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Strategies & Market Trends : Buffettology -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jurgis Bekepuris who wrote (2216)	2/25/2000 1:44:00 PM
From: Wright Sullivan	Respond to of 4691

OT: MSFT Jurgis- You are correct with respect to MSFT. I remember being a software developer in 1986 and trying to figure out whether we should go with IBM's "TopWorks" or QuarterDeck's "DesqView" for a multitasking windowing solution. I bought a copy of a silly little program (it wasn't an operating system then) called Windows 1.03, which included a cute Connect4 type game and a cool digital clock. But for our serious work, we picked the correct candidate, DesqView! When Word for Windows came out, typing on it was like driving one of those cars that the police rig to simulate drunk driving--everything you typed showed up a few seconds later. But over time, MSFT didn't screw up, and their competitors did (WordPerfect & Lotus), and Word and Excel came to dominate. Gates & Co. made some great business decisions, and also had far more tenacity and patience than anyone else in the industry. That's still worth something. The one achilles heel that MSFT had in the late 80's was DR-DOS--a competitor could have taken away their cash cow back then because there were two IBM-Compatible DOSes available (MS-DOS & DR-DOS). They didn't leave that hole open when they created Windows, and that combined with their tenacity gave rise to the government's lawsuit. It's a fascinating subject, and it has been fun to watch it all unfold over the years. We're seeing the same sort of fast evolution in networking now, but the trouble is that everyone has figured out how much money can be made in that space, so no networking stocks are available with any margin of safety. I'm enjoying BRK's hammering as an opportunity. Hopefully it will last a little while. -Wright