|
|
|
|
|
|
by tanzam75
4839 days ago
|
|
|
Suppose that there was no Microsoft. Who would have taken its place? DR was charing $240 for CP/M 86 -- the same amount it charged for CP/M on other platforms. At the same time, Microsoft was charging $40 for DOS. The other option on the IBM PC was UCSD p-system, which was fatally crippled by the overhead of the interpretation layer -- we didn't yet have JIT. Or perhaps you think that a system not backed by IBM would have found success. In other words, multiple companies duking it out with incompatible OSes. How often does that work out? I submit that the most likely scenario would've been a duopoly -- Apple with the home and education market, IBM with the business market. |
|
|
Why would a single company take its place?
> DR was charing $240 for CP/M 86 -- the same amount it charged for CP/M on other platforms.
I remember the price was for the IBM-PC bundle and that DR was uncomfortable with it. I also remember CP/M came bundled with many Z-80-based computers of the time - there was not enough hardware standardization to allow shrink-wrapped cross-platform operating systems to exist.
> The other option on the IBM PC was UCSD p-system, which was fatally crippled by the overhead of the interpretation layer
UCSD p-system was cross-platform, at least.
> -- we didn't yet have JIT.
Or maybe we would have one by the late 80's
> multiple companies duking it out with incompatible OSes. How often does that work out?
We don't have enough data to make any accurate predictions. I suppose we may have arrived at a set of basic compatible APIs, much like POSIX, that allowed software designed for it to run on many different computers.
> I submit that the most likely scenario would've been a duopoly -- Apple with the home and education market, IBM with the business market.
And Commodore and Atari sharing the home/gaming market in the US, Acorn and Sinclair in the UK. Commodore would possibly own TV and special effects. 68K (or ARM) based 32-bit boxes would be considered basic home machines and the average person would have access to preemptive multitasking in the mid 80's.