Jack Tramiel, Founding Father Of Cyberculture

Jack Tramiel was born in Poland in 1928. After the Nazi invasion of 1939 he and his family were sent to a Jewish ghetto. Later, they were sent to one of the worst concentration camps of the Nazi Germany: Auschwitz. In Auschwitz, Jack Tramiel was selected by Dr. Mengele (more known as "The Angel of Death", one of the most cruel and wicked minds of Nazism) to go with his father to the work camp of Ahlem (Hanover). His mother stayed in Auschwitz. Jack Tramiel's father was assassinated by the Nazis (they injected him gasoline). He was rescued from the concentration camp in 1945 by the US Army. Two years later Jack Tramiel went to the USA, the country that gave him freedom, and joined their army. While he was in the army, he learned to repair typewriters. Some time later, he worked as a taxi driver. He saved some money, and bought a shop in the Bronx, where he worked repairing typewriters. He called it "Commodore Portable Typewriter". He had a remarkable success, and decided to move to Ontario (Canada) the following year. There, he focused on manufacturing office material at low cost. But in 1976 he had economical problems and he's about to go bankrupt. Tramiel, used to adversity, bets really hard: he gets a loan of 3 million dollar, and with this money, buys an American electronics company. It was called "Mos Technologies", but he changed its name to "Commodore International". Tramiel has a revolutionary idea: why not to make computing accessible to the general public? "Computers for the masses, not for the social classes". That were times in which computers were just a mere tool for the big companies, and privileged people that could pay a big amount of money. Tramiel starts a chain reaction, maybe a social revolution: no business will lack of a computer (a revolution in all offices), a new toy for the children, and a new way for entertainment that nowadays keeps a strong fight against the leader of communication: TV. Computers became the best vehicle for information, due to Internet. He releases a series of brilliant products, really revolutionary for those times, both for their technological improvements as for their progressively lowered price. For example, PET (designed by Chuck Peddle in 1977) and VIC-20 (in 1981, was one of the first computers able to work with colors, and were produced 9000 units per day). And in 1982, they launch the Commodore 64. It had all kinds of peripherals that were just high technology until then, and never seen before by the home users: optical pen and graphics tablet (that allowed to draw directly on the screen, or in an electronic blackboard), game devices (joystick, mouse, roller), modem to browse the Internet, video digitalizer (the precursor of web cams), MIDI sequencer, monitor filters... Commodore 64 brings the absolute success for his company. It is the best seller home computer in History, with more than 30 million units sold all over the world. This is why it appears in the Guinness World Records. Commodore International reached the 32% of the home computing market. In 1984 Jack Tramiel left Commodore and sold his shares. With the abandonment of this man, blessed with the Midas Touch, starts the decadence of the company. When they launched the notorious computer Amiga, they went bankrupt. The company abandoned Jack Tramiel's guidelines of low price computers. In the same year, he bought Atari. Years later, his sons managed the company. He retired to live a peaceful life with his wife, Helen. They are together for more than 60 years. So when you turn off your computer today, remember Jack Tramiel. Maybe if Jack Tramiel never existed, you may not have a computer to turn off. -Emma Alvarez- © 2008 by Emma Alvarez. Link to this post without copying the text. Some Related Posts: If you liked this post, subscribe to Emma Alvarez Site or give yourself a gift Stumble it! Add me to your del.icio.us network