[hsmyers]

This is simply a restatement of what Philippe Kahn showed the world and more particularly Microsoft. The Borland compiler came pretty much from no where and became a serious competitor for the powers that be. While the IDE was quite impressive, the major difference lay in the price. As I remember it, Borland was very near $100 while Microsoft was much closer to $500. Details (some) here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Kahn More elsewhere by way of Google or your favorite search engine.

[rmason]

What is even more impressive was that while Borland began its rise without venture capital to 500 million dollars in sales Kahn himself was an illegal alien.

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Borland-Int...