Back in the day there were literally 50 companies selling IBM compatible machines on a national scale through mail order. The old Computer Shopper was the whos who of PC clone royalty. It was bible thick and atlas sized. You could spend hours wandering through the news print type paper dreaming of owning the latest 386 or buying a 50 megabyte hard drive.

The court jester of the PC clone royalty was Ted Waitt. He started his company in Iowa with borrowed money from his grandmother. That wasn't the coolest thing. Ted pushed his PCs with the use of cows. Yes, cows.

Whereas Michael Dell was stodgy and inaccessible, Ted Waitt pushed his products in an open, casual manner.

Time hasn't been good to Gateway. Dell has taken off, but Gateway has faded into a has been in the business. Ted bet the farm on local retail shops selling more than computers and lost the harvest.

While the company is turning around, Ted is leaving. It's a sad day in the PC industry.

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