What is Digg?155 Comments
- endus, on 06/20/2008, -12/+57Annnnnnd mac fanboys start whining in 5...4...3...2...
- SoopaflySAM, on 06/20/2008, -19/+62Enough said.
Bill Gates > Steve Jobs - dafragsta, on 06/20/2008, -5/+32Pioneers usually have weak competitors. Say what you want, but in the PC market in the 80s, there WAS no one else except Apple and Microsoft. IBM was selling computers, not a platform, and Apple didn't manage to woo the business sector as successfully as IBM. (And still hasn't.)
- mdshoreboy, on 06/20/2008, -2/+25Yeah, good way to clarify myths of the Apple vs. Microsoft story.
- AxsToro, on 06/20/2008, -0/+18Uhm... Jobs has like 5Billion.. Gates have about 40~50billion. So
Gates > Jobs with Money, and since money usually = power
Gates > Jobs in Power.
Seeing as Gates was the richest man in the world for a while
Gates > Jobs in Success
No idea about Marketshare, havent looked at that in a while, but last I saw, MS has the bigger Marketshare.
And yes, I do know Apple is gaining marketshare - Dweller99, on 06/20/2008, -2/+15You forget your meds this morning? Worldwide government corruption used to Microsoft's benefit? Seriously?
- lukasmack, on 06/20/2008, -4/+16I watched the whole program on BBC2 earlier about Bill Gates and I'm guessing the submitter did too. Some pretty interesting stuff. By the sound of things Bill Gates had it set up to create a monopoly from the start. He sold MS-Dos to Amstrad for next to nothing just to get his product out there, did he have it all planned out? Every business move he did even when Microsoft were very small seemed to have massive implications later on. As much as everyone hates him in business apparently he feels hes doing nothing wrong when he crushes competitors, he said he sees it as a game. I don't know what to think of it all but it can be said Bill Gates was a very intelligent man, whether he had planned to create a monopoly from the beginning is questionable.
Sorry if that sounds like a conspiracy theory, its really not. - Yazilliclick, on 06/20/2008, -3/+14Wish people would stop throwing around this monopoly word. Fact of the matter is every single decent business out there is out to become this 'monopoly'. It's being the best and being successful. You'd be a pretty ***** company if your goal wasn't to do the best you could do.
And giving away products or selling them cheap is a VERY common practice. ***** everyday people deal with this all the time, it's called getting your foot in the door and building relations. Geez the whole open source movement is practically built on this business practice of get your foot in the door with the offer of free open source software and then make money later off of support contracts and the like. - yangez, on 06/20/2008, -1/+12Very interesting read.
- mythicflux, on 06/20/2008, -1/+10Which written by Microsoft at IBM's request.
- ICSU, on 06/20/2008, -2/+10[citation needed]
- rk_cr, on 06/20/2008, -4/+12Isn't saying "the competition was weak" just another way of saying "I was stronger"?
- Yazilliclick, on 06/20/2008, -0/+8Yes because obviously they signed the deal just because of that relation. Of course it played it's part, it made the introduction, might have given them an insight into his character know one of his parents, but it didn't seal the deal. And since when is having some connections a crime or frowned upon? Good grief. Yes they were inovative, yes they worked hard and that's what ultimately got them where they were. This introduction certainly helped but it would have gone nowhere without the other things.
- smek2, on 06/20/2008, -6/+14Not to forget a Mother, Mary Gates, with connections.
"In 1980, IBM launched its top-secret program, Project Chess, to develop its own PC. It need an operating system. IBM sent a team to Redmond, Washington to help on Project Chess. After two meetings held under promises of confidentiality, IBM offered a hardware and software consulting deal to the the fledgling company. IBM wanted the rights to a desktop operating system for a small sum. Bill Gates was willing to oblige...on condition that he be given rights to sell copies to other computer makers for whatever the traffic would bear.
Why did IBM even go to Redmond, WA in the first place? At the time, IBM president John Opel served on United Way's national board...as did Mrs. Gates. In 1980, when someone mentioned Microsoft to John Opel, he responded, "Oh, that's run by Bill Gates, Mary Gates' son." Behind the scenes, Mary Gates had spoken with John Opel about the new breed of small companies in the computer industry, which she felt were under-appreciated competitors of the larger firms with which IBM traditionally partnered."
