Let us not forget the technological side of M$ history. How did they become so rich and powerful? I know, for space' sake I must be extremely simplistic, yet the facts can and must speak for themselves upon investigation. In the '70's and very early '80's, computers were the domain of only the most heavily funded businesses. Then came Apple, Atari, Singer, Adam, et al (inter alia). Most of them were mere visual games - just TV and some buttons, and instant entertainment. Apple crossed over into a video display with memory and a keyboard. Radio Shack also made a few offerings, but most were confined to geeks who wanted to learn programming (Basic) or wanted to play games. Later, with the addition of tape players, customers could write and edit documents; set up a digital file system for cooking receipes, and other "status" bits and pieces.
IBM first started the real ball rolling with the PC-Jr; a small version of the "Big Blue" that couldn't do much when compared to its big brother, but it kicked down the walls for people to think of computers in the home as well as business - machines that would really do stuff rather than play games and type a letter - if you could wait 20 minutes for the program to load, then find the proper starting place for the document on tape.
The market was ready to invest. Apples were selling for around $3,500 USD. They were slow and cumbersome, but they were in colour and they showed some promise of working and usability.
Then the explosion came with the flood of PC-Clones. That's right, there were IBM imatators running rampant. Some effort was made to stop the horrible problem of cheap substitutes for real IBM computers; but the PC-Jr was pricey and it could not do what the clones were claiming they could do.
C/PM, Basic, Fortran, CoBal, and lots of other things began appearing on the horizon - many of them also "clones" or "pirated copies" of originals long lost. The rush was on to "standardize" the clones into some usable relm of usability. I saw many copies produced at Commodore User Group meetings.
The rush was growing exponentially, and ASCII seemed the only way to stem the growing tide of diversity. Remember that???
Finally, Bill Gates came up with a DOS which seemed to handle the best the clones had to offer. DOS 2.11 became a "Standard" and owners of most cheap clones could buy, or find a copy somewhere. Then came ShoeBox, and WordStar, and WordPerfect, and Lotus, and SuperCalc, and dBASE.
Once the cheap hardware was broadly available, and the copies of DOS and other programs could be had; the exponential growth really took hold.
The rush has continued, memory has grown faster than our understanding of why we need so much. ASCII is replaced with bitmapped fonts. We can now capture video and put it on paper (first in b/w and only on InkJet printers - 9 to 24 pin printers could not handle the details). The 80k 5.25" floppy was replaced by the 1.4. 3.5" Diskette, then the 2mb HDD, then 10 mb ... now 500gb!)
My point in this is that without the rapid growth of cheap "pirated" clones which a larger section of people could afford, M$ would not be what they are today. DEC/VAX would still probably still be the leading OS for businesses; followed by OS-2 or 3 or 4. Graphics would not be as advanced because it isn't important for business to be as innovative if it is still perceived to be ahead of general ability of the public.
Like it or not; deny or accept it; Redmond owes its "success" to cheap copies that DOS could populate to encourage masses of people to buy and upgrade to what we had hoped to have today - a multi-functional, sophisticated community of people and machines working together to produce untold wealth in data and design - improving every possible aspect of life as we know it.
Instead, as is true with all Megalomaniacs, corporate or personal, we are now facing increasing battles from the Mother$hip, which is attacking our vessels, boarding them, throwing our cargo overboard and sinking our boats without cause, and claiming we're all pirates.
WGA was bad enough, but Vi$ta is truly the work of the mad scientists. It disables the customer before they even get started. It disables floor demonstrators - right in the stores dedicated to sell M$ products. Is M$ concerned???? Nah! It's what they want. They are terrorizing people into believing they must purchase inferior products, then face the shutdown, on M$' whim; and they think this is acceptable! They are not ashamed of this failure because they are already setting their sights on other users of other programs.
The only agenda on Balmers' sick brain, now and forever, is the WehrMachen he sees himself as being.
Is there a solution? I'm not optimistic, but I do see that the rich beginnings of M$, ... from inexpensive clones and copies are being dried up. The "market" of ignorant enthusiasts of the '80's and '90's is replaced by people who have learned something from their use of the computers either they, or their friends have been using, and the trend is away from M$, ... to Mac, or Linnux, or to nothing at all until this mess is resolved.
MSFT to World: You Owe Us. A Lot. Just Let Us Tell You How Much
My plumber just called and said he had a patent on the sink. Couldn't tell me exactly what patent but he assured me if I came in and negotiated a deal I could probably wash my dishes tonight without facing a court injunction. Most likely. There was a distinct probability I could do that. There were, of course, no guarantees there weren't other infringements that needed to be negotiated, like the drain on the dish washer. Even though I don't use it, he said I could buy a waiver from him if I went through the disuse certifying process which he would be happy to apply for $10,000 and maybe throw in a disuse certification for the toilet. Oh, I use that? Hmmmm, interesting, he said, saying his lawyers would be in touch before hanging up.
