explanation.

I was reading a bit up on IBM, they seem like a good company. Innovative, at the least.

 

[Gelion]

I think the real issue was that they did not pattern their invention and thus everyone was able to use it

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

You mean patent?

 

[Padma]

I remember that the prevailing attitude of the day, especially in the business world, was "if it's not IBM, it's not a computer." So businesses bought IBM PCs when they began to look outside mainframe computing usage. And, of course, when the businessman goes home, and wants a computer there, he tends to want what he's familiar with, i.e., the same kind of machine he has at work.

Couple that with the fact that IBM 'shortsightedly' failed to patent their system, and everybody and his brother could, and did, make "PC-Clones". (I say shortsightedly, because IBM is a hardware company. They failed to see how these 'toys' would make them any real money. [sarcasm]After all, the real money is in "big iron" - mainframes.[/sarcasm] In the long run, though, they have benefited more by leaving it open.)

Since all the clones ran the same software, it grew into a 'common' system, and boosted Microsoft into prominence with it.

 

[GoodGame]

I read somewhere that most PCs today are based on IBM PCs, although back in the 80s there were also other types of computers (I think some of them were the C64, the Atari, I think Amiga, if there's others please say)

Why did the IBM PC (and also the Mac) survive?

Thanks ahead of time.

The PC survived partly because it was pirated, and mass-produced in China (I believe Taiwan included). That made it cheap, and everywhere. Probably they had the most utility as well. Being pirated probably helped make the hardware relatively 'open source' which leads the way to giving people more flexibility to design their own systems by components.

Apple found it's niche in the education system, and also as a home system.

From what I've read Amigas were mostly aimed at home entertainment niches. C-64 was a precursor for Commodore. From what I've read, Commodore just didn't compete with Apple and IBM well enough, and went bankrupt.

Atari just decided to drop out of computers, in favor of making a next gen video game system, but looks like Nintendo/Sega/Sony outcompeted them anyways.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Online, I've noticed a few games by a company called Atari, but I'm not sure if that's the same Atari that made computers. Anybody know?

 

[GoodGame]

Online, I've noticed a few games by a company called Atari, but I'm not sure if that's the same Atari that made computers. Anybody know?

Yeah but Atari has gone through bankruptcy. Basically anything prior to 1996 was 'original' Atari, and anything since is couple of fringe holders. A French computer game company Infrogrames took the name Atari, and they are atari.com currently.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari

 

[Padma]

Atari has always been a game company. In the early 80s, they began making computers, as well. The original Atari computers were, IMHO, even better than the C-64 (they used the same 6802 cpu). But Atari management didn't know what do do with computers. Marketing didn't know how to sell them. So they lagged in sales. Eventually, the key team behind the Atari computers went to Commodore, where they designed and developed the Amiga. (Meanwhile, the Commodore computer team that got displaced moved to Atari, where they designed and developed the Atari ST. )

Of course, Atari still didn't know what to do with these non-game systems, and eventually managed to go bankrupt. Like GoodGame said, Infograme eventually bought them, and has used the Atari label since the early 2000s.

 

[illram]

As others said it was the non-proprietary nature of the IBM PC, I think. This kept costs down and competition and innovation up. Back in the day the non IBM clone market was "PC Compatibles" and it grew pretty rapidly around the time the 286/386s started coming out. Anyone could do anything they wanted with them, basically. Peripherals were dirt cheap. "PS/2" peripherals (the old mouse and keyboard connectors hardly anyone uses anymore) for instance could be made by anyone without dealing with licensing headaches, even though the PS/2 was a specific type of IBM computer.

MS-DOS and Windows 3.1 also significantly opened the market. Aaah the good ol days of dealing with autoexec.bat and config.sys and boot discs to enable "virtual memory".... *sniff*