To add to the confusion, I seem to recall, back in my Atari days, that it was pronounced something like "Tram-ull" or "Trammel" or something like that, with the emphasis on the first syllable, not the second, and the "i" was silent, I think. Don't take my word for it, though.... :-P
Matt Barton wrote:
I don't know much about him other than that he was an instrumental figure in getting Commodore off the ground. His involvement with Atari later seems more mixed.
My thoughts pretty much echo Bill's, but with the added perspective that I was an Atari enthusiast when Tramiel was at Commodore. Needless to say, Tramiel's famous "business is war" philosophy really hit Atari hard with the C-64 just when it seemed that Atari was on the verge of taking over the 8-bit computing scene! We weren't particularly fond of that. :-)
I jumped ship to Commodore with the introduction of the Amiga, but the impression I got of Tramiel back in the day was that he was exactly the type of ice-cold business mogul that many working-class people decry, particularly the "Occupy Wall Street" protesters.
Yet, it's hard to argue that he didn't have a general positive influence on many people through Commodore's products, particularly most of you who grew up on the C-64. Can you take that away from the man?
I dunno. There are dark stories behind many of the products we consume and that we positively benefit from, particularly consumer electronics. Is it a good trade-off? Is it one of those "needs of the many" situations?
Think about it... most of the gadgets we can't live without were probably made in some Chinese hell-hole. If we were the ones in the hellhole, our perspectives might be different.
BTW, is his name prounced TRA-MEEL or TRA-MAIL?
To add to the confusion, I seem to recall, back in my Atari days, that it was pronounced something like "Tram-ull" or "Trammel" or something like that, with the emphasis on the first syllable, not the second, and the "i" was silent, I think. Don't take my word for it, though.... :-P
I don't know much about him other than that he was an instrumental figure in getting Commodore off the ground. His involvement with Atari later seems more mixed.
My thoughts pretty much echo Bill's, but with the added perspective that I was an Atari enthusiast when Tramiel was at Commodore. Needless to say, Tramiel's famous "business is war" philosophy really hit Atari hard with the C-64 just when it seemed that Atari was on the verge of taking over the 8-bit computing scene! We weren't particularly fond of that. :-)
I jumped ship to Commodore with the introduction of the Amiga, but the impression I got of Tramiel back in the day was that he was exactly the type of ice-cold business mogul that many working-class people decry, particularly the "Occupy Wall Street" protesters.
Yet, it's hard to argue that he didn't have a general positive influence on many people through Commodore's products, particularly most of you who grew up on the C-64. Can you take that away from the man?
I dunno. There are dark stories behind many of the products we consume and that we positively benefit from, particularly consumer electronics. Is it a good trade-off? Is it one of those "needs of the many" situations?
Think about it... most of the gadgets we can't live without were probably made in some Chinese hell-hole. If we were the ones in the hellhole, our perspectives might be different.