Olivetti & the Italian Computer: What Could Have Been

[@alejandroochoa2160]

I always remember my father talking about P101 and how important where in space program. Mom and dad meet each other working for Olivetti, back in 1971, I missed them, thanks for sharing.

[@tomschmidt381]

As a geezer I love these corporate history lessons. I was an EE at Centronics Data Computer, the printer manufacturer in the 1970s. My family, grandfather and father were in the office supply business so I was used to the notion of good years and bad years. What I was unprepared for was the rapid demise of hitech companies due to changing technology and corporate inertia to cannibalize profitable product lines. None of the companies I worked for have survived.

[@JoeHamelin]

But the connector did!

[@tomschmidt381]

@@JoeHamelin The "real" Centronics connector is a 36 pin version of the Amphenol 57 series used extensively by MaBell. When IBM brought out the PC they change the printer connector to a DB25 (the typical connector used for RS232) and for the serial connector they used a 9-pin version with a subset of RS232 signals. Fun fact, we sold a low cost printer to Radio Shack and that one had a 36-pin edge card connector to save money. Now a days USB has superseded both.

[@myothernameistaken]

@@tomschmidt381 RS-232 isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

[@milantrcka121]

@@myothernameistaken It has generated a progeny of high-speed serial connections such as USB (already several flavors), FireWire, etc.

[@tarstarkusz]

Yes, most of the early pioneers in computing are nowhere to be found today. I just commented elsewhere on this video how easy it is to look backwards and then pretend the computer revolution was obvious in the late 50s and early 60s. New technology which had not yet been invented was required to build the computer revolution. Who the hell would have believed in 1959 that a TV could be reduced down to a handful of components and a chip? A color TV had hundreds of components and cost 500 1959/60 Dollars but was eventually brought down for the 1959 equivalent of 25 Dollars using ICs. Computers were multi million Dollar machines. This stuff just was not obvious then.

[@ErikBramsen]

One of the best PCs I ever had, was an Olivetti 486/66. I don't know what was inside, but the cabinet was half the size of the BUBs we had back then, half the noise level, booted like Usain Bolt and never had any hardware issues.

[@thisnicklldo]

I was in the industry in the early/mid 80's and the Olivetti 286/386 generation of PC's was relatively successful and well regarded. Proper MSDOS compatibility (which mattered at that time), reasonable prices. Compaq really did for them, but they were OK for a while.

[@lance31415]

I worked for Olivetti in late 1980s and knew the PC lead designer. He was a Stanford grad running the team from Cupertino California next to Apple. Their PCs were really good but they couldn't match up with the lower-margin commodity competition. Intel and Microsoft were playing favorites back then and worked hard to drive some of their customers out of business. We had Olivetti office furniture and it was fantastic.

[@ivancho5854]

My father had an Olivetti computer (maybe a M24?) which was one of the first computers which I ever programmed on as a kid. It was great and had the best keyboard which I have ever used, even surpassing IBM keyboards of the era. I can remember programming a pong like game as one of my first projects. Fun times. 👍

[@madzen112]

From a European consumer point of view, in the 90s, they were a company similar to Compaq. And one of the few PC producer who gave design a thought.

[@ekkiplicht7283]

Very good insight into Olivetti. I learned programming on a Programma 101, thanks to a visionary teacher at my high school in the 70s. Thanks for the nice memories.

[@ericcsuf]

An incredibly well researched and well presented documentary. My only real contact with Olivetti was working on Olivetti teletype machines in the US Army in the early 60's. Beautifully designed and elegantly simple machines compared to the Teletype Corp and Kleinschmidt machines we also used. the Olivetti machines rarely broke down and when they did, I could often fix them with a screwdriver and pliers. The others were far more complex, broke down more often and needed complex part replacements. The Olivetti usually just needed a quick "alignment" with pliers and were on line again in minutes instead of hours or days. Thanks again for a very informative video.

[@becktronics]

I had no idea who Mario Tchou was prior to watching this, but he's one of the more fascinating men I've heard about now in the history of computers. To think he died at 37 in such a tragic way given all his accomplishments and what he likely would have continued to do in his life is interesting to think about. Nice video!

[@hermangouw]

Neither did I ... very interesting to learn that a Chinese Italian played a major role in Olivetti Computer,

[@michaelharrison1093]

Another great video Jon. An intresting fact is that the STMicroelectronis fab in Castelleto near Milan is the old Olivetti facility. They have a small nostalgic collection of old mechanical typewriters and computers on display there.

