[Gllug] Barbican website - accessibility issues

[Paul Roberts]

Mike Brodbelt <mike at coruscant.demon.co.uk> writes:

> IBM, in their rush to get a PC to market, used an off the shelf set of
> components, with the exception of the BIOS. Compaq cloned the BIOS, and
> DOS would run on anyone's PC clone. Microsoft provided a layer of
> abstraction above the hardware that allowed PC's to become cheap
> commodities. The existence of cheap clones was, IMO, a necessary
> precursor to the free software movement gaining any real traction.

But ultimately, anyone would have done this. Before IBM released the
their PC (which was aimed at small businesses, not home users) there
were already companies bringing IT for a reasonable price to business
and private customers. The IBM PC was just IBM's entrance into that
market.

As you noted, Microsoft's only contribution was the OS, which formed
the abstraction from the hardware allowing other manufacturers to
create compatible machines. This is undoubtedly a benefit, but the
fact that Microsoft happened to provide it is merely luck. This wasn't
an idea that Microsoft invented: it was what IBM asked for when they
tried to find someone to write their OS. If Digital Research had been
more diligent, they would have done it (they already had C/PM), and
there were a number of other companies who also could have done
it. 

In addition, the fact that MS didn't do a very good job of it kept the
market from moving at a quick pace for a long time. For example, the
main catalyst, in my opinion, of bringing computers to the masses, is
GUI's. Left in Microsoft's hands, it took nearly a decade for them to
produce a GUI OS that could compete with other equivalent systems.

Ultimately, Microsoft got there in the end, but we all had to wait
while they messed it up countless times on the way, and all along they
were just riding the wave rather than really contributing to it.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Cheers, - Paul

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