Microsoft Windows vs. IBM 701

[Tom Jennings]

On Thu, 28 Oct 2004, William Donzelli wrote:

> > I was reading that 1961 BRL survey, and found the user reports
> > of the IBM 701 fascinating. They apparently had an average
> > uptime of about 2-4 hours. That doesn't seem like much by
> > today's standards, but then how often does Windows crash on you?
> 
> One of the often told stories of the early days of computers is that of
> the completely unreasonable downtime, due to tube failure. There is even a
> myth (pretty much disproved) about AN/FSQ-7 SAGE techs wearing roller
> skates to replace the constantly dying tubes. 
> 
> Basically, tube computers were not that bad, all of the time. o

Oh neither David nor I take it that way; "downtime" likely has
systemic implications. Peripheral equipment, problems (hardware
or otherwise) with newfangled tape drives, who knows.

More, it was a comment on user perception of reliability,
and an obvious and gratuitous jab at M$ :-)