Wikipedia

[schen]

I'm fairly certain that various ones of you long-time ThinkPad guys probably contribute to the Wikipedia entries on IBM and/or ThinkPads. Unfortunately, I don't think that seems to be the case on the general "laptop/notebook" page which seems to not only have some obvious errors, but (at least IMHO) a definite Apple/Mac slant to things. I personally don't have anything against Mac, but I thought that maybe somebody here (who is more knowlegeable on computing history than I) might be interested in taking a look at that and doing a little editing.

[BillMorrow]

apple = 6802, PC = 8088

give us a link to the wikipedia page in question..
please..

[schen]

Here you go Bill (and anyone else that's interested). Hopefully, this will result in more and more accurate info in the Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notebook_computer

[JHEM]

Here you go Bill (and anyone else that's interested). Hopefully, this will result in more and more accurate info in the Wikipedia.

I don't really see any bias there WRT the Apple offerings.

However, there's a bunch of your old PARC cronies mentioned Bill!

Regards,

James

[schen]

Here you go Bill (and anyone else that's interested). Hopefully, this will result in more and more accurate info in the Wikipedia.

I don't really see any bias there WRT the Apple offerings.

However, there's a bunch of your old PARC cronies mentioned Bill!

Regards,

James

No it's not blatant, but things like the following section has definite leanings:

"The first Apple Computer machine designed to be used on the go was the 1989 Macintosh Portable (although an LCD screen had been an option for the transportable Apple IIc in 1984). Another "luggable," rather than laptop, the Mac Portable was praised for its clear active matrix display and long battery life, but was a poor seller due to its bulk. In the absence of a true Apple laptop, several compatible machines such as the Outbound Laptop were available for Mac users; however, for copyright reasons, the user had to supply a set of Mac ROMs, which usually meant having to buy a new or used Macintosh as well.

The Apple PowerBook series, introduced in 1991, heralded many changes that are now standard on laptops, including ergonomic improvements such as the placement of the keyboard at the back of the machine, thus creating a palm rest, and the inclusion of a built-in pointing device (a trackball). The following year, IBM released its Thinkpad series, offering similar miniaturization.

Later PowerBooks introduced the first 256-color displays, first true touchpad, and first built-in Ethernet networking."

It pretty much makes it sound like that the form-factor of the modern notebook can all be pretty much attributed to the Powerbook and that the ThinkPad was nothing more than a good copy! Don't get me wrong, I have a very strong belief the Mac design was and still is some of the best in the world and personally believe the the G3 PBs are the most beautiful notebook ever produced, but at the same time feel that the above is a gross simplification of the notebook design history. On top of which, Mac fanatics rarely if ever fully attribute how much of the basic ideas of the modern GUI based computer that Apple copied from PARC!

[christopher_wolf]

I have this to say about Wikipedia...

Never take it too seriously


It isn't meant to be a definitive guide and information repository to everything. You get the standard dynamic equilibrium of people that know something vs the people that don't editing and reverting...Sometimes, you end up with an entertaining Edit War in the discussion section for a new article.


That can be changed easily, and hopefully you won't encounter some troll under the bridge that pops up and changes it back again and again.