[@jjadragna]

I have worked with this team and they are very, very smart and nice people !

[@blip_bloop]

These case studies on computer companies are some of my favorite videos; you have a gift for presenting this information!

[@fotmheki]

Italian governments are always short-sighted and pretty incompetent in technical matters. The planned renew of industrial sectors allocated only € 700M to the whole IT industry, chip making included, they have no idea how much is necessary to build a fab 😅 And just a quick correction at 8:00 the town name is Frascati :)

[@rksleung]

Haha.. Only known for its wine and not its once-fledging IT industry.

[@acmenipponair]

well, due to their biggest funders they are more versitile in making concrete stuff. Like highways, bridges or concrete shoes ;)

[@orchidhouse297]

Back around 1983 I was using an Olivetti PC running MS-DOS. It ran without any problems for many years. This is where I learned about computers.

[@sheridenboord7853]

I got the Olivetti PC compatible in 1983 too. It was absolutely reliable, got dragged thru every major airport in Australia for years and never missed a beat. I didn't realise the significance at the time, but yes it was quality.

[@Dr.Kananga]

Hi, great video. I feel this deserves a second part to explain Olivetti's path from the 1960s to early 2000s; there'are a great amount of details to support another video as the company enters the computer era until its demise.

[@paul_boddie]

Agreed. This video provided a nice introduction to a part of Olivetti's history that trailed off when the original computer division was sold to GE, with the Programma 101 being a less ambitious project that only managed to find a place in Olivetti's trimmed-down operations due to its recategorisation as a calculator. The modern computer operations of Olivetti were a distinct endeavour. In some ways, this is reminiscent of Ferranti (mentioned in this video) who were a key player in early British computing. When the sector was consolidated under ICL in the 1960s, Ferranti was contractually obliged to not compete with ICL in commercial mainframe computing, but microcomputing gave the company an opportunity to re-enter the commercial space in the 1980s.

[@davidtydeman1434]

I sold PCs in the 1980s in Australia which was the worlds most competitive market with brands from USA, Europe and Asia. Olivetti was the biggest seller in this market for several years.

[@samgeorge4798]

Glad to constantly see your channel grow. Consistently some of the best videos on the platform

[@fxsrider]

This stuff makes KZbin rock!!

[@thewiirocks]

I remember working at McDonalds in the 1990s and using Ollivetti touch screen Point of Sale systems. They were SO MUCH better than the membrane keyboard systems all the other McDonalds used. Plus, ours could be easily updated by the office for various promotions without having to print out and overlay.

[@abrahamg4857]

I knew the name Olivetti sounded familiar! That's where I knew it from. I worked at McD's from 1999 to 2003

[@marcv2648]

I remember those too. Only as a customer though. McDonald's wouldn't hire me when they had the chance.

[@alexlo7708]

But it is Ollivetti under GE.

[@Paolo3480]

​@@alexlo7708No, it was not Olivetti under GE. Olivetti sold it's mainframe business in 1965. The recent computers from 1970-2000 were designed and build by Olivetti itself in Ivrea (Italy). Olivetti in 1986 was the first producer of computers in Europe and the second or third in the world, due to it's agreement with AT&T to sell the Olivetti M24 as AT&T PC6300 in the US.

[@ZaccariaGaming]

​​@@alexlo7708 GE bought the electronics department but computers were still made independently by Olivetti

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

9:26 That gadget in Enrico’s hand is a slide rule. They had pretty much died out by the 1970s, superseded by the pocket calculator.

[@lagautmd]

I did my first computer programming on an Olivetti Programma 101 in high school in the early 1970s.

[@jjadragna]

This is one of the most interesting and well told episodes you’ve made ! Thank you

[@francescocatalano5855]

Outstanding documentary myself graduated at Pisa university and studied with colleagues at Barbaricina nearby the Faculty of engineering and the San Rossore horses racing

[@Cosimao564]

as an italian it's very refreshing to listen to an impartial reading of the story of olivetti without the conspiracy focus.

[@alexny1173]

Especially since the conspiracies divert attention away from the other reasons for the failure of Olivetti. Problems such as brain drain, the lack government support and funding and heavy bureaucracy which are still problems for Italian research and industry today.

[@CallistoPili]

what struck my eyes was at the point he mentioned Pirelli, Fiat... All of these still today are not focused to make Italy great but they are focused instead on making money, with no money, no leadership, sad really sad story. The managers of these companies are exactly tye ones to blame for the industrial and technological devastation Italy has. And because their hands are into politics also, that is why Goverments in general are not driven by common sense but evils.

