[Plug] RE: How Microsoft gobbled up the P.C. world

[Gregory.Josephs@phila.gov]

Jason M. Lenthe says:

< quote >

>There were other would-be windowing systems, some based on MS-DOS 

My first computer, a MS-DOS based 286, had just such a windowing system on
it called GeoWorks Desktop manager.  I remember it being a really sharp
friendly looking interface.  Some years later, I saw an interview on TV
with the CEO of GeoWorks, Inc.  and he said that the main reason they
couldn't compete with Windows was because computer manufactuers had to pay
twice if they wanted to use GeoWorks, once for the DOS/Windows combo and
again for GeoWorks.  Do you think microsoft's monopoly with MS-DOS helped
it win in the Windows market and perhaps, in turn, the office market?

Jason

< unquote >

MS-DOS to Windows, probably.  Windows to Office, iffy.

Nobody said business competition in the USA is pretty to look at.  As Winston
Churchill  said of democracy, it is the worst system - except for all of the
alternatives that have been tried.

Personally, I don't favor total deregulation, but the recent encounters between
Microsoft and the Department of Justice trustbusters give me little ground for
confidence in the government's ability to level the playing field.  For one
thing, the world is a globe, and a flat surface is a poor representation of that
reality.

Speaking of the globe, couldn't some foreign-based competition meet Microsoft
head-to-head?  But they haven't so far - not France, not Japan, not Russia, not
India ...  Look at the German telecom system - they all seem to have a
command-economy orientation.

IMHO Linux, and the whole Open Software movement, is the most promising force
for keeping Microsoft at least superficially honest.  And one challenge will be
to NOT become a closed group of true believers like the Macintosh crowd.

GregJ



_______________________________________________
Plug maillist  -  Plug@lists.nothinbut.net
http://lists.nothinbut.net/mail/listinfo/plug