I was a heavy BeOS user during its last days, and from what I remember, Microsoft put some serious pressure on certain OEMs to not sell BeOS on their computers.

I was a heavy BeOS user during its last days, and from what I remember, Microsoft put some serious pressure on certain OEMs to not sell BeOS on their computers. Compaq was one of those; they were told in no uncertain terms that if Compaq sold even one computer with BeOS on it, they'd never sell another computer with Windows, period. That's certainly not the only reason the company went under, but it was a major factor.