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To: Reginald Middleton who wrote (23590)	11/18/1999 3:47:00 AM
From: RTev	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24154

Do you really mean to tell us that you don't think that Word Perfect, 123, and dBase had anything whatsoever to do with the success of IBM-compatible machines in the 80s? And what about the backwards-compatibility issue? If the applications barrier to entry does not exist, why then do OS makers sacrifice utility in new versions of an OS in order to allow old programs to run on the new system. Perhaps it's the notion of "barrier to entry" that's confusing to you. There's nothing wrong with such a thing. In fact, some kind of barrier exists in virtually any market. You've certainly run into the concept when you've done due diligence for a stock purchase. Virtually any stock analysis of Microsoft is going to mention the applications barrier to entry because it is widely considered to be an important aspect of the company's dominance. You've mentioned several factors, including cost, installed base, hype, advertising. All are important, but all pale in the face of the applications barrier in an OS market.