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DEC went down the drain, Xerox is 1/1000 of IBM's market cap. IBM made its own, superior by its relative openness, personal computer that ended up running the world, mostly maintaining direct binary compatibility for 40+ years, even without IBM really paying attention.




How much did IBM itself benefit from the PC? I thought the clones ate their lunch there

Wikipedia says their PC revenue was twice Apple's by 1984 at $4 billion/year. Not bad for a side hustle?

My understanding is that clones were a net positive, just like widespread Windows/Office piracy is a net positive for MS.


fair enough



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