Computer History Museum

Whitlow, Duane oral history

Duane Whitlow, the developer of Syncsort, describes the founding of Whitlow Computer Systems which was later renamed Syncsort and how he came to develop a sort product which was much more efficient than the sort available from IBM at the time. He describes how they were able to use demos to sell very effectively against IBM at a time when independent software vendors found it very difficult to get into IBM's customers' shops, a success which paved the way for many other software companies. He talks about why he felt it was important to patent the product although patenting software was very difficult to do and about the difficulties he and the other founders had in financing the start-up company.

Item Details

Date
1998-05-08 (Made)
Type
Document
Catalogue number
102702251
People
Duane Whitlow (Interviewee)
Luanne Johnson (Interviewer)
Category
Transcript
Credit line
Gift of Johnson, Luanne
Extent
19 p.
Language
English
Acquisition number
X5710.2010
Subject
Software Patents, Syncsort
Archive collection
CHM Oral History Collection
Archive hierarchy
CHM Oral History Collection