From owner-freebsd-chat Sun Jan 19 02:44:44 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.4/8.8.4) id CAA26535 for chat-outgoing; Sun, 19 Jan 1997 02:44:44 -0800 (PST) Received: from hda.hda.com (ip95-max1-fitch.ziplink.net [199.232.245.95]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.4/8.8.4) with SMTP id CAA26530 for ; Sun, 19 Jan 1997 02:44:40 -0800 (PST) Received: (from dufault@localhost) by hda.hda.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) id FAA19064; Sun, 19 Jan 1997 05:38:53 -0500 From: Peter Dufault Message-Id: <199701191038.FAA19064@hda.hda.com> Subject: Cursing the sky (was: Commerical applications ...) In-Reply-To: <199701182047.NAA12461@phaeton.artisoft.com> from Terry Lambert at "Jan 18, 97 01:47:05 pm" To: terry@lambert.org (Terry Lambert) Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1997 05:38:52 -0500 (EST) Cc: chat@freebsd.org X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL25 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-chat@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > Microsoft's success arises from it being the first to be second in > any market, with an incrementally better product. > > This is, incidently, the same reason for the success of most Japanese > marketing to the US. > > Demming told the world this formula. > > Apparently only Microsoft and Japan listened... There is one main reason that MS is where it is today, and that is that until the oops-the-horse-is-out-of-the-barn-close-the-door agreement with the US Department of Justice every manufacturer of PC class computers had to include DOS and/or Windows with every computer they sold if they wanted to sell any copy of DOS and/or Windows without paying retail. MS now sits on a US$9e9 dollar cash cache and 85%+ of the computer market courtesy of a decade of anti-competitive practice, assisted by a group of ostriches laughing at PCs. Anyone who thinks that Unix couldn't have been a lot more successful at the low end wasn't working with microcomputers in the mid 80s. Lest I spend too much time crying in my beer and shaking my fist at the sky and Bill Gates, keep in mind that the sea change of the last five years came out of our corner. -- Peter Dufault (dufault@hda.com) Realtime Machine Control and Simulation HD Associates, Inc. Voice: 508 433 6936