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Technology Stocks : INPR - Inprise to Borland (BORL)
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To: Tom C who wrote (3859)12/27/1999 11:11:00 PM
From: Fred Gohlke  Read Replies (1) of 5102
 
Tom,

Some time in the latter half of the 70's a small company in Albuquerque, New Mexico sold a commercial product called MicroSoft Basic. The product was relatively good (some would say it was the only product, but that is not strictly true), and it was freely copied by darn near everyone who used it. Around '77 or '78 or so, Bill Gates wrote a very bitter letter to our computer club, complaining because he felt the club was a hotbed of the copying.

As it turned out, the copying was the best thing that could have happened to him (and to MicroSoft). As a result of it, MicroSoft Basic became the de facto standard programming language for (then-called) microcomputers. That is the most fundamental reason why MicroSoft came to dominate the (now-called) personal computer market.

The idea here is basically the same. If Inprise's products become the standard for Linux development, Inprise will become a huge financial success ... and it could happen.

Fred
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