Sal, how many computers (IBM PC compatible) shipped without MS-DOS, or PC-DOS? Currently, there seem to be a lot of people saying PC-DOS was a competing product, somewhat contrary to my understanding. As for the other DOS compatibles, did they ever really have a shot? Did any major manufacturer bundle them? And numerically speaking, was there ever a time where anything was particularly close to IBM-PC compatibles?
As for OS/2, that comes up a lot too, and again the popular line is somewhat contrary to my recollection. OS/2 was a joint Microsoft/IBM development, and my understanding is that Microsoft was allowed to sell it to non-IBM OEMs. It might be correct to call it competition to DOS, but Microsoft had a fair amount of control over it too. Took a long time for IBM to straighten that one out after IBM and Microsoft split. I imagine Microsoft still collects royalties on OS/2 also, like they did with Unix until recently.
Anyway, in numerical terms, DOS and compatibles seems big enough to be considered a distinct market under the law. Oops, that's a legal opinion, scratch that. I don't know, Microsoft could have just sold Windows as a new OS with DOS compatibility, but that doesn't seem to have been the way it was advertised. We'll see what counterarguments they have at trial, as opposed to the pre-trial PR front. Like Brad Chase said, it's all an urban legend anyway. Perhaps another junior employee using colorful language, eh?
Cheers, Dan. |
