Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
That is not the case. What made MS-DOS and subsequently Windows the #1 PC operating system were the bundling deals that Microsoft signed with IBM and the subsequent "clone" manufacturers.
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No, not at all. During MS-DOS days, M$ was one among many operating systems- like DR-DOS, PC-DOS, Concurrent, etc. When Windows 3.1 was released, it quickly became the most-pirated operating system ever. The piracy gave M$ overwhelming market share.
These bundling deals (or "coercions," because that is what they were) didn't exist in Windows 3.1 days. Back then, say you ordered a Dell computer- you could have Windows installed, or you could buy Dell UNIX. A few years later, M$ is all you could buy- and you were forced to buy it. Which is why I stopped buying Dell. It wasn't until the 90s, AFTER M$ had overwhelming market share, that these coercive bundling deals were struck.
Always angered me, and made me construct my own computers, because I wasn't running Windows- I ran BSD, AT&T UNIX, and Coherent. So why should I be forced to throw money at Microsoft? I have ONE Windows machine in my home office- when it goes, I don't think any more M$ products will be bought. They piss me off too much to use in my home computing environment.