[Rhodes22-list] Apple virtuality

[Robert Skinner]

Robert's notes interleaved --

Bill Effros wrote:
> As I remember it, Microsoft bought the rights to Seattle DOS.

Yup - after telling IBM that they had a x86 version of their own 
in the works.  Seattle never knew the value of what they sold.
Bill was, and remains a sharp dealer.

>  IBM
> wanted to go with a 16-bit version of CP/M, but Digital Research was
> unable to deliver a backwardly compatible version on a timely basis, so
> they went with Microsoft, and forced everyone to buy new software.

See: http://www.cadigital.com/kildall.htm

> Seattle Microsystems retained the right to sell their own version of
> their DOS. 

Trouble is, IBM cleaned up PC-DOS, and had the marketing clout to 
push their own version thereafter, despite the superiority of 
Kildall's CP/M 86.

> Apple survived only because VisiCalc ran only on the Apple.
> Microsoft prospered only because they retained the right to sell IBM-DOS
> as MS-DOS.  Microsoft only got this right because IBM was in the midst
> of antitrust suits filed by the federal government.  The original PC was
> a "poison the well" computer system designed to kill the microcomputer
> market segment.  IBM never expected it to succeed in its own right.
> Originally Lotus1-2-3 only worked on PCs manufactured by IBMs running
> IBM-DOS.  Microsoft knocked it off, along with a wordprocessing program
> to provide top-tier software for both Apple, and PC "clones".
> 
> At least that's the way I remember it -- no time to look it up now.
> 
> Bill Effros

Bill, we agree in large measure about the sequence of events.  However,
I regard Bill Gates as a very successful entrepreneur, not admirable
as a person, based on personal contact in the early years of micros.
Time has not softened my position, and I welcome the current trends
toward a more universal platform.  Open Office 2.1 runs on both Windows
and LINUX, produces PDF files as an optional form of output, and (so far)
has proved a very useful substitute for Word and Excel -- and it is free.

The march away from proprietary platforms continues.  A generic OS is
key to the next couple of decades of economic growth.  Europe has
recognized this, and it is gradually manifesting in the US.

/Robert

> -----------------------------------------------------------
> Robert Skinner wrote:
> > Thank you, Ron, for the scoop on Mac virtuality.
> >
> > After an horrible experience trying to do some modeling
> > on an Apple 2 in Apple BASIC, I jumped to CP/M, then
> > MP/M, writing a task dispatcher for the latter ill-fated OS.
> >
> > When the PC came out using the Seattle Microsystems DOS-86
> > (skillfully ripped off and relabeled by Gates), I was a
> > bit concerned, having been abused by Gates' FORTRAN for
> > CP/M.  I have had to stay on board with the MS progression
> > of DOS to Windows because of customer's requirements for
> > the wide range of software that runs on Windows.
> >
> > Windows has degenerated into a magnet for malware, and the
> > increasingly invasive character of Windows is even more
> > off-putting.  The lack of a secure kernel is a major
> > design flaw -- no amount of lipstick will make that pig
> > attractive.  I don't know how the designer of the elegant
> > VAX VMS operating system could have allowed that.
> >
> > The advent of fully functional and very useful LINUX has
> > opened a lot of doors, and the fusion of capabilities
> > offered on the Apple platform is the icing on the cake.
> > I wonder how long it will be before we see a universal
> > platform and Apple's progression toward being an OS and
> > commodity electronics shop?
> >
> > /Robert