[Am-info] Legal monopoly?

[John Poltorak]

On Tue, Apr 30, 2002 at 08:38:00PM -0500, Joe Barr wrote:
> Yes, it is the case.  USCD Pascal and CPM (or whatever the second
> offering was) were never - not even in the first few months of the first
> year when they were included - serious contenders or seriously pushed by
> IBM.
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, 2002-04-30 at 19:04, John Poltorak wrote:
> > On Tue, Apr 30, 2002 at 04:14:52PM -0500, Joe Barr wrote:
> > > 
> > > Microsoft was given the "Windows" monopoly when IBM went to it to
> > > provide the operating system for its new PC back in 81.  
> > 
> > That isn't the case.
> > 
> > You had to buy your own copy of DOS in the early days, and you did
> have 
> > the choice of DR-DOS among others at one point.
> > 
> > DR-DOS was a serious rival to MS-DOS in the late 80's.
> 
> Microsoft used their monopoly power to make sure it never became a
> serious contender.  

They used their dominant market position to establish a monopoly, which is 
a different thing altogether. They did not operate as a monopoly before 
Windows came out.

> A better product?  Hell yes, just like every other
> wannabe from OS/2 to present day Linux.
> 
> The existence of Dr DOS does not change the fact of Microsoft's
> monopoly.

It does because it had a significant share of the market. It provided some 
choice and you weren't forced to buy any Microsoft software.

> > > It became the
> > > Windows monopoly when MS stopped the sales of DOS and forced users
> to go
> > > to Windows.
> > > 
> > > So there were never illegal means used to gain the monopoly.  
> > 
> > What about the 'per processor' licence agreement?
> 
> MAINTAINING THE MONOPOLY.

No monopoly existed before that. 
 
> > 
> > DESQview provided an alternative to Windows for a while and only lost 
> > ground when people found they had already paid for Windows and didn't
> feel 
> > they wanted to buy a second DOS handler. 
> 
> Don't forget GeoWorks. But neither of them contradict the fact of
> Microsoft's then existing monopoly.


No there wasn't a monopoly before the 'per procesor' licence agreement.

Microsoft was the dominant player, but early PCs did not come pre-loaded 
with Microsoft software. In fact you did have to specifically order a copy 
of DOS for which there was a completely seperate charge on the bill.

I remember buying a number of machines which didn't come with Microsoft 
software and I had a choice of different OSs, including DR-DOS, PC-DOS and 
OS/2. PC-DOS was quite popular at one time. The existance of these choices 
is evidence that there was no Microsoft monopoly in the OS market.


-- 
John