[Gllug] Barbican website - accessibility issues

[Jason Clifford]

On 12 Nov 2002, Mike Brodbelt wrote:

> Your costings are valid today, but remember that whatever OS you use,
> you're paying for the hardware. It was Microsoft who commoditized the PC

No, actually it was IBM who did that. MS just bought an OS for the 
platform and marketed it agressively.

> to the extent that IBM clones became the standard, and economies of
> scale kicked in to allow PC's to become affordable to Joe Average.
> Remember that software started out free - it came with your hardware,
> which was proprietary and wincingly expensive.

Initially the software was no cheaper. While you usually received a copy 
of DOS with your PC you still had to buy any applications you 
wanted/needed and DOS included no apps other than a basic text editor.

What made PCs and DOS a success was Lotus 123.

> 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 OS is always an abstraction layer. PCs became cheap not because of 
this but rather because IBM did not demand enormous licensing fees to use 
the design and other companies such as Compaq jumped on board.

Had it not been for IBMs decision and the sucess of Lotus 123 it is not at 
all sure that the PC would have been a success.

> The existence of cheap clones was, IMO, a necessary
> precursor to the free software movement gaining any real traction.

Again not true. The Free Software movement commenced long before PCs were 
widely available and most early free software was written for mid-range 
UNIX boxes.

The PC made Linux possible though.

Jason Clifford
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