[mdlug] Mark Shuttleworth on MS patent threat

[Ingles, Raymond]

> From: David Relson

> Before the IBM PC there were lots of proprietary designs>

> Microsoft grew as PC compatibles dominated the computing landscape.
> Along with this growth so grew the number of applications available.

 But it was IBMs choice to make a 'clonable' platform (though they didn't
intend to - the reverse-engineering of their BIOS by Compaq and others was
one of the first instances of 'clean room' reverse-engineering, and was
quite unexpected by IBM:

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design

 Once clones were out there, some kind of standardized OS was nearly
inevitable. MS won mostly by default, because they more or less shipped
first, (with a quick and dirty hack, see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QDOS)
and were the default, least expensive OS.

 Personally, I think MS was smart enough to see an opportunity, and then
got *really really lucky*. Standardization on a commodity platform is
nearly inevitable. I don't give them a lot of credit for 'ushering in the
new age' and all that. As Dr. Bob pointed out, they've actually slowed
things down significantly with their deliberate incompatibilities.

 Sincerely,

 Ray Ingles                                        (313) 227-2317

 "Microsoft would OWN the low end server market today if it were
 not for open source OSs, primarily Linux... You cannot undersell
 free, and Microsoft has never won by competing on quality of
                    software." - blakestah

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