[Am-info] query about MS "Innovations"

[Sujal Shah]

On Fri, 2002-03-29 at 02:59, felmon davis wrote:
[snip]
> 
> today I was talking to a colleague, an economist, when the issue of 
> the anti-trust suit briefly came up. he felt one had to grant that MS 
> had been 'innovative' in certain regards and he mentioned the idea of 
> enabling different apps to work together. 
> 
> I think he either meant (a) the idea of the 'office suite' or (b) the 
> OLE mechanisms for data exchange among apps.
> 

I'm not sure about the office suite, but I've seen OLE and DDE ideas
from a couple of different vendors at about the same time.  Apple, I
think or NeXT (i can't remember the timeline) had something very similar
around the same time as Windows 3.1 came out.  I even had someone (a
NeXT user) show me a video tape that laid out the embed and exchange
concepts that NeXTStep/OpenStep was designed for.

Outside of that, I'm not sure.  This is all off the top of my head...
I'll see if I can take a look later this weekend.

Also, if he meant (a) then I might be convinced of that.  It's
important, however, to identify the type of innovation.  They've always
been very innovative when it came to marketing.  They've defined how an
entire industry (unfortunately) markets software, from the importance of
version  numbering to service packs...  This sounds like I'm being mean,
but I'm not.  A lot of businesses have followed the path set by MSFT.

Sujal

> we didn't pursue the issue and I don't know if he has much knowledge 
> of computers as such.
> 
> would either of the above qualify as MS innovations? about (a) didn't 
> Geoworks or something to that effect precede Windows? or Multiplan?
> 
> and what about (b)? separating function set from implementation, was 
> the idea of having apps function like this with each other an MS 
> innovation?
> 
> F.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Am-info mailing list
> Am-info@lists.essential.org
> http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/am-info
-- 
---- Sujal Shah --- sujal@sujal.net ---

        http://www.sujal.net

Now Playing: none