Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2001 14:51:12 -0500 From: Bob Willcox <bob@immure.com> To: chat list <freebsd-chat@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: How did the MSFT monopoly start? Message-ID: <20010807145112.C39962@luke.immure.com> In-Reply-To: <15214.52633.581653.632317@guru.mired.org>; from mwm@mired.org on Mon, Aug 06, 2001 at 12:02:17PM -0500 References: <20010806142544.A64348@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> <15214.52633.581653.632317@guru.mired.org>
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I am a 30-year (1965-1995) IBM retiree so you may want to take this with a grain of salt as well. I never saw any ads claiming "Nobody was ever fired for buying IBM", but that's not to say it didn't happen. Generally, those of us not in marketing, were constantly cautioned about such monopolistic sounding statements. Additionally, we had to sign written statements that we had read and understood the "IBM Business Practices Guidelines" booklet every year that strictly forbid such statements. Violation of the guidelines were grounds for dismissal (can't say I know of anyone being fired for this...in development you don't get that much opportunity to do such things). IBM has always _fired_ people for violation of "Conditions of Employment" (such as fighting, drugs on IBM property, etc.) or non-performance. It was difficult, as with any large Bureaucracy with deep pockets, though. The thing IBM had never done till the early 90's (even throughout the "Great Depression") was to lay anyone off. That changed, though. As for the rest (IBM-PC being inferior, etc.) I can't really comment. My personal experiences were apparently somewhat different from Mike's, though. (I don't think that _any_ of the PCs available in 1981 were particularly good.) IMHO the _most_ inferior part of the IBM-PC was (and still is) the PC-DOS operating system. Unfortunately, in 1981 we didn't have many alternatives, and they were all more expensive. Bob On Mon, Aug 06, 2001 at 12:02:17PM -0500, Mike Meyer wrote: > j mckitrick <jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org> types: > > We hear all of the stories of how OEMs had to install Windows if they sold > > MS-DOS, but how did MSFT get the clout to require this in the first place? > > How did they go from being just-another-DOS to having the power to tell OEMs > > what they could and could not do, and price-gouging them if they did not > > comply? > > There are probably more answers to this than there are people who were > paying attention at the time, so take any answers - including this one > - with a grain of salt. > > Before the microcomputer revolution, IBM was the 800 pound gorilla in > the computer market. They pretty much owned the large company > mainframe market. They weren't quite so dominant in the minicomputer > market, but were still a major player. The PC market was miniscule, > and mostly ignored by the mini and mainframe makers. > > To get an idea of how dominate IBM was, that they ran ads claiming > "Nobody was ever fired for buying IBM". I've been told this claim is > no longer true. Likewise, they used to be quite proud of having > *never* fired anyone. If you weren't performing, they'd quit giving > you raises/promotions, and start relocating you regularly - leading to > the "I've Been Moved" moniker for the company. If you left and later > recommended hardware other than IBM, you could predict that the IBM > sales reps would make negative references to your having left IBM. > > VisiCalc shows up and legitimizes PCs for office work. However, there > was no PC from IBM, so few IT managers would approve company money for > purchase of a PC, so the market stayed relatively small. > > Enter the IBM-PC. It's clearly inferior to hardware already on the > market and cost far to much. The largest PC retailer of the time - > ComputerLand - figured they'd never be able to sell one. However, it's > from *IBM*. So all those IT managers start buying them, because > "nobody was ever fired for buying IBM." The demand outstrips the > supply, the clones start showing up, and the revolution is on. > > The machines came with an OS called PC-DOS. You could also get > CP/M-86, the 8086 version of the previous dominant OS, but it cost > extra without providing any extra functionality. PC-DOS came from > MSFT. IBM had apparently wanted to purchase it outright, but Gates > convinced them to pay a percentage instead. In doing so, Gates stole > the revolution from IBM. > > By maintaining ownership of MS-DOS, Gates could sell a "generic" > version - MS-DOS - for the clones. Since the business market was on > IBM hardware, the clones needed to be able to run software written for > that market. Radio Shack created a "better-than-IBM" compatible - > better graphics, etc. - and it died because the available software > wouldn't run on it properly. In other words, even then, if you > couldn't run the popular software, you were pretty much dead. > > Thus, IBM's dominance in the mainframe market(*) translated to > dominance on the PC hardware, but they were using MSFT software, thus > giving MSFT software dominance. > > FWIW, Gates sold IBM a product he didn't have. He then went out and > bought QDOS - the Quick and Dirty OS - from SCC, which had written it > for their 8086 S-100 boxes because Digital Research kept delaying > CP/M-86. > > I'm sure others will offer corrections. > > <mike > > (*) FWIW, I've seen claims that IBM's hardware dominance came from the > IBM 360 series. It was the first computer to have both word operations > and byte addressability, making it the first computer that could > reasonably do both business and scientific computation. Being able to > buy one machine instead of two is a serious advantage, and it > obviously succeeded. > > -- > Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ > Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information. > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message -- Bob Willcox All men profess honesty as long as they can. bob@vieo.com To believe all men honest would be folly. Austin, TX To believe none so is something worse. -- John Quincy Adams To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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