> I was so disgusted with IBM and other TLAs who I won't name for fear of > being flame-blasted for the "beige orthodoxy". Most companies always acted > like doing any industrial design or adding color would scare off their > business customers.
Do not blame the computer companies, blame the customers. Beige and gray were the colors they wanted. The bright dazzling colors of the 1960s and early 70s were gone, the earthtones of the late 1970s were phasing out, and the boring colors of the 1980s were starting to come into play. IBM did offer a choice of colors for much of their machine line (not the PC line, however) until the mid 1980s - blue (default), gray (2nd default), red, white, and yellow, and later brown and green (I have never seen either brown or green in the wild, but they are options in the catalog), but most customers wanted blue or gray. If so few customers wanted the other colors, it is easy to see why they were discontinued. > In the 1980's and 1990's SGI was a bright shining exception and I love > them for that early middle finger to the beige box priesthood. Keep in mind that while most of us think SGI's designs are super great, most of the customers outside the machine rooms thought they were, at best, "interesting". "Interesting" is a funny word... -- Will