From opposite ends of the U.S., they carried on the computer industry's fiercest rivalry. Based in suburban New York, International Business Machines has long looked down on Apple Computer, dismissing it as a ragtag bunch of rabble-rousers. Miles away, in both distance and culture, Silicon Valley-based Apple (1990 revenues: $5.6 billion) attacked IBM ($69 billion) as an impersonal bureaucracy, mocking the company in TV ads as Big Brother and depicting its customers as lemmings. The warring companies forced computer users to choose sides, sometimes dividing family members against one another. Those wanting easy-to-use, almost organic software favored Apple, while others threw...
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