It's weird how the x86/PC/WinDOS combination was inferior to almost anything else contemporary, and still killed each and every competing branch of general cons

It's weird how the x86/PC/WinDOS combination was inferior to almost anything else contemporary, and still killed each and every competing branch of general consumer computing so dead we can't even imagine anything else anymore. The market was desperate for any kind of standard, but computer manufacturers were rabidly against working with competitors. Then IBM, the gorilla in the room and watched like hawks by everybody, accidentally delivered something open-ish even if ugly. The whole market recrystalized around it, while IBM frantically tried to close the ecosystem and locked themselves out of their own ecosystem. Meanwhile, Microsoft and Intel had no problem with anybody giving them money, developers could deliver 1 version of the application to everyone, and consumers knew what to choose.