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[Shogmaster]

Microsoft didn't create the industry -- Apple did. Apple had a patent on the concept of the GUI itself. If Microsoft had not challenged Apple's monopoly on the OS market, then we would have a much stiffer "monopoly" on the computer industry today.

We've basically traded off one evil for another.

I'm pretty sure that it was Xerox PARC that had anything resembling a patent on the GUI concept, but I agree with your sentiments.

 

[Monk]

sorry haters, but good ole' Bill is right. without MS, it'd be a whole different story in the PC industry.

Yeah, software might actually not be ridiculously buggy on PC's.

 

[Deleted member 4784]

I'm pretty sure that it was Xerox PARC that had anything resembling a patent on the GUI concept, but I agree with your sentiments.

Xerox did create the first GUI, but Apple copyrighted the concept of the GUI itself as an audiovisual work. Look up Apple Computer, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp and you can find out more about it. The case went all the way to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and ended in 1994. Without a doubt it was the most significant case to ever take place regarded digital media.

 

[aaaaa0]

MS does not produce hardware, MS does not drive down the cost of CPU's, of Hard disks, of graphics cards, etc. While they may help to work with driver/software standards/protocols, etc.. to help to make said devices easier to install, directly they do not control the prices of various hardware pieces.

Twenty five years ago, when you bought a computer (that wasn't a PC), it came with a proprietary OS. You then typically bought proprietary expansion hardware that only worked with computers from that vendor, then you bought proprietary software that only worked on that vendor's computers.

Commodore 64s, Amiga (I owned one of the first Amigas -- the Amiga 1000 -- it has all the designer's signatures on the inside of the case), Macs, Atari STs, all these platforms worked like this.

If Intel could make a proprietary CPU standard that AMD couldn't copy, they would have. Nothing stopped them from doing this other than the fact that everyone ran x86 DOS/Windows because everyone ran x86 DOS/Windows apps.

If IBM could make a proprietary PC and OS that no one else could copy, they would have. They've tried that strategy with the PS/2 and OS/2** and failed (thankfully). Nothing stopped them except the fact that everyone ran PC Windows/DOS because everyone ran PC Windows/DOS apps.

Without Microsoft, every hardware vendor would want to make proprietary versions of the hardware and a proprietary OS to lock you into their version of the PC. If you bought a Dell PC, it would run a DELL OS, and you'd have to buy DELL hardware and software. If you bought an IBM PC, it would run an IBM OS, then you'd have to buy IBM hardware and software.

A hardware systems vendor gains nothing from making a hardware standard compatible with other hardware vendors, and loses the ability to force customers to buy only their products.

Without a common hardware standard forced by having a common OS, there would have been significantly less reason for PC hardware vendors to lower prices or innovate as quickly.

While there is truth to the claim that if it hadn't been MS it would have been someone else, that doesn't change the fact that it is Microsoft and DOS/Windows that pretty much standardized the PC industry and forced PC hardware vendors to compete with each other, and not someone else that did it.



** I ran and developed on OS/2 on my PCs back in the eighties and ninties. The first versions were really only supported on PS/2s. Later on, OS/2 extended support to regular PCs when it became clear the PS/2 was doomed, but it still generally ran better and more stable on PS/2 machines with Microchannel bus and ABIOS -- IBM's failed strategy was to try to lock people into its proprietary hardware.

 

[Shogmaster]

Good stuff, aaaaa0.

 

[Afro Thunder]

sorry haters, but good ole' Bill is right. without MS, it'd be a whole different story in the PC industry.

He´s right. The industry as we known might be very very different. I like the model of industry today. Living in a third world country myself, I see and help people to use computers and enjoying the flow of information. Of course, there are people that never has touched a computer, but it´s is another history.

 

[Jotaro]

If it would not have been DOS and Windows, it would have been Digital with the CP/M.

And to think it all began with Microsoft buying the rights to some dude who quickly coded a rip-off of CP/M. :lol

You should really see Triumph of the Nerds if you did not, it shows up on PBS, it's available on DVD (I realy wanted it, I paid fifty US bucks with a low canadian dollar for the damn things . It's one of the best documentaries of all time IMHO.

 

[Shogmaster]

If it would not have been DOS and Windows, it would have been Digital with the CP/M.

And to think it all began with Microsoft buying the rights to some dude who quickly coded a rip-off of CP/M. :lol

You should really see Triumph of the Nerds if you did not, it shows up on PBS, it's available on DVD (I realy wanted it, I paid fifty US bucks with a low canadian dollar for the damn things . It's one of the best documentaries of all time IMHO.

You should also read the book that show was based on, "Accidental Empires", also written by Robert Cringley a.k.a Mark Stevens.

BTW, my favorite part of the documentary: When Jobs says on camera "Good artists borrow, great artists steal", quoting Picasso, talking about how he ganked, GUI, object oriented programming, and computer networking concepts from Xerox PARC.

"And they showed me really three things. But I was so blinded by the first one I didn't even really see the other two. One of the things they showed me was object orienting programming they showed me that but I didn't even see that. The other one they showed me was a networked computer system...they had over a hundred Alto computers all networked using email etc., etc., I didn't even see that. I was so blinded by the first thing they showed me which was the graphical user interface. I thought it was the best thing I'd ever seen in my life. Now remember it was very flawed, what we saw was incomplete, they'd done a bunch of things wrong. But we didn't know that at the time but still though they had the germ of the idea was there and they'd done it very well and within you know ten minutes it was obvious to me that all computers would work like this some day."

:lol

 

[Jotaro]

You should also read the book that show was based on, "Accidental Empires", also written by Robert Cringley a.k.a Mark Stevens.

BTW, my favorite part of the documentary: When Jobs says on camera "Good artists borrow, great artists steal", quoting Picasso, talking about how he ganked, GUI, object oriented programming, and computer networking concepts from Xerox PARC.

That is also the part I remember most foundly. It's just too cool, you SEE everyone who played a role, you SEE those legacy commercials (Lotus 123, the Infamous Apple Supperbowl Mac launch, and the prototype ad for the Xerox systems, I was like, wow!).

That is why I will eventually get the book, but what I want is Cringely to keep his promise: I want a real follow-up (not like the other similar documentaries he made shortly thereafter), in one year. At the very end he says he'll do the same documentary but in ten years. Well I can't wait for it next year.

 

[DSN2K]

microsoft have certainly played their part but created it ? no