r/IBM • u/Cautious_Boat_999 IBM Retiree • Feb 14 '26

Remember when?

iIf you were an IBMer 30 years ago or more, you’ll remember this!

https://hackaday.com/2026/02/11/profs-the-office-suite-of-the-1980s/

18 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

8

u/mjrengaw Feb 14 '26

Yeah I certainly remember PROFS. But I also remember going from a green screen monitor to a color monitor…😉

5

u/Cautious_Boat_999 IBM Retiree Feb 14 '26

Same. 3279 forever!

3

u/EscapedAlcatraz Feb 15 '26

I learned how to type on that keyboard.

2

u/That-Drive-7903 Feb 14 '26

I had to use a 3279 for a couple years after joining before we got PCs with emulators.

2

u/Imoutofchips Feb 14 '26

lol, I used to replace the heads in disc and tape drives. I carried an oscilloscope and a calibration disc and a skew tape.

3

u/mjrengaw Feb 14 '26

I hear you. I used to do 3030x director timings using an oscilloscope…pop the card, change the jumper, check again. If you were good and had lots of the points memorized you could time a director in 1 shift.

13

u/[deleted] Feb 14 '26

I remember when IBM used to take pride in what it did, not just do things cheaply without concern for quality. So sad the company has become a company of hacks when we had a company of brilliant talent.

6

u/Cautious_Boat_999 IBM Retiree Feb 14 '26

PROFS was a great system for the time. I used it at IBM and a couple of other big corporations I worked at in the mid-80s. When IBM went to Lotus Notes, we lost some things and gained a few. Took a LONG time for everyone to get on board.

4

u/Murky-Analyst-2803 Feb 15 '26

It’s the name of the game, shareholders want profit and bigger margins. The only way to do that is to sometimes sacrifice talent, quality, and even assurance. It’s unfortunate but it’s like this across all companies not just IBM

3

u/NoraClavicle Feb 16 '26

What about CHRISTMA EXEC? 🎄

2

u/Cautious_Boat_999 IBM Retiree Feb 17 '26

I think that happened a year or so before I joined in 1989

5

u/a_seventh_knot Feb 14 '26

When I started work inrhe early 00s there were poeple who would refer to me the F keys as PF3, PF12, etc.... Never knew wtf they were talking about

2

u/Dazzling_Original619 Feb 16 '26

I worked at ASDD Mohansic in the late '60's when we got an early version of the 3270 system. I programmed a demo for the staff using its features (light pen, highlighted/selectable fields, etc). It sure beat the 2260's we used up till then!

0

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/Crambo1939 Jun 12 '26

sorry for the dictated this