The other day a friend asked me a pretty interesting question: what happened to all those companies who made those Japanese computer platforms that were never released outside Japan? I thought it’d be worth expanding that answer into a full-size post.
↫ Misty De Meo
Japan had a number of computer makers that sold platforms that looked and felt like western PCs, but were actually quite different hardware-wise, and incompatible with the IBM PC. None of these exist anymore today, and the reason is simple: Windows 95. The Japanese platforms compatible enough with the IBM PC that they could get a Windows 95 port turned into a commodity with little to distinguish them from regular IBM PCs, and the odd platform that didn’t use an x86 chip at all – like the X68000 – didn’t get a Windows port and thus just died off.
The one platform mentioned in this article that I had never heard of was FM Towns, made by Fujitsu, which had its own graphical operating system called Towns OS. The FM Towns machines and the Towns OS were notable and unique at the time in that it was the first operating system to boot from CD-ROM, and it just so happens that Joe Groff published an article earlier this year detailing this boot process, including a custom bootable image he made.
Here in the west we mostly tend to remember the PC-98 and X86000 platforms for their gaming catalogs and stunning designs, but that’s like only remembering the IBM PC for its own gaming catalog. These machines weren’t just glorified game consoles – they were full-fledged desktop computers used for the same boring work stuff we used the IBM PC for, and it truly makes me sad I don’t speak a single character of Japanese, so a unique operating system like Towns OS will always remain a curiosity for me.
I remember the FM Towns getting coverage in British computer magazines at the time. It was quite mythical.
See also the fate of the TRON project. It is tied to trade relations with the United States of America, [oversimplified] wherein they forced the hand of decision makers into picking the “wintel” platform over an homegrown and distinct architecture.
TRON had quite a successful run as an embedded ecosystem though.
Indeed. The µITRON spec ended-up outliving the rest of the TRON project in practice.
I assumed I didn’t need to say this is about the PC use-case, considering the context of the article.
TRON is the most used OS in the world. It is in most microwaves, ovens, air conditioners and just about any appliance in the world but in specialiszed forms allowed by the license. The failiure was that they made no money from it. Every simple diode lcd apparatus you have in your home probably have tron in it.
also washers, dryers, ethernet amplifiers (several in most appartment buildings), calculators, digital thermometers.
And the best part… yes you can run doom on some of them as shown on youtube, even on a TRON pregnancy tester.
Is there any project on GitHub using Tron ? Where is the source code available ?
….
I think the Youtube channel Asianometry has at least some hints, the biggest problem is obviously that Japan wasn’t able to deliver fitting software (in part because of US involvement).
I doubt it has anything to do with US involvement. Japan is still known for being bad at software development, and the origin of most of these systems was needing custom hardware to display the Japanese character set.
Why is Japan So Weak in Software : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky1nGQhHTso
Huh? Japan wasn’t able to deliver fitting software all on their own.
Nice TownsOS tour at https://gekk.info/articles/towns-tour.html
Japanese efficiency was built on a myth. It was just blessed with a VERY strong work ethic and unquestionable loyality to the company. A toyota employee stayed for life for example. This was proven with the 90’s crash and the era of decline. EVERY single US financial expert expected japan to surpass the US in not only manufacturing but also GDP and GDP per capita in the 80s whilst keeping the median salary low (how the hell that would ever work in an island economy where almost everything is imported) The final death knell for the japanese economy was the fall of the soviet union. then people started investing in korea and elsewhere, china (after nixon) and all of asia. Japan was no longer as important or unique.
Japan still have the strongest work ethic in the world to the detriment of their birth rate. Mandatory overtime is common.
I love japan for many reasons, but it will never be a country of backwardness again, and flip phones are more common than smart phones. They know the survailance future ahead of us and a flip phone does not rot your mind.
There’s a job role in many japanese corporations, the Loud American. The japanese culture enforces the notion that you don’t challenge your superiors. This led to many higher-ups in companies doing supid things, that the employees knew was stupid, but couldn’t vocalise and point out. Americans, on the other hand, didn’t have such a cultural barrier and would call a spade a spade. As such, many japanese companies started hiring americans who would call out and stupid ideas before they got too far into implementation.
So, as Lennie said in other comment: “in part because of US involvement.’
“I don’t speak a single character of Japanese” – luckily, both on Android an iOS there’s plenty of good translation apps that can translate for you via an image with Japanese characters.
The DOS/V platform championed by IBM and then Microsoft killed the proprietary PCs from the various Japanese manufacturers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOS/V