Your inference suggests that hardware would have stayed expensive
without Microsoft. I don't buy that. In my view, hardware would have
dropped regardless because the price of the components dropped over
time, completely independent from the PC's relationship to Microsoft.
In fact, I would maintain that competition in the OS/Office
productivity space in the 90s would have eventually resulted in
making these items commodities, which would have reduced the overall
cost of ownership dramatically. Proof of this is the number of free
office productivity and operating systems that have developed in
today's more open environment. These products would have developed
sooner had Microsoft not been allowed to artificially control pricing
and the market.
I would agree that there it would have created a more difficult
environment for us as tech writer to produce documentation, but I
have the feeling it would have worked itself out, just as it has with
browser-based help that works regardless of the operating system in
place. As for Apple, people continue to buy the product in spite of
its higher price because it isn't a one for one comparison. There is
a quality factor, ease of use and stability that I've yet to see
matched in a PC. And I speak as someone who is relatively recent Mac
owner, but has used PCs since 1985
Ron
Ron Miller
Freelance Technology Writing Since 1988
Contributing Editor, EContent Magazine
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
blog: http://byronmiller.typepad.com
web: http://www.ronsmiller.com
Winner of the 2006 and 2007 Apex Award for Publication Excellence/
Feature Writing
On Oct 19, 2007, at 2:50 PM, Chris Borokowski wrote:
I'm somewhat thankful they did, as the result was a standardization of
hardware that allows $500 to buy a better quality machine than a $1500
Macintosh or $2500 custom UNIX. Sometimes aggression in business can
produce very fortunate results for us little people.
--- Ron Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
In my view, the only reason Windows has dominated personal computing
is because Microsoft bullied hardware company into selling its
products. It told computer manufacturers throughout the 90s when it
built its domination to either use only Windows or to have to pay
more for each copy if they didn't.
http://technical-writing.dionysius.com/
technical writing | consulting | development
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