What did microsoft do?

[kevin11951]

i dont dislike microsoft, nor do i think they are a bad company...

but, what i want to know is how in the world they got so popular? xerox had the gui right? apple had the first home desktop computer right? where does microsoft fit in all that?

microsoft should be applauded simply for getting the home software market off its feet, but its been soooooo long! some other company should have the spotlight by now dont you think?

apple, oh apple. they seem to have the hardware beauty down to a fine art, but what about an OS!?


Im just sick and tired of people putting down linux...

people need to open their eyes.


-kevin

im sorry for this post, but ive showed countless people ubuntu, just to have them put it down because they dont like where the clock is, or the logo of all things!

[LaRoza]

but, what i want to know is how in the world they got so popular? xerox had the gui right? apple had the first home desktop computer right? where does microsoft fit in all that?

microsoft should be applauded simply for getting the home software market off its feet, but its been soooooo long! some other company should have the spotlight by now dont you think?


It all started with DOS. MS-DOS is based on QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System). They renamed it, added somethings I imagine and got it preinstalled on home computers.

Unix and others were much better, but they were being used, not marketed.

Windows was originally just a GUI program that ran on top of DOS. MS and IBM worked on OS/2 and MS used that for the basis, but to avoid being sued for stealing it, they made sure to make Windows not start with DOS. (You had to type "win.exe"). It was commonly added to autoexec.bat.

[akiratheoni]

Also, the only other real competitor from what I remember to Windows was -- surprise! -- Mac OS by Apple, which Windows beat by selling at a lower price.

[hardyn]

The whole DOS IBM-PC story is actully pretty intersting, it has been a model in both software engineering and business classes of mine. It demonstrates that Mr.Gates really was one heck of a busness person, much more-so than sofware engineer.

[Npl]

smart business. They got the deal for providing the OS for IBMs then new system while retaining the right for it. And in a good business manner instead of spending lotsa money in developing that OS, they bought QDOS for cheap from another guy who hacked it together(He coined it Quick-and-Dirty-OS - QDOS) and branded it MSDOS.
IBMs System pushed trough with its name, and made MS what they are... no matter that MSDOS excelled at doing everything in the worst possible way.

[vexorian]

It is the usual "buy low, sell one million of times" tale. Based on marketing and software designed to hook people and other sections of the industry with them. It is a lot like a drug dealer's success story actually.

[keykero]

The prevelance of "IBM-Compatible" (clone) machines that could also run MS-DOS and were cheaper was a big help vs. Apple's traditionally closed hardware. With IBM making the computers and other manufacturers making even better/cheaper copies of those computers, and MS-DOS running on whichever line a buyer chose, it's really no wonder.

[Npl]

Also, the only other real competitor from what I remember to Windows was -- surprise! -- Mac OS by Apple, which Windows beat by selling at a lower price.Depends on what time-span you were talking about.
mid 80`s to early 90`s there were a couple homecomputers, most notable the Amiga which had both superior hardware and OS (the company behind it was very good at killing itself though).
Later (mid-90`s - 2002) there was BeOS, but they were facing total MS-Dominance already and Retailers selling BeOS-installed PCs got punished by MS.

Unix/linux wasnt an option for desktops during that time

[saulgoode]

i dont dislike microsoft, nor do i think they are a bad company...

but, what i want to know is how in the world they got so popular?

Serendipity (http://www.vcnet.com/bms/features/serendipities.shtml) and criminal behavior (http://usvms.gpo.gov/ms-conclusions.html).

[tbrminsanity]

Keys to M$ early success:

1. Make a cheap product that at least gets the job done (Windows wasn't revolutionary in its time but it worked and thats all that matters).
2. Make deals with PC manufacturers to exclusively install only your product. Since the big players at the time (Apple, Commodore, and Atari) all made their own hardware they didn't cry foul at this and smaller companies didn't have the voice to complain.
3. Get dealers to be M$ official dealers (ie don't sell the competition's computers). All the proprietary companies did this in the 80's-90's and no one wanted to call the kettle black.
4. Have customer support that was cheaper and better then the competition. This killed off more of the competition against M$ then anything else and even I will admit that their service use to be the best in the business.
5. Package software together so people only need to just get your product and not a third party app (this got them into hot water eventually but not before the damage was done).
6. Develop a third party community of products around your product. This brings more attention to your product and more users who want all the software. Biggest community they formed was the gaming community in the mid 90's.

[Lostincyberspace]

Go watch Pirates Of silicon valley and you will see how it all went down.

[JAPrufrock]

Serendipity (http://www.vcnet.com/bms/features/serendipities.shtml) and criminal behavior (http://usvms.gpo.gov/ms-conclusions.html).

Luck and ruthless business practices.

[subzero316]

..Defenitely they have to be apprecited for what they have become..Every single h/w manfacturer gives their windows supported driver.. many critize his buisness tactics..i dunno wat they really were but it paid him big time..I wonder y allen really quit from microsoft??:confused: