[SC.LUG] Bill Gates to be Knighted?

[Rick [Kitty5]]

On Tue, 2004-01-27 at 01:40, Ian Molton wrote:
> > Win95 running on cheap x86 hardware is what kick started the entire consumer
> > PC market and put MS in the position they are today.
> 
> Their monopoly initially drove the price of non-X86 hardware *UP* faster than it reduced X86 prices (this was BEFORE the explosion in the last 5 years)

Due to demand outstripping supply.

> > They made the PC
> > popular and in doing so standardised the desktop computing environment.
> 
> Standardised my arse. I STILL have to help people convert word docs between version x, y, z because word cant cope with itself.

Wood .... Trees

> > We now live with the luxury of being able to buy our gear off the shelf from
> > a huge variety of manufacturers at very competitive prices.
> 
> Would have happened anyway.

How do you figure that? If the x86 hadn't taken off in the home, we
would still be buying hardware from property single source vendors and
paying what ever they thought they could get away with. Double barrelled
lock in.

> 
> > Would that have been the case if Apple or Acorn had come out on top?
> 
> Of course it would. It almost did with Apple years ago (but the market was very hostile and so it stopped) and its happening now with acorn hardware.

Its only happening with Acorn's hardware as Castle sells so few box's it
has no choice but to use off the shelf parts. If they could have gotten
away with it don't you think they would rather have upgraded their
vintage (yet still supported) podule expansion format.

Anyway, A 600Mhz xscale machine for £1399! Who the hell are they trying
to kid!

> > Thank your lucky stars MS was never a hardware company!
> 
> Why? They are *better* at hardware by far than software.

Thats because they don't make it :)
-- 
Rick

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