After 70 years of the crappiest computers ever made, why does IBM exist?

As to why IBM exists today while it’s competitors from 50 - 100 years ago do not, it’s because IBMs leadership has kept the company evolving with current computing trends. They’ve been helped by IBM Research so that there was always someone who knew something about whatever direction IBM was headed, even as the company was pivoting. IBM pivoted from being about punch cards, typewriters, and tabulation (you know, “business machines”) to mainframe computers to PCs to e-commerce to AI and AI governance. You didn’t see Amdahl, Digital Equipment, CDC, or Unisys doing that. HP almost did it and they’re still in business (sort of - they’ve been split). Microsoft is a success story in pivoting from desktop to cloud and AI, but like IBM, the anti-monopoly consent order threw things into disarray for a while.

IBM mainframes are very solid. They run critical software that powers everything from credit cards to global reservation systems to government tax and accounting. They’re not sexy but they get the job done and have lots of redundancy and auditing features so there are no interruptions or surprises.

Disclaimer, I do work for IBM, but my thoughts, especially about the PC, are from my own personal experience. My thoughts and experiences are my own and may or may not reflect the company position correctly.

Hello, I have a question about astral projection. I started to get interested in this a little while after my mum passed in april. I thought I may be able to see her and speak with her if I managed to achieve astral projection. Since this interest, every time i sleep on my back I go into sleep paralysis. However, I cant progress into astral projection because it is very scary for me as I feel like I'm suffocating when this happens. I panic and force myself to wake up. This only ever happened about once a year before this. It sometimes lasts a long time. This has happened about 3 times per week since my mum died, as mentioned on a previous post. I no longer try to go into it anymore(due to the suffocating feeling), but it still happens. I read that sleep paralysis is the pathway to astral projection. Why has this started to happen so frequently since simply taking an interest in it? Is this connected to the afterlife? I am concerned about it as I now cannot seem to stop this happening. Could it be my mum trying to communicate? Im asking due to more knowledge around this in this group.

I disagree with the OP assertion that IBM makes crappy computers. I started my career using IBM PCs when they first came out, and forty years on, I still miss the feel of that keyboard. When IBM sold the PC division to Lenovo, one of the reasons they did so was that the PC market couldn’t afford the quality that went into IBM computers and IBM didn’t want to be associate with crappy computers. You can see that 25 years later, PC accessories are quite fragile, but they’re so cheap that it’s not a big deal to buy a replacement so no one complains. You can get a high quality keyboard similar to the original PC keyboard but it’s an add-on and will cost you and most people don’t want to pay that.