Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!orca!javelin.es.com!bgeer From: bgeer@javelin.es.com (Bob Geer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc Subject: Re: A sad day... Message-ID: <1991Mar10.155138.14376@javelin.es.com> Date: 10 Mar 91 15:51:38 GMT References: <46878@nigel.ee.udel.edu> Reply-To: bgeer%javelin@dsd.es.com Organization: Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp., Salt Lake City, Utah Lines: 30 >In article <46878@nigel.ee.udel.edu> johnston@oscar.ccm.udel.edu >Bill Johnston writes: > If you are looking for a villain in this situation, look carefully at > Microsoft. On the strength of a positively TRIVIAL OS -- MS-DOS, > they've extorted tribute from most of the PC-using world. Having been around perhaps a little longer than you have, or perhaps been a little more observant than you have, let me belaboredly point out that there was RTMS (Intel's original real-time x86 OS?), CP/M-86, MP/M-86, Concurrent CP/M-86, QNX, XENIX, PCIX, OS/2, & lots of other OS's for PCClones. If you want to find villians, look at the folks who didn't buy these other OS's, not a software company who DID NOT sue any of these folks (such as Apple has). The buying public has & has had alternatives to MSDOS, so by what stretch of the imagination do you use the word "extortion"? Many of the listed OS's are certainly non-trivial...why haven't they flourished -- maybe the buying public is satisfied with easy to install & maintain MSDOS. Oh, come to think of it, IBM had a choice of OS's when it introduced the IBM-PC & they chose to support MS-DOS...so let's not forget their complicity in this villainy. But then, IBM did foster PCIX years ago & OS/2 more recently, so their villainy isn't so clear, either. What fun... -- <> Bob `Bear' Geer <> bgeer@javelin.sim.es.com <> <> Alta-holic <> speaking only for myself, one of my many tricks <> <> Salt Lake City, <> "We must strive to be more than we are, Lal." <> <> Ootah <> -- Cmdr. Data, learning schmaltz <>