How is the world without Microsoft Windows and Bill Gates?

Tram Ho

Answer: Jack Schofield, Computer Journalist wrote about Microsoft for more than 30 years.

Look at what Gates and Microsoft did to change the world:

1. Quickly create DOS when IBM needs it for IBM PC.

2. Make Windows run on DOS-based platforms, then move the market to Windows NT.

3. Create the best-selling Office suite, originally on Apple Macintosh.

Without Microsoft, IBM will probably switch to Digital Research with CP / M or find another solution, just like Microsoft did. The difference is that DR’s CP / M-86 is four times more expensive, but it was IBM that brought success to the PC. They can still succeed without Microsoft.

In 1990, Microsoft succeeded with Windows being added to DOS due to its low cost and sufficient usage. Once again, Digital Research’s GEM is also replaceable, and it’s quite popular on Atari ST. They may have won, but Apple won the DR case because it has many similarities with the Mac (Apple also sued Microsoft but lost).

Because the idea of ​​having a graphical interface at the time was not new and there were lots of platforms appearing (Apple Lisa and Macinstosh, Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, Acorn Archimedes, BeOS, QNX and many variants of Unix). The key is that it must be DOS-based, to reduce costs and to be easy to use because there is no need to re-install an entire operating system – cumbersome, difficult to use, at risk, and expensive – eg OS / 2.

However, there are a few other things that appear at different times that can be done, such as Desqview of Quarterdeck, Deskmate of Tandy, GEOS (on Commodore 64 platform), HP NewWave, Xerox Rooms, and Magic Cap of General Magic (reminds me of Bob of Microsoft). In fact, DR’s GEM will win and not be sued to disappear from the market, but without it, there will still be other products that provide a DOS user interface.

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But we have witnessed Bill Gates’s ingenuity, something that probably no one can do.

Dave Cutler is DEC’s programmer, and has brought tremendous success to small computers, VAX VMS. He had a disagreement with DEC – the second largest computer company in the world at the time – because they wanted to cancel his new project. Bill Gates quickly hired Dave Cutler and his team in October 1988, although they didn’t need to use him at the time. And it is also very difficult to bring them back. (Microsoft’s revenue in 1988 was only $ 350 million, while DEC was about $ 11 billion and IBM was about $ 59.7 billion. Microsoft is just a tiny …)

But Dave and his team were still assigned to create “the operating system of the future”, later refused to acknowledge it as OS / 2 version 3. It was quickly modified for better compatibility. with Windows, and finally introduced as Windows NT (New Technology) in 1993. Microsoft took a lot of time to direct the market to Windows NT, but eventually they succeeded with Windows XP at the end of 2001 and failed. Windows Me.

It is always a common problem of “how to change a tire for a truck running at a speed of 160km / h). It is difficult to say if anyone else can change the entire PC market like that. Usually, they will discard the old one and start over again.

Dave Cutler also headed the development of Azure …

Bill Gates also did two other things quite oddly.

First, he wisely promoted compatibility (which was not thanked by the US Department of Justice). Customers want to buy any PC from any manufacturer and run whatever software they want. This reduces cost and saves conversion time. PC makers want to raise prices and tie your legs. Most standard operating systems – like CP / M and Unix – have a lot of incompatibilities. But Windows does not.

Secondly, Bill Gates mercilessly reduced his price. When CP / M has a retail price of around $ 160, DOS sells it to manufacturers at $ 40 or less. Word processors (WordStar, WordPerfect, XyWrite …) are usually sold for $ 400 to $ 500, but then Word for Windows only costs $ 200 and $ 250. Databases like dBase II cost $ 700; Microsoft launched Access for a special price of $ 99.

Even if Microsoft is dominating the market with the best products, they continue to reduce prices. Do you remember the price of Office ever at $ 500 to $ 800 (the total price for 3 to 4 programs with a separate price of $ 400)? Now they cost about $ 120 to $ 240. Or you can buy a family package of Office 365 for 6 users for $ 79.99 per year, cheaper than buying 6TB separately. If your company uses Office, then you can use one at home for $ 10. If you are a student, you only need $ 80 for 4 years, sometimes for free. (price cut from memory)

Microsoft can maximize profits with few customers but higher prices, but for some reason, Gates wants as many users as possible. That’s right, this makes it difficult for other products to compete.

So if it weren’t for Bill Gates and Microsoft, the PC market might still be the same. But PCs will be less compatible, less flexible, and more expensive … and PC production will be more profitable.

Remember, it is a development that is 100% compatible with IBM PC and later, Windows machines have increased production and reduced costs. (Forcing Apple to switch to Windows hardware technology and provide a platform for Linux, but that’s another thing.)

Essential commercial software will probably be more expensive. Look at the graphics, CAD and 3D markets when Adobe, Autodesk and others have never faced direct competition from Microsoft.

In any case, the need to own cheap PCs and office software will always exist. Someone will respond to this in one way or another, even without the existence of Microsoft.

But if the PC industry becomes like the desktop and small computers – with about 50 types of incompatible hardware and different software, networks and characters, or 50 incompatible Unix types – the results will be much worse.

Microsoft has kept the PC industry growing in compatibility for nearly 40 years, albeit a bit boring. Periodic revolutions (for example, in the console industry) are very interesting, but they are very bloody.

Translation from Quora Vietnam.

The last time Microsoft was worth over Apple, the iPhone 4 was not released yet and we still installed Windows 7 on a CD

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