Gordon Bell passed on this month. I was a latecomer in Gordon Bell’s life. But he made a lasting impact on mine. The first time I laid eyes on Gordon Bell was in 1984 outside a restaurant in a Boston suburb when he pulled up in a Porsche. I was the head of Marketing for
Thank you for this heartfelt tribute. We all stand on the shoulders of giants and Gordon was one of the bigger ones.
Gordon’s inventions changed computing and had an impact on likely all those that were in the early days of the industry.
My first resume was printed from my school’s VAX using its brilliant and differentiated orange screens. The output allowed me to change font sizes for my resume subheadings, much to the chagrin of my fellow business student peers who had theirs hand typed.
The point is that VAX legitimized non-mainframe computing, more general purpose than the PDP11’s which were more special purpose at that time. They paved the way for Unix and SVR4 based systems to follow, causing the “rightsizing” movement to happen in the early 90’s
Today there are few parallels because innovation typically happens higher in the OSI stack. Perhaps Geordie Rose would be a modern day similar with his efforts in quantum.
I met Geordie 20 years ago, his vision was similarly clear but he said to me that it may take decades until his work had a massive impact. His resolve, like Gordon’s was clear. When, not if.
Gordon Bell often gets looked over in the history of computing greatness but should be held among those that democratized computing. Greats like Bob Metcalfe and Vinton Cerf. Many others could be included in this list, but the point is simply this:
Gordon Bell’s impact was significant and yet to be fully celebrated. Thank you Steve for this tribute to get the ball rolling.
Gordon's book: High-tech Ventures: The Guide For Entrepreneurial Success (c. 1991) was a staple for all us gearheads interested in starting companies at MIT in the 1990s. Later, when we met, I was struck by what a cool guy Gordon was. I still want to be Gordon, when I grow up. RIP.
Thank you for this heartfelt tribute. We all stand on the shoulders of giants and Gordon was one of the bigger ones.
Gordon’s inventions changed computing and had an impact on likely all those that were in the early days of the industry.
My first resume was printed from my school’s VAX using its brilliant and differentiated orange screens. The output allowed me to change font sizes for my resume subheadings, much to the chagrin of my fellow business student peers who had theirs hand typed.
The point is that VAX legitimized non-mainframe computing, more general purpose than the PDP11’s which were more special purpose at that time. They paved the way for Unix and SVR4 based systems to follow, causing the “rightsizing” movement to happen in the early 90’s
Today there are few parallels because innovation typically happens higher in the OSI stack. Perhaps Geordie Rose would be a modern day similar with his efforts in quantum.
I met Geordie 20 years ago, his vision was similarly clear but he said to me that it may take decades until his work had a massive impact. His resolve, like Gordon’s was clear. When, not if.
Gordon Bell often gets looked over in the history of computing greatness but should be held among those that democratized computing. Greats like Bob Metcalfe and Vinton Cerf. Many others could be included in this list, but the point is simply this:
Gordon Bell’s impact was significant and yet to be fully celebrated. Thank you Steve for this tribute to get the ball rolling.
Gordon's book: High-tech Ventures: The Guide For Entrepreneurial Success (c. 1991) was a staple for all us gearheads interested in starting companies at MIT in the 1990s. Later, when we met, I was struck by what a cool guy Gordon was. I still want to be Gordon, when I grow up. RIP.
-Errol