Stupid CP/M question

From: D. Peschel <dpeschel_at_u.washington.edu>
Date: Sat Jan 9 04:38:18 1999

> > The disadvantage is that they always want to do things their way, and they
> > always assume their way is right.
>
> Oh yeah, like HP is the only one that behaves that way. That's how every
> company protects their market (except IBM with the PC, in which they
> forgot that one time and lost a monopoly). But I agree, HP seems to go
> out of their way to Think Different :-)

All of a sudden I'm thinking of _Spaceballs_. "Good will always triumph
over evil because _good_ is _dumb_." As long as there's a group of
companies (MS and the clone makers) who can copy features without spending
money to devise them, the companies who _do_ do the devising lose. The
result is worse than either all closed-system or all open-system companies
would be.

If IBM _had_ had a monopoly, though, I'm not sure the present would have
turned out the same way. I _like_ open systems. So do a lot of other
people. It's just that they need to be done right.

> As long as we're writing science fiction, here's the timeline for my
> parallel universe:
> 1972: HP introduces the 9830 and markets it as a business machine
> as well as a scientific/engineering machine
> 1974: HP introduces the 65, and offers hefty discounts to students
> 1975: HP reject's Woz's idea for a personal computer, telling him
> instead to use the HP65 form factor with an optional detachable querty
> keyboard and TV video interface
> 1976: HP introduces the Wozple 1
> 1977: Dennis Ritchie leaves AT&T for HP and ports Unix to the
> Wozple

thus causing the 'phone system to deregulate five years early, creating
either a) cheap Internet connections or b) total chaos.

> 1999: Wozple neural implants drop in price to $0.50
> 2000: An obscure Harvard grad named Gates is suspended from
> ebay for selling counterfeit Beanie Babies

        2001: In revenge, Gates writes the ultimate virus which spreads
through the neural implants, creating either a) world domination by Gates or
b) total chaos. You're putting in a pretty tall order, you know. A LOT of
things would have to go right.

> Oh well, back to running scandisk on my WinTel box.

It may comfort you to know that MS ripped off the FAT system (like
practically everything else). And the original didn't even work very well!

On the other hand, I suppose that might not comfort you. :)

-- Derek
Received on Sat Jan 09 1999 - 04:38:18 GMT