Innovation? I don't think so. - YourDoom123, on 06/20/2008, -0/+8*cue anti-microsoft rant*
- Borgcube636, on 06/20/2008, -1/+8I'm pretty sure his success was caused by his sex pose for a magazine: http://makeuseof.com/tech-fun/images/bil-gates-pos ...
- Yazilliclick, on 06/20/2008, -3/+10Yes because MS started off with billions... please use facts not bs.
- bj7777, on 06/20/2008, -9/+16Secret of his sucess: His name
Bill Gates = Money Door - aserer511, on 06/20/2008, -1/+8Bill's just trying to make himself seem more humble (and what a way, right?) Lotus, Apple and IBM in their prime mounted more than adequate competition and it's folly to say that microsoft's opponents went soft, or were inept
- doctechnical, on 06/20/2008, -0/+7The way I heard it the wife of Garry Kidall (head of Digital Research and creator of CP/M) wouldn't sign the NDA when IBM came to call, and Big Blue won't give you the time of day until you sign that.
- justz00t, on 06/20/2008, -1/+8Yes it is and is there something wrong with that?
Did you want some weak company that could not produce successful product to come out on top? - hiPpymIck, on 06/20/2008, -0/+7wasnt IBM-compatible being adopted as the industry standard for pcs
the reason Windows won..
the vast majority of computers made - only ran Windows - cnot3, on 06/21/2008, -1/+8Yeah I heard apple is up to 3% now.
- toddhenkel, on 06/20/2008, -0/+6The industry was so fragmented and disorganized back in the 80's. You young whipper snappers think you have it bad with browser compatibility? Ha! Get off my lawn!
Microsoft did what no one else could at the time. Set a standard for adoption. Many were close. But that only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades (Novell Wordstar *cough* *cough*).
At the time, we embraced M$ because it did what none of the competitors could (including my own employer). Stability, homogeneity and easy to use, integrated tools versus what the competition offered. All they had were promises and nice brochures.
Bill and company played the game well. Not that we aren't still paying the price but we did get some benefits. - grexeo, on 06/20/2008, -1/+7In the latter part of the interview he says the "magic" was being open - allowing anybody to access information and tools. Kinda ironic when you consider how much FUD Microsoft are trying to spread about open stuff these days.
- Gutterpunk, on 06/20/2008, -1/+7If MS could do it, everyone could. You never see any article about MS getting handouts, only about MS being evil.
That's that he meant by ""Most of our competitors were very poorly run". You don't get ahead in business by asking yourself WWJD - glowfood, on 06/21/2008, -0/+6sources
- jo21, on 06/20/2008, -0/+5very few?
aside the ipod their only really success full product they have nothing
mac? 4% market share
iphone?
less than 0.4% marketshare,
sony ericsson was a new company a few years ago but they started with a lot more. - superkendall, on 06/20/2008, -4/+9He's dead right that a lot of companies made huge mistakes to let Microsoft get where they were - including Apple, who I think is doing a great job now making very few mistakes.
- bratterscain, on 06/20/2008, -0/+5IIRC, you're correct. Lotus had the killer app at the time that brought a lot of people to MS's product. What can really get an OS off the ground is app's just as games with consoles. MS owes a lot of their success to the app devs.
- inactive, on 06/20/2008, -0/+5Tragically, his competitors also did this, so it's a moot point.
- JettaMan, on 06/21/2008, -0/+4How to make it in business: get into a new industry that the government hasn't had time to destroy yet with regulations.
- Kinnkster, on 06/20/2008, -3/+7Weak competitors and plenty of third party support pretty much summarizes their long term success.
- doctechnical, on 06/20/2008, -0/+4@Gutterpunk:
Because Microsoft's app developers had access to Windows internals MS could bring their apps to market faster and they'd perform better than their competitors, who were stuck behind the learning curve.
Let's look at it this way: Microsoft had a spreadsheet and a word processor for DOS. Their market share wasn't a pimple on WordPerfect or Lotus' ass. Where was all that super-duper Microsoft development mojo back then? - Tenlow, on 06/20/2008, -2/+6Antitrust was a movie, not a documentary.
- Gutterpunk, on 06/20/2008, -1/+5Yes, we all know that Window was the first and only commercial application made by MS.
There is a lot more to MS than just Windows. They wouldn't be in a position to use "secret API calls" and packaging their app for free if they didn't realize soon in the game the benefit of making the OS.
