

Programma 101 - dictum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programma_101

======
ot
The story of Olivetti is interesting and sad. They had many opportunities to
be the Italian Apple (they even owned ARM from 1985 to 1998!), all of them
missed because of terrible management choices.

The Programma 101 was a perfect combination of innovative technology,
usability and industrial design. When it was introduced at the New York
World's Fair it stole the show. However, the management decided not to pursue
any more r&d on the project. Some of the reasons:

\- They were afraid it would jeopardize their mainframe business (which they
sold soon after that anyway)

\- They thought it was useless. One of the managers even told Perotto "if
nobody is building this, it means nobody needs it"

This gave HP enough time to _copy_ the design and rule the market.

A couple of years ago a documentary was made on the history of the Programma
101, I found it very instructive. Unfortunately only the trailer
([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noN0zNYFs9I](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noN0zNYFs9I))
has English subtitles, the documentary is only in Italian.

~~~
danmaz74
Actually, when the product was displayed at the World Fair, the mainframe
business had already been sold, so, that's not the reason.

~~~
ot
You're right, I've got the timeline a bit messed up. Anyway, I'm sure that the
project met resistance at some point because of the competition with the
mainframe business.

~~~
danmaz74
Maybe at its inception. I guess that the real problem there was that the
project wasn't the pet of any specific big manager in the company - a real
pity.

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georgeoliver
This is an incredible bit:

"Developed between 1962 and 1964, it was saved from the sale of the computer
division to GE thanks to an employee who one night changed the internal
categorization of the product from "computer" to "calculator", leaving the
small team in Olivetti and creating some awkward situations in the office,
since the building except that office was then owned by GE"

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phkamp
The Danish Computer History Museuem is currently restoring a Programma 101.
Right now we're trying to construct some magnetic cards for the card-reader.

[http://datamuseum.dk/wiki/Olivetti/Programma_101/Revive](http://datamuseum.dk/wiki/Olivetti/Programma_101/Revive)

~~~
danmaz74
Great; I would really love to see it working in a video. Keep us updated!

~~~
thorkilnaur
There are a few videos available: Please check the links at the end of the
sections
[http://datamuseum.dk/wiki/Olivetti/Programma_101/Revive#2013...](http://datamuseum.dk/wiki/Olivetti/Programma_101/Revive#2013-Oct-17:_hello.2C_world)
and
[http://datamuseum.dk/wiki/Olivetti/Programma_101/Revive#2013...](http://datamuseum.dk/wiki/Olivetti/Programma_101/Revive#2013-Oct-31:_Adjusting_the_printer_and_the_keybord_lock_mechanism).

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danmaz74
I was looking for a video showing how the device worked... didn't find
anything good, but this one is interesting anyway!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpkqdbz1R_s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpkqdbz1R_s)

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antirez
There is a documentary that explains a lot of technical details and the
history of the project, but unfortunately it is in italian only without
english subtitles...
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYB2oBc1BpA](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYB2oBc1BpA)

~~~
danmaz74
I can't volunteer at the moment, but it would great if somebody created the
English subtitles for that...

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bernarpa
Perotto wrote the Programma 101's story itself. It's on the web, but in
Italian only, sadly:

[http://www.piergiorgioperotto.it/libriperotto/programma%2010...](http://www.piergiorgioperotto.it/libriperotto/programma%20101/101pag.htm)

He wrote that indeed the management didn't put many resources in the Programma
101 development. Was it because of mainframes or what? We don't know.

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auvrw
i used to want an olivetti typewriter...

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Olivetti-
Valentine.jpg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Olivetti-Valentine.jpg)

... didn't know they made computers.

~~~
riffraff
I own this

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivetti_Lettera_32](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivetti_Lettera_32)

and while I haven't used it in ten years or so, I still think it's an amazing
piece of industrial design.

