The Twelve Most Tarnished Brands In Tech 430
harrymcc writes "Polaroid, Netscape, CompuServe, Westinghouse, Heathkit — these were once among the most respected names in the technology business. They're still around, but what's happened to them is just plain sad. I took a look at the tragic fates of a dozen mighty brands that have, in one way or another, fallen on hard times."
Old modems (Score:5, Informative)
3Com/USRobotics should be on this list.
Re:HP (Score:3, Informative)
I liked the HP server line, and when I was shopping around last spring for a new server, even got a couple of quotes, but at the end of the day, they just weren't willing to price match Dell. I felt bad, because, support-wise, Dell has gone to shit, too. I also got quotes on some low-end HP workstations (22 workstations) to upgrade some old Dells, and the only way I could get them to compare to similar Vostros was to dump DVD burning and buy smaller LCD monitors. It's like they didn't give a fuck at all. The reseller, a guy who I like a great deal and would have loved to give the purchase to, literally apologized for HP not playing ball.
Re:AOL (Score:4, Informative)
But coasters! We got lots of coasters (or aerodynamically challenged frisbees) out of the deal. Worth something.
I think they may have sent out floppies first, so at least you got a free floppy before.
Re:Napster was respected when? (Score:3, Informative)
Napster was important because it was the first P2P program. The post-lawsuit napster company wasn't important, but it brought file sharing to the masses and scared the record lables as badly as the VCR scared the movie industry.
Were you asleep then or something?
Re:reverse effect? (Score:4, Informative)
First P2P? (Score:3, Informative)
Uh, Read RFC 1.
December 1969.
I'll agree that Napster immensely popularized the use of P2P tech... but it wasn't the first, not by a long shot.
Re:HP didn't make the list? (Score:5, Informative)
Compaq never had a good brand reputation to lose. They've made junk computers since day one.
Spoken like someone who doesn't know anything about Compaq besides what they see in department stores.
Compaq's business products (Deskpro line) were top-of-the-line. They were elegantly-engineered tanks that ran pretty much forever. Opening one up revealed a thing of beauty - being able to swap out expansion cards and hard drives without need of a screwdriver even to open the case, without being flimsy.
The Presario was junk, but do you judge all Fords based solely on the Pinto, all Chevys based solely on the Vega? Compaq made rock-solid business desktops and servers.
Re:Microsoft (Score:3, Informative)
Who ever did?
Re:HP didn't make the list? (Score:4, Informative)
My memory of Deskpros is that they drew blood every time I opened one up. Sure, you could open the case "without need of a screwdriver" but it meant turning metal thumbscrews that were shaped suspiciously like, and were as sharp as, bits for a wood router. The insides were all razor-sharp, stamped metal patiently waiting to get near your wrist or a finger.
The overall impression was that Compaq hated their customers and wanted them to suffer.
Re:reverse effect? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:HP didn't make the list? (Score:4, Informative)
remember DEC had some x86 systems that were similar. Great quality, but proprietary as hell and tough to work on the hardware. Faster than other desktops of the same category.
Re:This is the title (Score:3, Informative)
As you said they still do some nifty R&D as well. The folks they have in the 'consulting' business I have met so far are top notch as well.
Their consumer products... what consumer products? They sold all those divisions off so they could keep margins up.
Radio Shack (Score:3, Informative)
Re:HP didn't make the list? (Score:4, Informative)
My thoughts exactly. I remember opening Compaqs to explore what was inside, and getting really bad cuts from the sharp things everywhere.
On another note, what about Hughes?
Under Howard Hughes [wikipedia.org], the company was doing fantastic. They did some great stuff, and came up with some pretty awesome inventions.
And then, Howard went batshit crazy, and the company went downhill. Hughes still does some pretty cool stuff, but it's nothing like that it used to be.
Another company, of course, is Bell Labs.
Through nothing short of government greed and interference, the fantastic company that gave us transistors, lasers, information theory, radio astronomy, Unix and C was broken up, and eventually destroyed everything that they stood for.
Today, AT&T, Alcatel-Lucent, and baby-Bells are nothing short of a joke.
There is no innovation to speak of, nothing approaching the scale of Bell Labs in any case. It was a sad, sad day.
Personally, I feel that had Hughes and Bell Labs survived today, we may have had more technological advances than we do today.
