Jack Tramiel dies at age 83

[damiraga]

RIP Jack!

[Vlabguy1]

Sad just saw the news on my FB news feed .  I can honestly say that if the C64 had never been made my life would be different to say the least.  The C64 was my first computer and had/ have a blast using it.  Yep she still works

Rich

[Dragster]

Sad just saw the news on my FB news feed .  I can honestly say that if the C64 had never been made my life would be different to say the least.  The C64 was my first computer and had/ have a blast using it.  Yep she still works

Rich

+1

[Matt_H]

Sad news. He was a true pioneer.

[mechy]

Sad just saw the news on my FB news feed .  I can honestly say that if the C64 had never been made my life would be different to say the least.  The C64 was my first computer and had/ have a blast using it.  Yep she still works

Rich

+2

[vidarh]

The father of the C64 saved my life and then had his company stolen from him by the Islamic Crime Syndicate in cahoots with other criminals who then intentionally destroyed the company.  A classic case of Corporate Assassination (corporacide).

This must be an all time most ridiculous comment, surely?

If you're intent on bringing religion or ethnicity into it: He was jewish, and was forced out by Irving Gould, also jewish. So how you manage to get Islam into it is beyond me.

It was also pretty clearly "just" business: Gould and Tramiel were both flawed in their separate but very human ways. Gould was in it for the money and control and prestige, but was relatively clueless about the business. Tramiel desperately wanted it to be "his" family enterprise the way it had been before he had to turn to Tramiel for an investment to save the company. He kept running the company that was as it grew into a major multinational, and he also wanted his sons into important positions when they were old enough, something which worried Gould immensely when Tramiel was pushing for it just as Commodore had hit the big leagues. Recipe for a major conflict.

It's easy to blame Gould for it in retrospect, especially since he utterly failed in getting a replacement that had any much clue about what he was doing, but it's hard to tell how Tramiel would've managed either - the guy burned out executives faster than other people burn through cigars.

[Digiman]

The guy that developed the Atari ST saved your life?

Jack was kicked out of his own co. Commodore because he wanted to slash prices and so dominate market share.

He bought Atari with all his cash available and the ST (better than both EGA PC and Mono Macintosh btw) was all he could produce with time/money/resources he had as Warner's Atari he bought was hemorrhaging money faster than even Commodore ever did in AGA years.

Back on topic, this is horrible news. VIC/PET/C64 have more style and class than any computer/console made to date.

World would have been a lot less fun had he not started that little typewriter repair company which would one day become the producers of the finest computers the world has ever seen.

RIP

[Steady]

RIP. Jack Tramiel.
Commodore was vital to many people getting hold of computers who may not have been otherwise able.

Cheers Jack (and all those hard-working, creative Commodore people).

[Dragster]

Poke 53280,0  
Poke 53281,0

[Ral-Clan]

The POKEs to black - what a great tribute to the founder of Commodore.

Didn't he move to Toronto, Canada and start his typewriter company (Commodore) there.  The article (incorrectly?) states:

"Tramiel was rescued in April 1945 and emigrated to the United States in 1947. In America, Tramiel started a typewriter repair business."

[edit] ... just checked Wikipedia...

"In 1953, while working as a taxi driver, he bought a shop in the Bronx to repair office machinery,[4] and named it Commodore Portable Typewriter. Tramiel secured a $25,000 loan for the business from a U.S. Army entitlement.[5] In 1955, Tramiel signed a deal with a Czechoslovak company to assemble and sell their typewriters in North America. However, as Czechoslovakia was part of the Warsaw Pact, they could not be imported directly into the U.S., so Tramiel set up Commodore Business Machines in Toronto.[4] Tramiel wanted a military-style name for his company, but names like Admiral and General were already taken, so he settled on the Commodore name.[6]"

So I guess he was American and started a company called Commodore there to repair typewriters, but later founded the company called Commodore Business Machines in Toronto that grew into the international computer company we knew and loved.

[Digiman]

If you believe in reincarnation....

SYS 64738

[ChaosLord]

@Vidarh

Mehdi Ali is an Islamic Terrorist who infiltrates non-Islamic (preferably Jewish, but any will do) companies and then whoopsy, "accidentally" bankrupts them.  He then brags on his website that what he did was a "great success".

[dreamcast270mhz]

ChaosLord

Be careful my friend, you're treading on dangerous territory, lets not induce religion in this.

[ChaosLord]

@DreamCast270Mhz

 If you value happiness over truth then then just call him an Atheist Terrorist who assassinated the world's best computer company.    You'll be lying but at least you will be mostly telling the truth and you will be happy.  KTHNXL8RBYE

[TheBilgeRat]

RIP
My first computer was C64c.
Here is a nice interview with Jack and others during C64 25th Anniversary Celebration.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBvbsPNBIyk

Man, its funny to watch Jack and Woz trade jabs.  There is no love lost there!

[runequester]

A pretty good example that sometimes evil people can bring good to the world.

RIP and thank you.