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Subject:Re: Platform of choice From:"Kenneth M. Nuckols" <Knuck -at- BESTBUY -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 12 Feb 1997 09:28:07 -0600
At 01:23 PM 2/11/97 -0600, Mike Wing wrote:
<snip>
>Yet for some unfathomable reason neither NeXtStep, nor OS/2, nor MacOS
>has had nearly the success, market share, or acceptance that Windows has
>had (and still has). This despite their HUGE head start. Please
>explain. If Sun's been doing it for years, shouldn't they be dictating
>the 'de facto' OS standard?
>
Ahoy me maytees!
Mike, the answer to your question is simple: Piracy. Well, perhaps piracy
is too strong a term, but it's the "American" way. Someone builds a great
mousetrap and someone else gets the credit because they figure out a better
way to get it to market. You're right that Sun, NeXT, Apple, and a lot of
other folks were around before Microsoft, but a combination of business
saavy, skillful negotiation, and stealing good ideas from under other
companies' noses helped the Gates empire become the dominating presence it
is in the information age. And they're at it again--Netscape's market share
has plunged over the last two years, and Reuters yesterday reported analysts
as saying MS Internet Explorer will have a majority share of online users by
the end of 1997. They took the same look and feel Netscape developed,
tweaked and tinkered a bit, re-packaged a bit, and proclaimed MSIE the best
way to explore the 'Net for users of Windows 95 and MS productivity apps.
So there's really no mystery to why Windows rules the desktops of the
corporate and personal computer-using world...they plundered their way to
the top. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Only time itself will tell.
(This message is just one user's opinion, of course)
Ken
--------------------------------------------------------------
Kenneth Nuckols Corporate Trainer and Freelance Philosopher
Voice: (612) 947-2518 Best Buy Company, Inc.
FAX: (612) 996-4242 7075 Flying Cloud Drive
Eden Prairie, MN 55344
"I am YODA of Borg: Once you start down the path of
assimilation, forever will it control your destiny!"
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