17 ms·

I was working at IBM in the 1980s when they came out with the term "workstation" -- many of us winced at such a terrible term and concept. They did that to mar

I was working at IBM in the 1980s when they came out with the term "workstation" -- many of us winced at such a terrible term and concept. They did that to market PCs to corporate customers. The term takes the machine from a place where you can invent and create to one where you simply toil. IBM chose the lucrative corporate customers in doing so, letting Apple fully own the "creatives" (artists, musicians, advertisers, ...).

mxuribe 5y ago
That's fascinating! Is there anything you can share about any less-enterprise, more "creative" alternative names that might hjave been considered? My initial guess was someone probably suggested "CreateStations...but that doesn't roll off the tongue as smoothly as "workstations"...BTW, I always interpreted the "work" portion in workstations as a machine *working for me*...though i totally get they "toil" perspective you noted.