>>> MSFT practically created the PC OS industry. Before then, when software was considered and economic after thought that was thrown in with the hardware, did anybody attempt to coerce the hardware vendors to drop the price of the hardware down to that of the (free) software.
Gates had the vision to see superior economics in the software model and the widespread acceptance of the PC. <<<
Some of your points are good, but:
One has no idea what you are talking about here in this point. Gary Kildall of DRI created the PC OS business.
Gates was in the PC (pre-IBM) and software business one way or another for 5 years before IBM brought out the IBM PC, and coopted and trademarked the commonly used initials PC. Like everybody else then, he was writing products for the Commodore 64, the Apple II, and CPM. Somewhere around here, I still have my Microsoft-made CPM board for Apple II, complete with z80 processor and MSFT CPM OS, licensed from Gary Kildall, ported, and repackaged. Besides that, he had ported and repackaged BASIC (or perhaps, Paul Allen had) for a number of platforms, including CPM.
None of that was free. Not CPM, not Unix, not the Apple II, not Visicalc, not Wordstar, not the Atari or it's games, not the Epson dot matrix printers, not the Compuserve usage, not any of the hundreds of brands of 8080, 65xx, and other PCs out before the DOS/8088 box from IBM. The whole business existed and was turning over hundred of millions of dollars before the IBM/DOS box came out.
IBM had the clout to market their good product to big companies, which until then largely had not had the imagination or intelligence to get into PCs, because they were mostly run by dead-headed suits. Consequently they got volume on a very expensive product.
So, according to everyone, IBM showed up on his doorstep wanting a PC OS for their rather tardily produced 8088 machine. Gates found an OS (very much a CPM derivative) at a small development shop in Seattle, licensed and repackaged it for IBM, and then stuck it to IBM. IBM ended up having great volume, and Gates had his hooks in, due to incompetent negotiation by some folks from IBM who probably didn't take the whole PC thing too seriously. And for years thereafter IBM techs drove the whole DOS development effort, doing the incremental enhancements and listening to the feedback from customers, which is their strong suit.
So, man of vision, seeing future technology none of the rest of us in the PC business could see. No. Sorry.
Inventor of the PC OS or PC OS business? ROFL.
Great businessman, ably surfing the waves of innovation created by the passage of others, taking advantage of others' business mistakes, and still today pinching his original two cents together? Absolutely. The guy is King Midas. Gates saw what none of the rest of us saw in one way, that the money was in controlling the power levers in the industry, in grabbing market share by any means, not by concentrating on new technology or worrying about having the best product or getting too excited by engineering. And unlike the rest of us, for him it was all about the money, not about empowering the little guy or driving science or having fun.
Cheers,
Chaz |
