The movie ‘Triumph of Nerds’ part 2 developed a concept of the computer market and revolved around the functioning, and licensing of computer systems. Tom Watson and Tom Watson Jr. were founders of IBM. They led a dream to indulge in computer functioning and excel the market.
They worked in the sense of no rest, operating more than the specified time and with starched collars. The corporate culture they tended to reflect was of the unique type. To entertain themselves, they enjoy music and different songs. The inspiration for them was big companies like Apple and Microsoft.
The integration of IBM in August 1979 captured many competitors of PC.
Making PC was a different idea, and it centered on the use of shelf components and architecture. Having forwarded all these techniques, still, a problem arises of licensing. How to license the computer and the modern operating system and language used to start a computer was a big issue for them.
Triumph of Nerds Work Inspiration
For this issue, they looked towards Bill Gates and Gary kildall. It was because; Kildall had software for OS and CPM. On the other hand, Bill Gates had most robust language system for the computer, and they needed these both elements for their computer. In the meeting, gates told IBM that he does not have OS while Kildall had this in CPM. THEN, IBM went to Kildall home to talk on it, but it went in vain. He contacted Gates again for help.
Paul Allen, who worked for Bill Gates, had an idea about an OS developed by Patterson. It was termed as dirty dos or QDOS. It resembled CPM as Patterson used same engineering rules of OS. Since he worked for Seattle Computer Products and had not licensed the OS to Microsoft, Gates had to $50,000 to use QDOS unlimited. It later became a deal for Microsoft, and they later sold the license for the computer is $50.
Further, in ‘Triumph of Nerds’, depicted that Microsoft accessed both parts required for the IBM and they later started an IBM PC. It was termed as ‘the Floridian Project.’ It was also anticipated in the market of computers. IBM released this computer in 1981 and made a sale of 2 million PCs.
The Lotus, a spreadsheet program, was a fantastic application that made IBM quick sale PC in all over the market. Though IBM performed cool way, yet there were some mistakes encountered later. OS from Gates was not taken by IBM and also not prevented for the license to other companies. Only Gates was paid a fee so that they can use it well for their computer. ‘Triumph of Nerds’ reflected the consistent approach towards work performance.
Triumph of Nerds and IBM
Later, Intel manufactured a CPU for IBM, and they could sell it to anyone they intended to. These were two critical elements exposed to competitors before someone came and took a hold on IBM. It was Compaq and Rod Canion that came on the scene. Compaq intended to get the parts of PCs and Microsoft software.
IBM held a proprietorship for ROM-BIOS that was not conferred to Compaq. So they had to use a different technique ‘reverse engineering’ to attain the copy of ROM-BIOS legally. As a result, the clone of IBM computer was manufactured, and it was sold to huge consumers due to a bit less cost.
‘Triumph of Nerds’ portrayed the relationship of Microsoft and IBM excitingly. Both companies ruled the PC market for ten years and earned a lot. IBM was considered the most significant manufacturer of PC, yet, afterward due to some flaws they had to incur enormous costs. Microsoft sales were at the peak of about a hundred billion dollar in the industry while IBM left behind due to some cons.
