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RE: Then Everything Must Be Free
But the reason DOS was everywhere was because IBM had let all the programmers know how to utilize their hardware.
Wha? Bill Gates signed a contract with IBM that put a copy of DOS on every computer on their assembly line...the industry standardized and the rest is history.
Microsoft would have been limited to whomever they had a deal with to make their operating system.
My point exactly. I contest that Microsoft should never have existed...at least not in the format that it was in...they were the FIRST "Software company" I think its a silly notion to be honest...it left a lot of programmers of the time scratching their heads...which...again, was the reason for the development of GNU which came out in the umm.. early 80s I think...
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RE: Then Everything Must Be Free
Apples struggles were in most part due to Microsoft DOS...no matter what the clone was, DOS was on it, like a parasite and no other programmers had any input.
But the reason DOS was everywhere was because IBM had let all the programmers know how to utilize their hardware.
Unless I misunderstood, the premise of the blog is that programmers should be associated with the hardware manufacturer. This, to me, seems like it would dramatically INCREASE the amount of "proprietaryness" in the industry because there would be no reason at all for a manufacturer to release interface specifications to anybody else, after all, software is in house.
Back to the DOS statement, if IBM had continued in the standard modus operandi of the times and kept their hardware and software to the themselves, Microsoft would have been limited to whomever they had a deal with to make their operating system. DOS would have been much less ubiquitous and the spread of PC's, in my opinion, would have been much slower. Consumers would have been hesitant to purchase something so expensive that may not be around next year or not be interoperable with the equipment at work.
So I think it's a chicken and egg scenario. Would we have gotten where we are today through complete and open means, pure proprietary means, or a hybrid of both. I think we got here as a "phased hybrid" of both - just in the opposite direction of your proposition. Now that we're here, though, it might be doable to have software and hardware linked together again. Wouldn't things be more useful as firmware interfaces anyway?
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