Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2001 00:29:20 -0700 From: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> To: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> Cc: j mckitrick <jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org>, freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: How did the MSFT monopoly start? Message-ID: <3B6F98D0.A3C22CC9@mindspring.com> References: <20010806142544.A64348@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> <15214.52633.581653.632317@guru.mired.org>
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Mike Meyer wrote: > Enter the IBM-PC. It's clearly inferior to hardware already on the > market and cost far to much. The largest PC retailer of the time - > ComputerLand - figured they'd never be able to sell one. However, it's > from *IBM*. So all those IT managers start buying them, because > "nobody was ever fired for buying IBM." The demand outstrips the > supply, the clones start showing up, and the revolution is on. FWIW: In the original version, the IBM PC was powered by a Motorolla 68k. They switched to the Intel 8088 (*not* 8086, yet) because Motorolla could not commit volume, and IBM wanted a license to fabricate. > The machines came with an OS called PC-DOS. You could also get > CP/M-86, the 8086 version of the previous dominant OS, but it cost > extra without providing any extra functionality. PC-DOS came from > MSFT. IBM had apparently wanted to purchase it outright, but Gates > convinced them to pay a percentage instead. In doing so, Gates stole > the revolution from IBM. CP/M-88 and MP/M-88. The 86 was later. > Radio Shack created a "better-than-IBM" compatible - > better graphics, etc. - and it died because the available software > wouldn't run on it properly. In other words, even then, if you > couldn't run the popular software, you were pretty much dead. The Tandy 1000 was a late comer in the game. It used a non-standard UART, so the serial port never worked right with standard off-the-shelf software, right about the time that people started to get into modems, big-time. DEC also built a machine, the DEC Rainbow, that used a non-standard UART, and had the same problem. They finally went to a standard UART with the Revision B Rainbow II motherboard, but by then, it was too late, and they had missed their window. > FWIW, Gates sold IBM a product he didn't have. He then went out and > bought QDOS - the Quick and Dirty OS - from SCC, which had written it > for their 8086 S-100 boxes because Digital Research kept delaying > CP/M-86. IBM attempted several times to contact Digital Research about licensing CP/M, but they never returned IBM's calls, and then their founder died. Cringely covers this in detail, both in his book, and the videos based on it. -- Terry To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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