[@irvingchies1626]

Lol as soon as he said about the engineer's death on the road I was like "well, that's way too convenient, I wonder if he was killed or something" didn't think people would actually have conspiracy theories about it

[@mondodimotori]

@@irvingchies1626 In italy you have a conspiracy theory about everything bad that happens. Of course this diverts attention from the truth, so my personal conspiracy theory is that conspyracy theories are fueled by the media to hide the truth.

[@silmarian]

@@irvingchies1626people will come up with conspiracy theories about ham sandwiches, let alone deaths of engineers.

[@sergiostanislauskas8985]

I had the opportunity to test Olivetti mainframe based on Hitachi components and running IBM operating system in Ivrea in the 70's. It was an excellent opportunity to know Olivetti installations and Ivrea itself, a place full of innovation concerning ideas, the offices and residential areas and the preoccupation of the company with the well being of the employees. It is a pity that it went bust....

[@fernandoschuindt1665]

Few years ago, I've found an Olivetti mechanical calculator in a junkyard. Pretty fascinating build.

[@fss1704]

I have a 3g modem

[@ntabile]

Keep it, restore , and might be expensive when auctioned.

[@brodriguez11000]

Those mechanicals were built like a tank and weighed as much.

[@Michele_aka_Latente]

all the internal component are derived by typewriter, the mechanical calculator are design by Natale Capellaro and his history is incredible. he have only primary school grads, he start to work in olivetti at 14, but was a mechanical wunderkind.

[@-.-FailureManagement]

Sad story😢 and it's so sad to see so much incompetent government in Italy. Be a Chinese/Italian it's so hard for me to see a great future for Italy today, and a lot of people that I know they move abroad to have better wages.

[@ebx100]

But a nice place for wealthy American retirees!

[@nothinghappenedatpearlharb7426]

@@ebx100europe is just going to become an appendage of America. The game is between China and america now. Let’s see if either side has the balls to roll the die or whether they’re both cowards

[@monsieurlemon]

especially the south

[@Fred_Klingon]

The future is built in the current present. We can go elsewhere where the present is known, or stay where we are trying to build a better future. Think about that group at Olivetti, they didn't move to the US, they made a division here, and now you're watching this video. Personally I'm very proud of them, knowing how difficult it is to obtain such goals in this country.

[@alfonsfalkhayn8950]

​@@Fred_Klingon in the sh!t-hole?

[@Rocky-gw4jf]

In the early 1970s, several of us used the Olivetti Programma 101 exactly as described - to easily make mind-numbing chemistry calculations, over and over, with the instructions stored on magnetic cards. Instant recognition when you showed the photos. That was just before HP came out with their first pocket scientific calculator. Spent a then-princely sum to buy one, disappointed it didn't have magnetic card storage. Tiny mag cards were available on later models. Switched to IBM mainframes. Became a whiz at running card punch machines. Despite majoring in other areas, I spent most of my career in IT. Too many computer families, operating systems, and programming languages to remember. Continuous change! Thanks for the memories.

[@clydeblair9622]

In the 70s they had a travelling exhibit called 'Olivetti Concept and Form'. Mind blowing style. I lost the incredible booklet/brochure with state of the art print quality to a flood. So sad.

[@bbuggediffy]

I am sure Olivetti can be explored in museums in Italy.

[@stefanz6502]

Your research is impeccable!

[@Alan_UK]

Thank you very much for this. Fascinating insight to Olivetti's history. In mid 1980s I worked in IT for an insurance company. It was apparent that the IBM PC would make a significant impact on office processes and productivity. I persuaded the IT director to let me evaluate PCs including clones and this included an Olivetti (cannot remember the model). I had the first Olivetti and used the Aston Tate Framework office package, a windowing system using the non-graphics character screen. We eventually bought 100s of the Olivetti PCs. They were faster, had great keyboards (as you would expect from an ex typewriter company) and offered better value. We even bought some of the Olivetti M15 portables with lift out keyboards for the sales force. I still have the M15 in my home office together with MSDOS disks. I hope to give it to computer museum shortly.

[@paul_boddie]

It could have been the Olivetti M24. That was an 8086-based machine, as opposed to the 8088-based IBM PC, and was successful enough to be imported into the US and sold by AT&T.

[@pilotgrrl1]

Those M24s must have been the ones i worked on peripherally (pun intended). I remember Framework, too. It was easy to use (and train my younger sisters on).

