McKinney, Webb oral history
Webb McKinney was an executive in Hewlett Packard over many years and involved in various efforts to build software to run on HP instruments, specialized equipment and eventually on minicomputers and personal computers. His recollections illustrate how the decentralized operation of many of the HP products led to multiple developments of both minicomputers and personal computers with conflicting architectures and business models. While these competing technologies would get resolved over time, HP was often late to market and never really focused its computer software on the broad personal usage market. HP wanted to differentiate its hardware platforms through its unique software, but the market migrated to a Microsoft Windows platform and neither the customers nor the software producers were prepared to go a separate route.
Item Details
- Date
- 2008-06-04 (Made)
- Type
- Document
- Catalogue number
- 102654051
- Organization
- Computer History Museum
- People
- Webb McKinney (Interviewee)
Nicholas Rawlings (Editor)
Michael Mahoney (Interviewer) - Category
- Transcript
- Format
- Credit line
- Software History Center
- Extent
- 30
- Place of publication
- North America/USA/CA/Mountain View
- Language
- English
- Acquisition number
- X4701.2008
- Subject
- Apple, Microsoft, Lotus Development Corporation, WordPerfect, Texas Instruments, Inc. (TI), International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), Hewlett Packard (HP), Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)
- Archive collection
- CHM Oral History Collection
- Archive hierarchy
- CHM Oral History Collection