>>
>> What I don't understand is if so many people are against what Microsoft is
>> doing, then why don't the computer manufacturers choose another operating
>> system to ship with their systems? Microsoft doesn't own the computers.
>> They own the software.
>
I'm a little vague on my geek history, but didn't Gate's original contract
to provide the DOS operating system for IBM's first personal computers
specify that all PCs from then til the end of time run Microsoft DOS (which
Windows runs on top of)? Isn't that, and the fact that Apple Computer
thought it could get away with charging more for a superior computer, the
main reason PCs with Microsoft's operating system became the industry
standard?
Perhaps somebody could fill us in on how that early '80s contract
stipulating DOS (which Gates didn't even write but bought from somebody
else) somehow continues in force after all these years?
BTW, the "Revenge of the Nerds' video which I've seen a couple of times on
public tv, is an absolutely fascinating portrayal of the early years of PCs
and Macs. The saddest part of the story was learning that another developer
was approached by IBM and his wife, who handled the meeting in his absence,
refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement. The IBM dudes walked, went back
to Gates, who seized the opportunity, spent $50,000 to buy DOS from someone
else and sold it to IBM. The first guy committed suicide years later. If my
memory of the story is correct, DOS was a back-engineered version of the
dead guy's operation system (somebody correct me if I'm wrong on the
details).
The fact that Gates didn't even write the original DOS program is part of
the reason for resentment against Microsoft: it established his pattern of
buying up and marketing other people's ideas and his reputation for never
having done anything creative besides cutting that immensely lucrative deal
with IBM way back in the dark ages.
The IBM alliance was a particulary sharp one. In the mid-80s I bought my
first PC for my ad agency. I wasn't too impressed by the Apple Lisa I'd
looked at. All I wanted to do was word processing, and I couldn't
understand the significance of the little icons onscreen. Our company's
first PC and dot matrix printer cost around $5000. That was big bucks for
us, and I felt much more secure buying a machine with the International
Business Machines logo on it. Our salesman talked us into buying a clone
next time around, and it and its printer were "only" $3500 (2 mb ram and a
40 mb hard drive). It was a couple of years before Apple changed the face
of graphic design with the laser printer and Adobe Postscript technology.
Until then, we, and the rest of the world were perfectly happy with our
PCs. The only reason I changed was that my brother convinced me in '92 that
it would cost a fortune to make my PC "act like a Mac and it still wouldn't
be a real Mac." Now that I've had Macs, I'd certainly never switch back,
but nonetheless it's easy to understand how PCs became so well entrenched.
Suz
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