[@kilburnvideos]

I had forgotten all about Ashton Tate. Thanks for the reminder. Another "what could have been" story.

[@1pierosangiorgio]

I was seated at the lunch table in Ivrea in 1991 with Mr. DeBenedetti where the deal of selling the PC division to DEC was changed to DEC buying 4% stake into Olivetti.

[@jrstf]

DEC buying Olivetti quickly changed into Compaq buying DEC?

[@johanponin8680]

can you confirm that he sold because he lost money with a failed financial trick with some french capitalists ?

[@1pierosangiorgio]

Yeah. Those years were quite something. How fast giants fall!!!

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

9:46 Chimneys to channel hot air from the vacuum tubes. Funny I can’t recall seeing anything similar for other vacuum-tube computers from that era. Something to do with Italy’s warmer climate?

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

28:52 I have this memory of reading about this machine when I were a wee lad, in an issue of _Reader’s Digest_ that must have come out shortly afterwards. One thing I remember was that it had 500 transistors in it.

[@coraltown1]

I 'worked' on the Olivetti/Kodak collaboration on optical r/w technology for 2 months in 1989 before that project spontaneously combusted in a flash. It did indiectly result in working for a much better company and more interesting career path🙂.

[@lucasrem]

Chip lithographic ? Read / write ? ASML took it all over, Philips outsourcing TSMC in 1989

[@francescocacudi1767]

I spent 40 years in the semiconductors business in Italy, 28 of which at Motorola Semiconductors. Olivetti was the biggest account in the country. Thanks a lot for this history, albeit sad. They almost invented the PC, but their managers strangled the baby in the crib by telling their people "let's not dream, we cannot have done something of worldwide importance". True though, sufficient capital was not there and they would not find it outside. So everyone just wanted to float along, not understanding that this was just a recipe for decline. This is the history of my whole country, and their "cold war" incompetent governments. I still remember newsbits in Electronics magazine in the '70s, praising innovative solutions in their workstations. Oh well...

[@Tom_Mroz]

Thank you. That’s brilliantly prepared information, which I honestly had no idea about.

[@hypergolic8468]

On team building and employing people on the basis of who they are, and not the paper record, an honourable mention should go to Admiral Hyman G. Rickover who built a team on that basis too. They took the reactor and made it go from a city block size to a submarine in a few years.

[@Jin88866]

Thank you for making this video! I don't know if you made it after reading my request a couple years ago but thank you anyway 😂

[@ShiningJMaster]

i'm from Ivrea and my father worked for Olivetti 35 years, from '57 to '92. I knew the story and this narration is pretty much correct and well documented.

[@ebx100]

We had a P101 in my elementary school science lab. It always had students using it. I remember it seemed miles ahead of any other desktop calculator available at the time.

[@jameshatton4211]

How old are you may I ask?

[@greglinwood]

I still have a P101, though it hasn't been switched on for 30 years & its rubber components would need to be replaced. I wonder sometimes if it still works.

[@ebx100]

You should make a KZbin video about it's restoration. @@greglinwood

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

@@greglinwood You need to do a KZbin video on it.

[@gnuemacs1166]

Acorn wound up with 250,000 unsold machines and nearly went under, eventually being rescued by Olivetti. Sinclair sold out to "a mere barrow boy" named Alan Sugar.

[@ominollo]

You are right! ACORN was missing in this video!

[@JVHShack]

So, in essence, without Olivetti's intervention, I wouldn't be typing this on my smartphone. At least a smartphone with an ARM CPU.

[@untruenorth]

@yourt00bzThey brought the money. The talent was Cambridge-based.

[@milantrcka121]

Shugart ???

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

And the ARM architecture created by Acorn went on to become the most popular CPU architecture in the world.

[@roc7880]

Italy was a pioneer in computing since middle ages, and indeed they just missed to be the European Sillicon or Po Valley. But finding the role of a Chonese Italian born researcher is such an unknown aspect.

[@johnspencer1855]

Favorite video you have put out, and I've seen quite a few.

[@LeleSocho]

I cannot believe you actually took my suggestion to make this video seriously, i'm very grateful, thanks.

[@giacintoboccia9386]

❤ I wrote to him about it too! Glad to see that I wasn't the only one

[@proudsnowtiger]

We built PC networking gards in the 80s. Olivetti was one of, if not the, most troublesome brands we had to deal with. Every model seemed to deviate from the IBM spec in a different way, needing work-arounds. No instiutional memory, a new design team each time.

