

The 68000 Wars, Part 2: Jack Is Back - mgunes
http://www.filfre.net/2015/04/the-68000-wars-part-2-jack-is-back/

======
abdias
Additional details in this interview with Dave Haynie (raise both arms who
remember Dave!):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSyF_2OwN3I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSyF_2OwN3I)

(about 7-8 mins, but for Amiga-vets it is an interesting interview in whole).

~~~
twsted
I remember following Dave Haynie on Usenet, in the pre-web era. A wonderful
guy, enthusiastically sharing his knowledge about the Amiga.

------
bane
Jack Tramiel is a fascinating businessman to learn about. I think he should be
required study in any business curriculum.

\- Huge Personality

\- Ruthless

\- Hated

\- Loved

\- Constant Drama around him

He had a definite business plan, and followed it with a kind of madness. He's
famously quoted saying "business is war" and truly ran his businesses this
way. There's a lot to hate about him, but a lot to learn from -- his
weaknesses were as big as his strengths. He was more important in terms of
popularizing home computers in his time than Bill Gates and Steve Jobs
combined and has often been called the "anti-jobs" for his virtually opposite
position on computers from Steve Jobs.

He also deeply alienated third parties and towards the end of Atari, they
found it virtually impossible to get anybody to work with them. Stories of him
and his sons tearing contracts to shreds and shouting "go ahead and sue me"
are legendary.

Here's some articles on him for anybody interested

[http://www.commodore.ca/history/people/jack_tramiel_starting...](http://www.commodore.ca/history/people/jack_tramiel_starting_over.htm)

[http://www.atarimagazines.com/v3n10/JackTramiel.html](http://www.atarimagazines.com/v3n10/JackTramiel.html)

[http://www.cringely.com/2012/04/11/the-jack-tramiel-we-
didnt...](http://www.cringely.com/2012/04/11/the-jack-tramiel-we-didnt-know/)

[http://gizmodo.com/5900742/the-anti-steve-jobs-
dies](http://gizmodo.com/5900742/the-anti-steve-jobs-dies)

[http://www.commodore.ca/history/people/jack_tramiel_starting...](http://www.commodore.ca/history/people/jack_tramiel_starting_over.htm)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMD2nF7meDI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMD2nF7meDI)

~~~
digi_owl
Calling him the anti-jobs because he didn't obsess over design is a bit out
there, as the impression i am left with is they operated in a very similar
way.

Both would set some arbitrary target for the engineers and designers, and
ruthlessly hold them to it.

For instant i think Tramiel insisted on the C64 using no more than 80 chips.
Eventually the first production run shipped with 81 because of a issue with
the power regulator.

Interestingly, the original Woz design was probably very in the spirit of
Tramiel. This because Woz was designing for personal use, and so tried to keep
cost down by using as much of the components as he could manage.

But note that the component count reduction did not affect the utility of
either computer.

But the Jobs style design focus seems to more often than not produce an
appliance, by restricting what the user can do.

~~~
cmrdporcupine
Jobs was a tyrant just like Tramiel. Working under either of them was
apparently not pleasant, though sharing in their success when they had it must
have been.

The big qualitative difference between the two is one was an aesthete and the
other was not. Tramiel didn't care about elegance, he just wanted to sell.

That doesn't mean the people under him didn't care about such things, and the
Atari ST actually is an elegant machine, but an incomplete elegant machine.

For example GEM (a Digital Research creation licensed by Atari) was
incomplete. The API is elegant for the 80s. The AES in it was clearly designed
for a multitasking system, and one with potentially more finesse than the
Amiga had. But it wasn't truly finished -- while the API reflected concerns of
multitasking the actual implementation was non-reentrant and the OS it was
layered over was a crude DOS/CP/M-like OS.

The key designer on the GEM AES @ Digital Research apparently came from the
Xerox Star project. He was obviously smart. The execution was flawed -- both
at DR and at Atari.

But this did not concern Tramiel, he just wanted to ship.

------
cognivore
Is it just me, or is Shiraz Shivji the spitting image of a young Steve Jobs?!
Separated at birth?

