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Re: (OT) The giant steps down before the crash
de Caesar Romano 06/16/2006 12:54
On Fri, 16 Jun 2006 08:59:34 +0100, hummingbird
<OPRBMDQMZNLV@spammotel.com> wrote Re Re: (OT) The giant steps down
before the crash:
>On 16 Jun 2006 02:58:56 +0200 'John Jay Smith'
>posted this onto alt.comp.freeware:
>
>>I have stated before what I think the future will be for Microsoft with
>>vista and office 2007 ....
>>They are badly designed abominations... and it seems that Gates is getting
>>out of the boat before it sinks...
>>
>>http://news.com.com/Gates+stepping+down+from+full-time+Microsoft+role/2100-1014_3-6084396.html?tag=nl.e498
>
>hhmm. I wonder if there's data available to show that the downfall
>of a software company begins when its products become bloatware?
Addressing the downfall of a software (and hardware) company, read two
books:
Hard Drive : Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire
(Paperback)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0887306292/qid=1150452707/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/002-6270183-6177655?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
and
Big Blues : The Unmaking of IBM (Hardcover)
by Paul Carroll
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0517591979/qid=1150452783/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/002-6270183-6177655?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
Two excellent and very books that tell the story from two perspectives
of the rise of MS and the fall of IBM (although IBM is certainly not
gone by any stretch).
What's really interesting is how MS was drawn into the OS business
almost against their will by happenstance. (The quy (??Kendrick??) who
owned CPM didn't want to sign the onerous IBM non-disclosure
agreement. IBM went to MS, MS says "..no, we only do BASIC here.." and
sends IBM back to the CPM guy who still won't sign the non-disclosure
agreement. So IBM goes back to MS and brow-beats them into doing an
OS.
Now here's where Gates is brilliant: Instead of wanting exhorbant
royalties on the new OS, which is what IBM expected MS to try to rip
IBM off on, Gates wants very minimal royalties BUT wants the
non-IBM-hardware (i.e. the "PC-compatible" market) rights to whatever
OS is developed. IBM is thrilled by this because at the time there
*was NO PC-compatible market* and IBM never thought there would be
one.
--
Slimes-Daily motto: 1) Tax and Spend, 2) Change the Constituion to make it easier to do (1).