Free Republic

Looking back at the Personal Computer Model 5150 THE YEAR WAS 1981, the US defeat in Vietnam was already six years in the past, while many people had only hazy memories of most of the 1970s with its drugs, bellbottom pants and disco craze. Ronald Reagan was US President and it was "Morning in America" once again. And that year IBM introduced its IBM PC model 5150 on 12 August, 30 years ago today.*************Photo at source*************** The first IBM PC wasn't much by today's standards. It had an Intel 8088 processor that ran at the blazing speed of 4.77MHz. The...

The man who founded the world's largest PC company thinks the best is still to come after a quarter-century of the IBM PC. Twenty-five years have passed since IBM launched its version of the personal computer. Apple Computer may have captured the attention of early computer hobbyists with its first products, but IBM's PC made the business world sit up and realize that personal computers could be much more than toys. Michael Dell started off using PCs to create homework shortcuts, the way many young people at the time discovered the new devices. Few people, including Dell's parents, realized exactly...

China is moving into the merger-and-acquisition major leagues, as its star corporations shop for American household names like Unocal, Maytag and IBM, looking for bigger profits through global ambitions. China's growing appetite for Western corporate icons is reflected computer maker Lenovo Group Ltd's recent takeover of IBM's personal computer business and two big deals reportedly in the making for Unocal Corp. and Maytag Corp. "I'd expect at least a half a dozen similar deals by the end of the year," said Jack J.T. Huang, chairman of international law firm Jones Day's Greater China practice. But the deals are not without...