[@TheDavidlloydjones]

One oddity I found working with Olivetti in 1985 was that the act of putting a label on a minicomputer, e.g. "Olivetti. Made in USA," constituted manufacturing -- and if you put the label on in the USA it constituted manufacturing in the USA.

[@JoseLopez-hp5oo]

Sounds like someone had to do the jumper jiggle and the terminator twist!

[@akkudakkupl]

Italian design at its finest.

[@mikebarushok5361]

Besides Olivetti and the DEC rainbow, the least compatible brand was IBM itself, once they went the PS/2 route with micro channel and the new keyboard and mouse connectors and ESDI disks.

[@JoeHamelin]

IIRC, the AT&T computer was an Olivetti. Nice box, when it worked, but hell to work on otherwise due to being very unstandard.

[@raoulduke6043]

Plan Calcul in France is interesting for many reasons. It produced the Cyclades network that was ahead of it's time concerning data transfer, and would have an impact on what became later on Internet. But the project shared technology with the Americans (and others) and France Telecom wanted to get all government funds for the Minitel (who was back then more realistic although very limited and not future proof on the long run). So Cyclades died instead of surviving like Arpanet and becoming part of Internet

[@maestromecanico597]

It doesn't matter what industry history you study. Every single one is filled with stories of "almosts" and "what ifs?". It's counterfactuals like these that keep us historians up at night. Sure, it would be nice if the conspiracy theories were true. Alas, the proverb is true: the mighty does not always win the fight nor the swift always win the race. Excellent coverage of this piece of history.

[@brodriguez11000]

Breaking into the American market was the right idea with the wrong execution.

[@danyoutube7491]

@@brodriguez11000 Yep, perhaps a bit of hubris on the part of Adriano that, despite the misgivings of his colleagues, he could take on this massive company and make it efficient and use it to launch Olivetti in America.

[@atanumaulik7093]

Great informative episode as always. Any Italian computer today would have looked good. Thats one thing living in Italy has taught me.

[@surferdude4487]

While I was in high school in the mid 70's, an Olivetti programmable calculator was the first machine I ever programmed.

[@danielsanichiban]

Australian Goverment offices in Canberra, maybe the department of statistics, were using Olivetti desktop machines in the mid to late 1980s, so they were still in the game up until then

[@RonJohn63]

5:06 Reminds me of IBM. 6:37 In the US, at least, it's KAY-nen.

[@ocram2m]

Great content. I'm impressed. Thanks for your work

[@emanemanrus5835]

what an amazing story, that should be scripted out to become a movie (fantasizing about a Nolan movie showing different paths of life of Adriano Olivetti and Mario Tchou, and at a certain point they meet and the story goes on in a single timeline).

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

0:11 My father had a typewriter very much like that, on which I learned to type. Note that there is no “1” key, you have to use either “l” or “I” in its place. Also no “=” character.

[@ntabile]

So this is where SGS begins. Now, SGS -Thomson or ST Microelectronics.

[@XMarkxyz]

26:24 That's not Olivetti Headquarters but its production factory near Naples, that's important for a cultaral stand point, you can see how the well being of the workers and a beautiful workplace was held in the highest regard

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

19:01 They do look more colourful and more appealing than the stodgy old IBM gear, you have to admit.

[@suvetar]

Fascinating insights, thank you so much foe creating and sharing this!

[@captainkeyboard1007]

The Underwood Olivetti Lettera 32 was my first favorite "keyboard" until it was stolen in 1977. Today, I am keyboarding on a Dell microcomputer and printing my work on a Canon color laser printer and Brother P-touch label printer. I just learned that Olivetti made computers in an IBM world. Your story surely can lead me from my comfort zone into the real Western World.

[@zfloflo]

Wrote my first program on an Olivetti A5. What a trip on memory lane!

[@oceemal]

Using BAL? I did too.

[@bruceshaw3881]

I was at an office that bought hundreds of Olivetti computers as low bid on a contract. They immediately started failing. I opened one up and discovered a motherboard with a spaghetti (pun intended) of jumper cables connected with cold solder joints. I spent the next year constantly soldering trying to keep them running until they were finally scrapped.

[@DankNugs42]

LOL, I love the way you pronounced New Canaan, CT. That is the way it reads, I agree, but locals don't pronounce it that way. They say it more like you'd read cane-an, if that makes sense.

[@Schroinx]

Good vid. Olivetti actually came back for a while in 80s as producer of PCs, but had to close show again.

[@benjaminlai5638]

“The M1 no relation to the Apple Chip” - that’s just gold 😊.

