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Raw Bytes Computer News KPBX FM 91.1 Spokane Public Radio National Public Radio Network Frank Delaney Producer Broadcast on Wednesday Morning 7:35 AM During Morning Edition Support Public Radio ! The Theater Of the Mind |
In
computer news this week 05/23
/2012
The
Facebook Flop Vs. Microsoft’s deal of the century – it depends on
Lady Luck The Facebook IPO was a bust, and days later the stock is selling
for less than the IPO price. Bad luck that GM had pulled their Facebook advertising just
before the IPO, but there were many other factors too. Success in business sometimes depends on luck, and Microsoft had
much better luck in their early business evolution when they were working
with IBM to develop the IBM PC. Fate smiled on Microsoft twice in these proceedings. First, IBM
was somewhat leery of dealing with what they considered a somewhat flakey
tiny software company, but it turns out that in addition to Microsoft's
proven reputation as a viable language vendor, Mary Gates - Bill's mom - had
served on the national board of United Way with one of the involved IBM
senior executives - providing the validating social reference that they were
working with "Mary's Gates' boy Bill". The second fateful event was even more interesting and involves
yet another Washington State connection in the microcomputer revolution. IBM ended up asking Microsoft to write
the operating system for the first IBM PC.
Microsoft soon realized that they knew nothing about writing an
operating system and began to panic, but someone remembered talking to a
Seattle hardware hacker who had already built a prototype computer using the
new Intel 8086 and who had mentioned he was tired of waiting for Digital
Research - so he had gone ahead and written his own operating system for it.
Ironically, this individual - whose name was Tim Patterson - had
previously talked to Microsoft employees and had been very interested in the
File Allocation method that Microsoft Basic used. Patterson worked for a
local company named Seattle Computer Products and had indeed written his own
operating system for his prototype 8086-based computer which incorporated a
similar File Allocation system for disk management - and he had named it QDOS
- for quick and dirty operating system.
Microsoft - in the deal of the century - bought Seattle
Computer Products "Quick and Dirty operating system" for a mere $
50,000 - without Seattle Computer Products knowing it was for IBM - and then
proceeded to talk IBM into letting Microsoft also license it and market it
separately from the IBM PC project. Microsoft had the market savvy and
already realized the potential profit - or "revenue bomb" - their
own operating system and languages might generate. Thus Microsoft’s MSdos Operating system – named PCDOS
for the IBM PC
– became their cash cow, and revenue from their operating systems,
which evolved into Windows, sustains them through today. So Lady Luck smiled on Microsoft, but it looks like she’s
still contemplating
Friending Facebook ….. For Raw
Bytes This is
Frank Delaney (C) 2012
MTA Micro Technology Associates http://www.mtamicro.com/kpbxmenu.html (509)624-7230 |
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