Amiga status (Score:4, Informative)
In Europe they went crazy for the Amiga. Most Amiga users are upset at Microsoft and Apple for screwing them in the past and some dual-boot AmigaOS and Yellow Dog Linux or some other PowerPC version of Linux.
If Slashdot had bothered to cover the Amiga we'd know what went wrong and what they are currently doing.
AmigaOS 4.0 was written by Hyperion or some other company and there was licensing deals. AmigaOS 5.0 was supposed to outclass and outperform Windows Vista and Mac OSX. But due to lawsuits it never got released.
The best open source project to come out of the Amiga technology is Amiga Research OS [sourceforge.net] which will work on Intel X86 systems and virtual machines and has a version that runs native inside of Linux. But it lacks proper third party hardware drivers for modern systems so I'd run it in VirtualBox or some other virtual machine like HaikuOS does. AROS is AmigaOS 3.1 based on the APIs and started out as a WINE product and became a full OS.
Amiga, Inc. sells some of the classic Amiga games for Windows and mobile devices under the Amiga Anywhere titles. Some day like the C64 they will port them to the WII, PS3, and XBox 360, etc.
In an attempt to open source and modernize the Amiga and AmigaOS technology they are taking a page from Apple and making an AmigaOS merge with Linux to create Anubis OS [anubis-os.org] but it is not Amiga, Inc that is doing it but another group. While Mac OS X was based on NextStep (A MACH kernel *BSD Unix based OS) and the Classic MacOS series the Anubis OS claims to be Linux based with the Amiga GUI and ability to run Amiga software.
I hereby challenge Slashdot editors and readers to report on the Amiga projects as they mature and make progress. See if 2010 can be the year of the Amiga coverage at Slashdot and create an Amiga category if one doesn't already exist.
Re:Packard Bell for the WIN! (Score:3, Informative)
the metal frame had a spot-welded plate covering the bay, for reasons unknown to me.
The plates are there to keep RF noise from leaving the PC case and causing the machine to fail CE/FCC testing. Making them snap-out is much cheaper than clips or screws and there is little need to ever put them back (people rarely reduce the number of drives in a machine and if they do they generally don't want to put the machine through FCC/CE testing afterwards)
Usually they don't require a chisel to remove though, maybe thier welder was set up wrong.
Re:HP (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Radio Shack? (Score:3, Informative)
AIDS laxatives doesn't qualify because its name was co-opted for a disease, not volunteered.
1) It was Ayds
2) it was an appetite suppressant, not a laxative
Re:Radio Shack (Score:3, Informative)
I'd give you that if it weren't for the ridiculous prices they have on the rest of the items in the store.
Last time I needed a mini-stereo to Video/Stereo RCA cable, they wanted $27.99. Granted, Best Buy wanted $29.99 and Circuit City only had the Monster branded one for $59.99...
BUT IT'S JUST A $3 CABLE!
I wanted it right away and would have paid maybe $10, but instead I went home and went on ebay and got it for $2.50 plus $3 shipping.
I'm perfectly willing to pay a markup, but not a 1000% markup.
Re:Napster was respected when? (Score:3, Informative)
The original Commodore....
-Marketed a disk drive that had a hundred percent failure rate, couldn't be stacked because of overheating, and was the slowest floppy drive ever built.
-Marketed a computer that accessed that drive by sending BASIC statements, in ASCII, down a serial bus.
-Advertised that the drive was user-programmable and refused to release programming information for it.
-Marketed a computer whose ROM kernel routines didn't work, so programmers had to take up scarce RAM with their own routines to do stuff like moving the cursor.
-Couldn't even spell "kernel". They called it the "Kernal".
And they went downhill?
rj
Re:Radio Shack (Score:2, Informative)
Australian/New Zealand readers can relate this to Dick Smith Electronics. Used to sell individual components, and always have at least one nerd on duty who at least knew what they were. Now they're just trying to emulate harvey norman and JB hifi selling TVs and stereos, but with a smaller selection, higher prices, and dumber staff. Component sales have also completely disappeared - at least Radio Shack can still sell a few overpriced resistors, which although expensive is a lot quicker than mail order.
Yes, I'm a former employee of Dick Smith Electronics. It's a damn shame what's happened to them, and seems to me an insane business move to move out of your niche into an already saturated market.
Re:Radio Shack (Score:3, Informative)
Fortunately, Jaycar is picking up the slack and taking all that business off them nicely. Dick Smith themselves don't seem to care and even once told me to go to Jaycar instead.