[@darak2]

Olivetti went to be a relevant contender in Europe during the 80s in the PC field. I remember they had a lot of brick&mortar stores across Europe (no doubt thank to their typewriter roots), produced decent PC clones and were well known for their printers. Like many other PC manufacturers, they were eventually unable to face the shrinking margins of a brutally competitive field and went bust at the late 90s, but I wouldn't say they were irrelevant after the 70s.

[@sabinespeed4146]

Yeah him saying they're not relevant was a stretch. Their IBM PC clone was popular here in the states as the AT&T 6300.

[@puppetmark]

Great video and an important piece of computing history. I would love to see a film on the Matra Alice home computers. I think they came from a strange partnership between an industrial conglomerate and a publishing company.

[@zJericho101z]

My first 486sx 33 MHz was branded Olivetti and I once saw a computer printer with Olivetti on it. That was all I knew of them untill now. Super interesting as always!

[@martinbadoy5827]

I remembered a photo of the Brabham BT54 formula one car (1985), with Olivetti displayed on the side as a major sponsor

[@okeefer2000]

6:38 It's pronounced New "Cay Nin" Connecticut, with peace and love. This is not a criticism. Just in case you have to say it again, I want to see you say it correctly. I love your videos. I've been an avid watcher for maybe 18 months.

[@MattSeremet]

@23:49 I go to the grocery store that sits in that former typewriter factory land. It's nice that the plaza is called "The Royal" with a typewriter design in a simple sign. Really fun how close to home (literally) this story hits.

[@marcwolf60]

My first IBM style portable was an Olivetti M21. Very reliable beast that has several fights with lift doors.... and won :)

[@ianburton9223]

More like a luggable than portable. I had to get a strong youngster to carry the M21 prototype around Turin airport in the early eighties. We needed publicity pictures for the Olivetti publication "The Personal Computer Magazine". I had the M10 in the same photo shoot.

[@gmt-yt]

This was an excellent video, really enjoyed.

[@stevec00ps]

Interesting video! You could a part two on what happened after the 1960s with them, they were still relevant in the PC market and I think Point of Sale? Also the business with ARM?

[@OpinionatedMatt]

I’m Italian born and raised, majored in Economics and this is my point of view. The inability of the government to see beyond its nose is pretty much the norm and it probably will always be. You just have to watch into the number of partial welfare measures that never got into a real comprehensive system and means that the country is always running behind the latest emergency. The country has never been pioneering and the shortsightedness of the government and its people have resulted into the inability to perceive change and adapt to, very often choosing security over opportunity. It’s not even a particularly fond of entrepreneurship so even when a good idea comes around there lies the inability to transform it into a business. No wonder a good number of capable people leaves the country for the US or other European countries.

[@jrstf]

Other governments aren't all that different.

[@futuristica1710]

@@jrstfYou’re wrong. If I compare my government in Denmark with the Italian fascist government, it’s easy for me to be happy we aren’t Italians.

[@ianburton9223]

@@futuristica1710 I agree with @jrstf regarding other governments and I agree that many people are happy to have avoided Italian fascism. But Italian fascism was a tiny parentheses in the time line of Italian history. Every country has had regrettable periods in its history, but few people chose to characterise an entire nation based on those regrettable periods.

[@robinpettit7827]

I still have an Olivetti mechanical typewriter. I was very slightly aware of this. Glad to find this video.

[@zaneenaz4962]

Had to return to this very excellent presentation of the history of Olivetti and Mario Tchou. Your work is truly exceptional and i greatly appreciate your completeness and style. The manner of Mr. Tchou's death and the timing mirrored that of too many, especially in europe. Something more need to deliberate and help prevent.

[@EyesOfByes]

16:10 Your "that also sounds like a lot" bit is pure dry comedy gold!!

[@cosimo7770]

Wonderful video - clearly spoken and no background 'music'. In 1960 I visited the Olivetti factory in Pozzuli, whilst studying the economic and social development of the Mezzogiorno (Southern Italy), as well as meeting with representatives of Fiat in Torino, IRI in Rome, ENI in Sicily. And in 1967-8 worked with ENEL in Rome, and with Finmare at all the Italian ports, on the feasibility of computerizing maintenance of the electrical distribution network and the national shipping operations. An unforgettable period of economic optimism. What a shame that Olivetti failed to continue to provide the means for computer advancement.

