There's another factor in the Betamax vs. VHS struggle. I went into a department store to buy my first camcorder in the early 80s. I chose a Beta model. The sales guy said, "Most folks these days are buying VHS. You can only exchange tapes with the same technology. Pick out a VHS model. Take it home but don't open the box. Check with some friends and relatives to see what *they* have. If it's mostly Beta, then bring back the VHS and exchange it."
I never went back. . . J.O.Skip Robinson Southern California Edison Company Electric Dragon Team Paddler SHARE MVS Program Co-Manager 323-715-0595 Mobile 626-543-6132 Office ⇐=== NEW robin...@sce.com -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> On Behalf Of John McKown Sent: Tuesday, June 9, 2020 8:14 AM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: (External):Re: [External] Re: "Everyone wants to retire mainframes" CAUTION EXTERNAL EMAIL On Tue, Jun 9, 2020 at 9:21 AM Lionel B Dyck <lbd...@gmail.com> wrote: > Y'all stop using logic and reason - this is an emotional issue that > the author and others are invested in and has nothing to do with IBM > effectively telling the world that the mainframe is dead based on all > the layoffs that have occurred over the last 20-25 years, or that IBM > continues to offload software development or outright sells IBM > software to other companies, or that IBM has bought into the Cloud and > has reduced their investment in developing z/OS, or . . . . > > And then there is the vast amounts of money to be made by replacing a > mainframe - I'm sure that those vendors offering those services only > have the best interests of the current mainframe users at heart. > > It's Beta vs VHS all over again > Beta lost due to marketing idiocy. It was superior to VHS, technically, but "overpriced" compared to VHS. So the consumer went with the inferior but more affordable VHS. You're right -- exactly like z/OS vs. Windows and zSeries vs. AMD/Intel. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
