J. Clarke wrote:
I hope you realize how boring all this is?
Either way, if IBM had ended up with the code the only real long term
difference in the computer market would be that everybody hated Gary
Kildall instead of Bill Gates, because it was intended to be a CP/M
machine from the outset and the only reason it wasn't was that Digital
Research (which, for those who think I'm talking about the outfit that
made VAXen, was a different company from Digital Equipment) didn't get
their OS on the machine as the default was that somehow they managed
to tick off IBM enough for IBM to seek a second source (there are many
stories concerning what specific action set them off).
Yeah, there are a lot of stories because IBM will never tell the truth.
Here are the facts:
IBM had already been busted for running a monopoly and didn't want it to
happen again.
IBM was in competition with Digital Research
IBM's chairman was tight with Gates mother
Gates, a pimply faced millionaires son had no operating system to sell,
but apparently had very good connections.
The rest is history, you can fill in the blanks as to why the world
suffers the worlds worst OS.
There wasn't any hardware in an IBM PC that needed "cracking". What
Compaq did was write a clone of the ROM-BIOS program that did not
infringe IBM's copyright.
That was probably a mistake on IBM's part. No matter, they have patents
on just about everything computer related.
If IBM had really wanted to keep the PC proprietary they would have
used their own OS and processor (they had a single-chip 370 running in
the laboratory, and they had their own 32-bit multiuser multitasking
virtual-memory protected mode operating system in commercial
production long before the first IBM PC shipped) instead of farming it
out to some hole in the wall.
This is exactly right. I think they did it for fear of more charges of
monopoly which can be scary to a corporation. It's worked out well for
all, except the consumer, who generally gets screwed in these
situations, but imo, this is classic how people get ****ed from a
monopoly situation.
BTW, when MicroSoft couldn't figure out how to get windows to work after
years of fooling around, IBM wrote OS/2 in less than a year, and it not
only worked, it ran DOS and Windows and OS/2 operating systems and
applications seamlessly and concurrently.
--
Jack
http://jbstein.com