5 ms·

Even back then I never saw gates as a mad tycoon like others seem to. When running a business at the end of the day the non software problem you are trying to s

Even back then I never saw gates as a mad tycoon like others seem to. When running a business at the end of the day the non software problem you are trying to solve is not necessarily to make the best thing in the world but to sell the most things and maintain future sales. It is just another problem to be solved along with getting your memory model right and ensuring customers aren't dissatisfied enough to abandon your platform. Of course it comes at the risk of having to allow hurt to other companies but that is the nature of survival.

vidarh 13y ago
If all the did was compete fairly, it would not have been an issue, but they more than once were found to engage in unfair business practices. Such as financially punishing OEMs that opted to offer competing OS's.
- aquadrop 13y ago
  What else can you name as "unfair business practices"? I'm genuinely interested in the answer.
  - lmm 13y ago
    The bundling that got them convicted of monopoly abuse - including Windows Media Player with windows, so that they could sell a video streaming server for which the client program and browser plugin were already installed (where competitors like real and quicktime had to offer a separate download). Similar story with IE (netscape's server product was actually amazing for the time, with ideas that were only beginning to be adopted ten years later). Selling IBM an OS that they hadn't actually written yet - you could argue no harm no foul, but MS's actions meant IBM was taking on much more risk in that contract than they realized.
  - makomk 13y ago
    They also had an infamous habit of announcing vapourware alternatives to competing products, knowing that many potential customers would hold off buying if they thought a Microsoft-developed alternative was in the works (e.g. PenPoint OS vs Microsoft's Windows for Pen Computing - the latter of which had very minimal functionality when it finally came out).
    - WalterBright 13y ago
      I never understood the crying over that. If you have a good product available right now, and you can't sell against a vaporware product that may or may not be available for year(s) in the future, you're simply not good at sales, or your product isn't good. At Zortech, we found selling against vaporware to be easy sales.

vidarh 13y ago

If all the did was compete fairly, it would not have been an issue, but they more than once were found to engage in unfair business practices. Such as financially punishing OEMs that opted to offer competing OS's.

aquadrop 13y ago
What else can you name as "unfair business practices"? I'm genuinely interested in the answer.
- lmm 13y ago
  The bundling that got them convicted of monopoly abuse - including Windows Media Player with windows, so that they could sell a video streaming server for which the client program and browser plugin were already installed (where competitors like real and quicktime had to offer a separate download). Similar story with IE (netscape's server product was actually amazing for the time, with ideas that were only beginning to be adopted ten years later). Selling IBM an OS that they hadn't actually written yet - you could argue no harm no foul, but MS's actions meant IBM was taking on much more risk in that contract than they realized.
- makomk 13y ago
  They also had an infamous habit of announcing vapourware alternatives to competing products, knowing that many potential customers would hold off buying if they thought a Microsoft-developed alternative was in the works (e.g. PenPoint OS vs Microsoft's Windows for Pen Computing - the latter of which had very minimal functionality when it finally came out).
  - WalterBright 13y ago
    I never understood the crying over that. If you have a good product available right now, and you can't sell against a vaporware product that may or may not be available for year(s) in the future, you're simply not good at sales, or your product isn't good. At Zortech, we found selling against vaporware to be easy sales.