At 08:25 PM 7/1/1998 -0800, Suzanne so eloquently stated:
>>>
>>> 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?
>
You are correct. An excellent book on that coup is ""Computer
Wars: How The West Can Win In A Post-IBM World" by Charles H.
Ferguson and Charles R. Morris (Times Books -- Random House). In
it they describe how IBM didn't understand or believe that these
"toys" would work (and take over the world). Hence they
partnered with Gates.
BTW, The first PC's were limited to 640k, whereas DOS was written
for 1mb. IBM could never imagine anybody would need more than
640k (their "mainframes" worked well with under 100k). So they
asked MS to leave the 380k between 640k and 1mb for IBM's use and
their drivers.
>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).
>
Gates and Paul Allen (who is also one of the World's richest)
originally bought licensing rights to QDOS ("Quick and Dirty
Operating System") from Seattle Computer for $25,000 without
disclosing them to IBM. He later bought exclusive rights for
$50,000. Later Seattle Computer sued and won a $1 million
judgement against MS.
IBM was in and anti-trust case at the time and did not want to
own an operating system. So they agreed to a royalty agreement.
You may be thinking of Gary Kildall who authored CP/M and who
also was in negotiations with IBM. Gary was a flamboyant
individual who flew his own plane and the epitome of the leisure
world of the nerds. When the IBM team (in full black suit, white
short and conservative tie) went on a scheduled trip to Kildall's
company (Digital research) he was off flying his plane. Gary's
wife refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Gary took his
time getting back to IBM and blew the deal of the century. Later
Gary died in a plane crash.
>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.
>
And the problem with a marketing company is...? <g>
>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.
>
In 1982, Apple took out full page ads welcoming IBM to "its
industry." Two years later Apple almost folded. In 1984 Apple
did it's best ad ever -- the Orwelian Mac ad. It didn't do much
to cut into IBM, however. That was also the year the "clones"
took over and IBM was never again a major source.
For any company using the original 808x chips they had to use the
DOS operating system, even though they may use something else.
So, if Compaq chose to use the 8088 with Northstar's O/S (far
superior to DOS at the time), they would sill have to have DOS
because of the IBM (chip owner) and MS royalty agreement. Hence too costly.
So, was it MS's superior negotiations or IBM's stupidity that
brought MS to where it is?
George "Lover of History, and a marketeer extraordinaire" matyjewicz
_______________________________________________________
George Matyjewicz, C.M.O. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.gapent.com/
Moderator of E-Tailer's Digest http://www.gapent.com/etailer/
Your Resource for Retail on the Net
MYWEB - Marketing Your Web
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Subject=MYWEB_Info
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