[@RagionamentiFinanziari]

Thank you, very interesting, I don't know if it's relevant to your channel, but even the evolution of Olivetti / Telecom post 70s could be interesting (from a business standpoint). As for the "why didn't the italian government help", well... from the '58 to the '68 we had more than 10 governments

[@TheManFrayBentos]

In the 70s, I had an Olivetti portable typewriter. It went everywhere with me and did a huge amount of work, flawlessly.

[@IlBiggo]

I have a Lettera 22 I used until the early '80s, when I moved and left it at my parents'. I just refurbished it after a colleague gave me a new ribbon (I didn't even know they were still making those). I cleaned it thoroughly and greased all moving parts. It shows its age with worn-out hammers and it's a bit misaligned, but it's working nicely and it's still a beauty.

[@RobertMurphy-sx8lc]

Olivetti was my introduction to computing. In the early 1980's I was working on a copper mine in (now) Namibia. We had just received an Olivetti P6060 - quite a large box with a 40(?) character display and 2 floppy drives. We had some problems with the software and a technician from the Olivetti agents in Windhoek and I began "de-bugging". Got it all working in the end. Then we received a HUGE removable disk drive - 5Mb !!!. This then got me into programming and writing a wages system. Later I bought an Olivetti M20 (?) desk-top PC for home and later for use in my own business. Quite a ride, but in the end I completed a correspondence course in programming and received my Diploma. Thanks Olivetti.

[@michaelleiper]

I'm surprised you didn't mention Olivetti's acquisition of Acorn and their small role in ARM chips being used by Apple for the Newton.

[@lucasrem]

Michael leiper, Olivetti was never included in the ARM dev team, they never wanted anything to do with it, and sold it before ARM / Acorn became as big as they are now. Apple and Philips were investing in ARM only, the rest fell...

[@khairulhelmihashim2510]

we need to look at the market situation in 1960s. While computer was touted as the future in data processing, the majority of offices and small business were still relying on typewriters to generate documents. The same situation faced by Kodak when deciding between investing in digital image technology vs downsizing the lucrative film business.

[@rafaelgadret]

Awesome video! Please do a video about the demise of Motorola Semiconductor/ Freescale.

[@SimoneSalaA]

Great video, for a great story. Please note that the name of that city close to Rome, is FRASCATI, not Fascati. 🙂

[@alexny1173]

Was going to say the same thing. I was confused for a second until I remembered the nuclear institute there. Interesting to think it was originally planned to be located in Pisa. Arguably it may have been a better choice given the proximity of the University and research community. Frascati is not far from Rome but still a bit isolated.

[@5anjuro]

Growing up in the late Soviet Union/early Russian Federation, I remember seeing the Olivetti logo at the opening time clock card of 19:00 news broadcast. That must have been 1990-1994.

[@hanshendrix1558]

My father used to work at ADS from Bielefeld Germany here in the Netherlands on early computers like Olivetti.

[@frankcooke1692]

Sorry, but I just remembered "Olivetti landline, Phil Olivetti speaking". RIP Chris Lilley. SOME of his characters were spot on.

[@luca7069]

22:47 and if the military money wasn't enough, the CIA did the rest. Olivetti was murdered, fair and square. You fail to mention how the CIA had an open case on him because they believed him to be a "communist" and thus a pontential Varsaw Pact conspirator who could've brought Italy to the eastern block. Also, you say that it's baffling that the governament did not intervene, but it's really simple to understand: the US didn't want competion in electronics and especially "communist-minded" competition. The fact that Olivetti was assassinated and the reason for it were well clear in Rome: saving the company would've just brought more "accidents". It's not cospiracy; eventually, the CIA paperwork from those will be de-classified and it will be evident to all. And it's not even something rare: the CIA also collaborated in the bombing of Enrico Mattei's private plane, killing him and making sure that his vision of a strong European petroleum company who could harness african and middle eastern oil never came to fruition, ensuring the domination of US Big Oil.

[@marioboiata2403]

Do you have sources for any of these claims?

[@jonwatkins254]

Dazzled by Nostalgia. Well put. Excellent Video!

[@HoughChuck]

Well done! Thank you very much. I wrote my first program in 1964 on an IBM 1620. I agree there was no conspiracy. I am also guessing that in addition to the nostalgia bias you mentioned that led to over valuing Underwood there could have been the influence of the prospect of selling Olivetti products in the US under Underwood's brand name using their in place sales force. The eye opener for me is the multi-programming of the 9003. That was truly ahead of the its time.

[@jimspc07]

The issue of software continued to bug Olivetti in later years. The S6000 being one point where problems were resolved only to reappear in a later release, again Olivetti being more interested in hardware than software, that interest also applying to the CPS32. The M1 being thrown out of a window and still working also applied to the P101.