Microsoft is the one stealing people ideas and bundle into its productions. Look back in time... Microsoft steals lot people ideas and productions, and makes its own productions. I think this is a time to sue Microsoft. Sue them to split them out as Operation System and Software development. SPLIT MICROSOFT OUT.
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I know, for space' sake I must be extremely simplistic, yet the facts can and must speak for themselves upon investigation.
In the '70's and very early '80's, computers were the domain of only the most heavily funded businesses.
Then came Apple, Atari, Singer, Adam, et al (inter alia). Most of them were mere visual games - just TV and some buttons, and instant entertainment. Apple crossed over into a video display with memory and a keyboard. Radio Shack also made a few offerings, but most were confined to geeks who wanted to learn programming (Basic) or wanted to play games. Later, with the addition of tape players, customers could write and edit documents; set up a digital file system for cooking receipes, and other "status" bits and pieces.
IBM first started the real ball rolling with the PC-Jr; a small version of the "Big Blue" that couldn't do much when compared to its big brother, but it kicked down the walls for people to think of computers in the home as well as business - machines that would really do stuff rather than play games and type a letter - if you could wait 20 minutes for the program to load, then find the proper starting place for the document on tape.
The market was ready to invest. Apples were selling for around $3,500 USD. They were slow and cumbersome, but they were in colour and they showed some promise of working and usability.
Then the explosion came with the flood of PC-Clones. That's right, there were IBM imatators running rampant. Some effort was made to stop the horrible problem of cheap substitutes for real IBM computers; but the PC-Jr was pricey and it could not do what the clones were claiming they could do.
C/PM, Basic, Fortran, CoBal, and lots of other things began appearing on the horizon - many of them also "clones" or "pirated copies" of originals long lost. The rush was on to "standardize" the clones into some usable relm of usability. I saw many copies produced at Commodore User Group meetings.
The rush was growing exponentially, and ASCII seemed the only way to stem the growing tide of diversity. Remember that???
Finally, Bill Gates came up with a DOS which seemed to handle the best the clones had to offer. DOS 2.11 became a "Standard" and owners of most cheap clones could buy, or find a copy somewhere. Then came ShoeBox, and WordStar, and WordPerfect, and Lotus, and SuperCalc, and dBASE.
Once the cheap hardware was broadly available, and the copies of DOS and other programs could be had; the exponential growth really took hold.
The rush has continued, memory has grown faster than our understanding of why we need so much. ASCII is replaced with bitmapped fonts. We can now capture video and put it on paper (first in b/w and only on InkJet printers - 9 to 24 pin printers could not handle the details). The 80k 5.25" floppy was replaced by the 1.4. 3.5" Diskette, then the 2mb HDD, then 10 mb ... now 500gb!)
My point in this is that without the rapid growth of cheap "pirated" clones which a larger section of people could afford, M$ would not be what they are today. DEC/VAX would still probably still be the leading OS for businesses; followed by OS-2 or 3 or 4. Graphics would not be as advanced because it isn't important for business to be as innovative if it is still perceived to be ahead of general ability of the public.
Like it or not; deny or accept it; Redmond owes its "success" to cheap copies that DOS could populate to encourage masses of people to buy and upgrade to what we had hoped to have today - a multi-functional, sophisticated community of people and machines working together to produce untold wealth in data and design - improving every possible aspect of life as we know it.
Instead, as is true with all Megalomaniacs, corporate or personal, we are now facing increasing battles from the Mother$hip, which is attacking our vessels, boarding them, throwing our cargo overboard and sinking our boats without cause, and claiming we're all pirates.
WGA was bad enough, but Vi$ta is truly the work of the mad scientists. It disables the customer before they even get started. It disables floor demonstrators - right in the stores dedicated to sell M$ products. Is M$ concerned???? Nah! It's what they want. They are terrorizing people into believing they must purchase inferior products, then face the shutdown, on M$' whim; and they think this is acceptable! They are not ashamed of this failure because they are already setting their sights on other users of other programs.
The only agenda on Balmers' sick brain, now and forever, is the WehrMachen he sees himself as being.
Is there a solution? I'm not optimistic, but I do see that the rich beginnings of M$, ... from inexpensive clones and copies are being dried up. The "market" of ignorant enthusiasts of the '80's and '90's is replaced by people who have learned something from their use of the computers either they, or their friends have been using, and the trend is away from M$, ... to Mac, or Linnux, or to nothing at all until this mess is resolved.
Balmer is not listening. Are you?
P. S.: Switch "Microsoft" for "Apple" or "Google" and commnts will be the other way around.
P. S.: Switch "Microsoft" for "Apple" or "Google" and commnts will be the other way around.
It is pathetic how stupid our society has become.