Gates back on stand in Utah in $1B antitrust trial

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j_hBtA1v_-WRM_604OBn5ZEr62hg?docId=a850a50f1a544cc18d64da1ce2c8b8d4

by pwg • 15 years ago

28 16 15 years ago

cgranade• 15 years ago

From the article: "[Gates] also said there was no viable alternative to the Windows operating system in the market at the time [1995], which would mean Novell does not have an antitrust case."

That statement is only even remotely true if one interprets it to mean that there was no alternative to Windows at the time that ran on the same hardware. Macintosh computers were alive and well, no?

firefoxman1• 15 years ago

But you could only get MacOS by buying a Mac. Windows was just the operating system.

dangrossman• 15 years ago

"Mac OS" wasn't even a term until 1997. It was just the unnamed OS software of Macintosh computers. If there was a discrete operating system market, Apple was not a participant at the time involved in this suit.

jamesgeck03• 15 years ago

For the curious, this is what installing RedHat Linux 2.0 looked like cera 1995. Ah, rawrite; I don't miss you at all.

http://www.viddler.com/explore/pdweinstein/videos/5/

palish• 15 years ago

Hah, wow: http://i.imgur.com/appZl.jpg

"And you'll see listed here are a number of boot images. Each one of these boot images contains the configuration of a kernel that will probably match one of your systems. Let's go ahead and use the DOS program 'edit' to view the images.idx file now."

http://i.imgur.com/V0PX0.jpg

"Here it shows in the left hand column the last four numbers of the boot images of the files we just saw earlier. On the right side is a description of the type of system we need to install it onto. For example if you look on the first line it'll show that it has IDE/ATAPI or SCSI. In other words if I take the boot image 0000 then I will be able to utilize the boot image on a system that has an IDE CD-ROM drive."

Heh. It sounds like installing Linux was as easy as 0001, 0002, 0003...

ktsmith• 15 years ago

I actually found an old set of root/boot disks for slackware while cleaning out a box of old junk the other day. Using fvwm2 gave a pretty similar experience to windows 95 as far as the user interface went.

sigzero• 15 years ago

Gates said "viable" and for the users Windows was targeting, Linux was not "viable".

jpancake• 15 years ago

Having used MacOS exclusively from roughly 93-96, it was my experience that, at that point, it was certainly not a viable alternative to Windows, especially after Win95 was released. The only industries that would touch Mac in those days were publishing/pre-press/design, and that was due to Quark being only available on the Mac. I started using Photoshop on Windows maybe in 97 and it was shocking how much better it ran on Win95.

Lord help you if you tried to use a web browser while running another application.

jroseattle2• 15 years ago

I was a sys-ops admin for a 30-person department in a bank back in 1994-1995. We had DOS 6.0 workstations as well as Win 3.1/3.11 desktops and used WordPerfect 5.0 (F5 Reveal Codes, I felt so powerful!) among other brands (Quattro Pro, Harvard Graphics, Paradox.)

When Win95 came on the scene, we were hesitant at first -- let others figure out the kinks -- but we were rolling out new desktops within 6 months. We had also been waiting for a Windows version of WordPerfect. The DOS version was ok, but it was awkward running it in Windows.

So we waited. And waited. And waited some more. Finally, after I don't know how long, we got our hands on WordPerfect 6.0 for Windows. It royally sucked. The WP folks had spent approximately zero time imagining their product in a Windows environment -- GUI, mouse click, that kind of thing -- and instead just pushed their F-commands into a menu system. It didn't flow at all, and our staff complained mightily.

So, we took a look at MS Office (I think it was version 4.x or something around then.) I didn't like MS Office, and knew we would have re-training issues (especially going from Quattro Pro to Excel). Nonetheless, we decided to give it a try.

Staff loved it. Not jumping-up-and-down loved it, just that it let them do their job quite easily. The analysts in our department raved over Excel, however. And personally, I could rid myself of Paradox, which seemed to dislike me more than others.

Summary: it's a small sample size, but from where I stood WordPerfect basically blew it. I can't speak to the MS/WP relationship, but I can without a doubt say that WP didn't put any thought into their product. Why they released their Windows version, I'll never know.

Was MS a tough competitor? Of course. Did they make it difficult on WP to provide their version on Windows? Maybe. But being completely unimaginative about the application and workflow? That's nobody but WordPerfect's fault.

colton36• 15 years ago

F3 was Reveal Codes, iirc.

jroseattle2• 15 years ago

Duly noted. Wikipedia says the actual keys were Alt-F3.

Seems forever ago.

eco• 15 years ago

My brother is on the jury. He won't talk with me about it until it's over though.

jamesbritt• 15 years ago

Dupe: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3262170

Gates back on stand in Utah in $1B antitrust trial

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