3 ms·
In a world where OS/2 failed, Be wouldn’t have a chance. The biggest irony to Microsoft’s anti-competitive OEM practices is that they were unnecessary. The net
by sjwright 6y ago
In a world where OS/2 failed, Be wouldn’t have a chance.
The biggest irony to Microsoft’s anti-competitive OEM practices is that they were unnecessary. The network effects of software compatibility proved sufficient to maintain their dominance.
And their temporarily successful attempts to dominate the browser market failed to turn the open standards web platform into the Windows platform’s greatest competitor.
- nitrogen 6y agoThe network effects of software compatibility proved sufficient to maintain their dominance. Before that point it was common for software to be ported to all the major platforms, so I don't think that caused their dominance, it just helped reinforce it.
- scarface74 6y agoYou didn’t own a Mac back then did you? By 2000 there were only two major platforms for desktop operating systems - Macs and Windows.
- nitrogen 6y agoI'm thinking more DOS era. E.g. all of the different Another World ports.
- scarface74 6y agoThe DOS era was the Mac era. The Mac came out in 1984. It didn’t see a whole lot of ports.
- scarface74 6y agoOS/2 failed partially because Microsoft not only made it more expensive for OEMs to ship OS/2 since they still had to pay a licensing fee, they also didn’t give IBM early access to Windows 95 like they did other OEMs. OS/2 actually ran Win 3.1 apps better than Windows 95. I sold IBM PCs running OS/2 at Radio Shack in 1995.