Bundling: A Historical Note

[dski@ms17.hinet.net]

I must say that the bundling of application programs like Write and
Paint with Windows bothered me a bit when I first saw the system in
1986. I'll admit that I was already seriously put off by the keyboard
command set -- but I still basically trusted Microsoft, and I wondered
if the keystroke issue had made me unfairly prejudiced.

If bundling doesn't bother us today, we should consider the possibility
that this is mainly because it's been going on so long. Such bundling --
OS, GUI, and a complete set of application programs -- was pretty new in
the desktop software market of the mid-eighties, and the following
chronology suggests an awareness on Microsoft's part that certain
parties would find it objectionable (ellipses, bracketed matter, and
emphasizing asterisks mine):

  ``In early 1983, Microsoft started work on Windows.... Microsoft showed
    a test version of Windows to a select group of OEMs (original
    equipment manufacturers) in the spring of 1983.... Microsoft made a
    commmitment to produce Windows and announced it at a lavish press
    conference on November 10, 1983, promising shipment in May of
    1984.... In February 1984 the first Windows software developers'
    seminar was held.... [I]n May of 1984... Microsoft sent out only a
    rough software vendor's toolkit to use in building applications, and
    announced a new retail date of November 1984. But when November 1984
    arrived... a new date, June of 1985, was announced.... [T]he software
    developers, who had been getting regular updates of the toolkit and
    Windows, remained loyal.... In June 1984 [sic], Microsoft shipped a
    final version of Windows to software developers and OEMs....
    *** Microsoft used the time between June and November 18, the date
    Windows finally appeared in the stores, to create their own Windows
    applications: Write, Paint, and the desktop applications. ***''
                       -- _Windows_, the "Official Guide to Microsoft's
                          Operating Environment," copyright 1986 by Nancy
                          Andrews (Microsoft Press, ISBN 0-914845-70-5)

Dan Strychalski