Not many other discussions going on today, so perpetuate I will...
Somebody had to be accepted as a standard. No matter how unpopular MS is,
they became the desktop home and office user system. Nobody else stepped up
to the plate, so the market picked Microsoft. DOS was never meant to take
off like it did, it just did. Apple had plenty of chances to dominate, but
there were too many bad strategies. For example, they kept a closed
architecture, which prevented many companies from developing hardware or
software for the OS. On the other hand, Microsoft's strategy was to work on
the lowest common denominator, and it worked. Anybody could make hardware
or software to work with DOS and Windows, so their popularity and user base
grew rapidly at a time when any other platform was too expensive (CRAY or
Sun or AS/400 or MVS for the home user?).
Commodore 64...now THERE was a computer! Load * ,8 ,1
:-)
The whole AOL/Netscape/IE thing cracks me up, but such is life. I think at
least AOL uses Netcenter.
adrian
-----Original Message-----
From Bryan Vandiver [mailto:Bryan.Vandiver at Eng.Sun.COM]
Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2000 2:29 PM
To: adrian@workgroup.net; spridgets@autox.team.net;
macy@bblmail.psycha.upenn.edu
Subject: RE: Fw: more info on virus (NO LBC)
Here's another great 'twist of Irony'
AOL Acquired Netscape,and yet AOL can't even ship Netscape Navigator on
their
own CD, because of an 'exclusive agreement' they signed with MS.
I have 'personally seen the damage MS has done to the PC industry, over the
last
15 years, there are more companies that have been squashed by MS
steamroller,
than the public is even aware of. Back in '87, I was working for a PC
manufacturer, and we got a letter from MS saying that we needed to pay them
a
'royalty fee' for every PC that shipped out the door, whether it had an OS
installed or not. Their reasoning was that 'all our PC's would be running
their
OS, so we 'owed them something', needless to say we didn't agree.
One thing I've got to admit, Bill has really done a great job of trying to
create a 'kinder, gentler' public image of himself in the last couple of
years.
He almost comes across as an OK guy, unfortunately, What you see, is not
always
what you get :-)
- Bryan
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