[@NepTunez-ff9bp]

Such great story-telling! 🏆

[@nneeerrrd]

13:03 why that guy holding Mario from behind by both his hands?

[@alexny1173]

Haha I hadn’t noticed that. I assume he didn’t want to be in the picture and was hiding behind Mario in a joking way.

[@NiPPonD3nZ0]

One of the first computers I have personally used was a Olivetti PCS 486 50MHz, with 4MB of RAM, a 183MB HDD, a Sony 2x CD-ROM Drive and Windows 3.1... Awesome computer, and still longing for one like it again... I have some other Olivetti computers!

[@tuttebelleke]

For if I remember well, Olivetti had personal computers in the eighties, that were quicker than the IBM-standard ones, more expensive and more beautiful design.

[@robertpearson8546]

I actually had a demonstration of the P101 at Carnegie-Mellon University. By that time there were far superior machines licensed by Dietzing and Burroughs for $3500.

[@kaydim5921]

I read that as the Olive Italian Computer....

[@ToyTiger666]

You must be American.

[@cogoid]

That is essentially the origin of the name. It comes from Latin _olivetum_, meaning 'olive grove'.

[@crash.override]

I'm sure they were very well-oiled 😆

[@ToyTiger666]

@cogoid Thank you for your cultured remark. I did actually have Latin in school 🏫 but it has been a loooong time. 😅

[@cpt_bill366]

To be fair, the typewriter still had decades of life left in it when they bought Underwood. It makes more business sense than your recent video about investing in a massive CRT factory just before that technology met its end.

[@danyoutube7491]

That's true, I remember my mother using a typewriter occasionally in the mid 80s. It was not, therefore, a dead industry, and it may have seemed quite feasible in the mind of Adriano that he could remedy inefficiencies in the Underwood company and use it as a way of getting into the American market. It is still common for large faililng firms to be taken over with the apparent belief on the part of the buyer that the struggling behemoth can be turned around; sometimes it can, and sometimes it can't.

[@lucasrem]

Underwood failed to update products as IBM did, unable to make any margins on cheap typewriter models, were people payed millions for computers.

[@cpt_bill366]

@@lucasrem Correct. They should have leveraged their manufacturing capacity and found a niche they could pivot into. They had decades to do so, and they failed. Perhaps Printer ink cartridges would have been a good idea after ribbons. Who knows

[@jimspc07]

While the typewriter may have had quite a few years to run. Underwood was a way into the American market. But not just for Typewriters. Olivetti was looking beyond that. Where there was a market for office products there would soon be a market for computers. He was right but two things stopped the vision. He died. was the most important and the Underwood network and product could not be maintained until it was brought up to the desired position. Yes, Olivetti could have converted Underwood. They had the capability and world wide moved their entire workforce from mechanical product to electronic output. Not just the factories but the entire world wide services work force. The typewriter and calculator repair people became computer and electronic competent as well, with well set internal training, always an Olivetti strong point.

[@poliferroso2]

The Olivetti keyboard was spectacular!!

[@madson-web]

18:38 This "bull" quote is timeless

[@tedlennox4365]

I became involved with Olivetti, GE, Bull and Honeywell in the mid 70's there is plenty of mismanagement mistakes to go around and to much competition the story thru the 2000's with all these companies is a testimony to lack of focus and capabilities 😢

[@gregandark8571]

Typical ITALY ..... no remorse for their loose,better this way.

[@destructionfun2]

Have you considered doing videos telling stories of working for these companies? I personally would love to hear you talk about working at GE and Honeywell specifically.

[@tedlennox4365]

I would not even know where to start.. there were so many companies.. one of the first applications I wrote was in Basic for a Singer (Sewing Machine) computer.. so many languages... Hundreds... the real story is in the miss management of ALL the early computer companies and national rivals of computers made in different companies... and the destruction within companies like Honeywell / Bull and IBM who had entirely different computers from entirely different divisions within companies... and the out right dishonest actions of suppliers and customers ... although it has been documented many times... the rise and failure of Wang Laboratories on the insistence by Dr. Wang that his son take over the business ... 2 Billion in sales to nothing in a few years... nope I would not even know where to start...

[@ArifGhostwriter]

👍🏽 🇬🇧 March 2024 Even as a self-appointed wordsmith - I _don't_ have the words to describe how fantastic this (& these) video essays are!! Ineffably fantastic!