🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <RANG.89Dec22001823@derby.cs.wisc.edu> rang@cs.wisc.edu (Anton Rang) writes:
>In article <UZYOsya00W0TBLNrIm@andrew.cmu.edu> jb3o+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jon Allen Boone) writes:
>>I can not say for your individual case, peter.  However, i can say
>>that Microsoft Corp. has not helped out the economy much, especially
>>when they charge the prices that they charge.

>  Actually, a good argument could be made that Microsoft has helped
>out the economy tremendously.  The IBM PC, though it's not the most
>powerful computer in the world, has been quite a boon to businesses
>(the economy).  Without MS-DOS, it wouldn't have been accepted nearly
>so quickly, or been as easy to program....

You may be able to make such an argument, but I don't think it's
likely to have a lot of validity.  We don't know what would have
happened if IBM had not blundered into the PC business the way they
did.  Micro-processor based desk-top computers were going to break
into businesses anyway, IBM was not the only player at that time.
Who knows, maybe the industry would have standardized around something
more like a Sun, or a Mac.  Or maybe growth would have been much
slower with a fragmented market of incompatible machines.  We just
don't and can't know.

Gerry Gleason