On Wed, 18 Oct 2000, Chris Harvey wrote:
> And then I think, Gates managed to persuade IBM to endorse his product and
> even build PCs with his 'MS DOS' on it, and from then it became the defacto
> PC operating system when the PC boom started to take off in the late 80's.
> Pretty shrewd move to get IBM to build PCs and use his operating system.. I
> guess that's why he's the rich one. ;-)
IBM perceived the PC as a smart terminal to their mainframes. They just
couldn't conceive of anyone wanting a stand-alone computer on his/her desk.
Of course, at IBM it would take an executive committee three months to
decide where to go for lunch, so change occured at glacial speed. That's why
companies such as Leading Edge and Compaq took over the market. And that's
probably why IBM had Intel build the 8-bit 8088 when Intel was ready to ship
the 16-bit 8086. After all, a mainframe terminal didn't need 16-bits of
anything.
Excruciatingly-poor decisions were (perhaps still are) rampant in the
computer industry. No more Digital (DEC), Apollo, Kaypro (maker of the first
"real" laptop after the Tandy 102) and a whole bunch of others.
Rich
Dr. Richard B. Shepard, President
Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. (TM)
Making environmentally-responsible mining happen. (SM)
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