I'm not sure why everyone stops at Windows when they think of Microsoft. I'm not saying that they are perfect and a model business for America, but the statement that "Most of our competitors were very poorly run" is 100% right. Call them ruthless or savvy in business, they still came on top, and it's not because of secret API calls.
Wordperfect corp and Lotus dev started deving at about the same time as Gates. Tell me why they aren't the one with "secret API" and "bundled software" in *their* OS? Evidently MS did something they didn't. - inactive, on 06/21/2008, -3/+7The Secret to Bill Gate's Success: Copy and steal from Others.
You guys should watch that movie Pirates of silicon valley AND that interview with the CEO of Oracle? - doctechnical, on 06/20/2008, -3/+7If it weren't for Lotus 1-2-3 you might very well be using an Apple right now.
- Yazilliclick, on 06/20/2008, -1/+5Since when have people been upset about their base product comming with extras?
"***** you Toyota. How dare you put cupholders in your vehicles by default ***** bastards, putting 3rd party cupholder manufacturers out of business because their product isn't good enough to warant going out of the way for."
Please. And wtf are you talking about wordperfect? Sorry but MS doesn't tend to bundle ms office on their machines for free. They have their weak ass word program. If wordperfect were so great it would have held on easily, especially since it had the market for a while (especially the education one). Problem is they were going nowhere fast and did ***** all to stay at the top. Same for netscape. - justz00t, on 06/20/2008, -0/+4So is it what you really want is to force people into using a product you might consider better and less inferior when what the majority of people are happy with is Windows? That sure does sound like it would be a mighty undemocratic and a unjust way getting things you want to me.
I mean since it seems you don't like feeling forced to begin with. - justz00t, on 06/20/2008, -0/+4How about you start saying something thats informed and rationale first?
Or maybe just admit to yourself that the real reason you hate MS so much is because they are successful and great. - byronne, on 06/21/2008, -0/+3He's right.
- buba1243, on 06/20/2008, -0/+3Exactly and that's why apple failed. They had a small very pricey subset of the computers produced. People can afford cheap crap more then expensive stuff especially when the expensive stuff hasn't been tested yet.
- Crimsoneer, on 06/21/2008, -1/+4Its a market...ideas tend to flow. Apple "stealing" the mouse didn't save their ass.
- Yazilliclick, on 06/20/2008, -0/+3If you're saying that's what signified the victory than what caused it was all the work making the deals and sales to get that to happen and to get it to continue. Stuff the competition just didn't do.
- LeeSoong, on 06/20/2008, -5/+8His Mom.
His Mom got him the opportunity with IBM.
And the CP/M guys were not playing ball with IBM... - inactive, on 06/21/2008, -0/+3Speaking of Oracle, that damn system is giving me quite the ***** headache at work..
Here's a Q&A from the writer of pirates of silicon valley
Q: Why do you consider Bill Gates and Steve Jobs to be pirates?
A: Throughout their careers, both have admitted to borrowing or stealing to get what they wanted. When Steve Jobs walked into Xerox, the board of directors had no idea they were giving away the keys to a kingdom of billions of dollars. When Bill Gates waltzed into IBM, he sold them something he didn't even have. These guys maneuvered their way through the establishment of America, not just the business establishment.
So they both "stole" ideas (yes you apple sackriders, steve jobs isn't such an innocent man after all), plus paraphrased from POSV (one of my more favorite movies btw) All cars have steering wheels, but no company claims to have invented it. Same thing with the mouse, the GUI of OS's, etc. - inactive, on 06/21/2008, -0/+3The same thing happened with WordPerfect. Gates pleaded for the then 99% market WordPerfect to write for windows. They didn't, and eventually Word completely killed it.
- Gutterpunk, on 06/20/2008, -1/+4And? Whats your point? All he did is moot because it so happen that her mom knew someone? Jebus... who are you? Steve Jobs?
- bdbr, on 06/21/2008, -0/+3Microsoft made a lot of deals with OEMs to push them to buy Windows. Yes, the OEMs got a great price, so long as every PC was sold with Windows. Did you want to run GEM or GeoWorks? Reasonable enough, since Windows was slow as hell on 286/386 processors. But you had to buy a copy of Windows with your PC anyway. Windows got the lion's share of the market this way, and at that point there was no reason to write software for anything else. That's when Microsoft really took off.
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