Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!mcdonald
From: mcdonald@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: IBM and Apple Operating Systems
Message-ID: <110200024@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 2 Nov 89 01:40:28 GMT
References: <843@dvnspc1.Dev.Unisys.COM>
Lines: 17
Nf-ID: #R:dvnspc1.Dev.Unisys.COM:843:uxe.cso.uiuc.edu:110200024:000:756
Nf-From: uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!mcdonald    Nov  1 09:24:00 1989



>To say that Microsoft and IBM blew it, at least as far as 
>the DOS PC, seems to be a bit of 20/20 hindsight.  They must have

It wasn't IBM that blew it. It was DEC. They had the wherewithal
about 1976 to take the whole market that has developed for small
computers. With the PDP-11 - LSI-11 chipset. They could have marketed
on a wide scale appropriate computers with this chip - and
with 32kbyte or 48 kbyte or even 56 kbyte of memory and RT-11.
Use a carefully designed CHEAP DEC-tape as a standard and a good
8 inch floppy as an extra (the floppy they had was just a tad
underwhelming, but others had better designs). But somehow they
never tried developing the market. They never have been able to
design truly "personal" computers.

Doug MCDonald