16 Sep
1998
16 Sep
'98
2:10 p.m.
On 17 Sep 1998, Eric Smith wrote:
If Apple hadn't introduced the Lisa, the war might
have been between
Microsoft, Digital Research, Amiga, GEOS, or any number of other contenders.
There was never any O/S or GUI war. After the PC and MS-DOS, Apple never
owned any serious hearts and minds except for a few niches like desktop
publishing and graphics design. DR's GEM was never a serious contender,
and the Amiga never had more than a video effects niche. Microsoft was
handed the PC monopoly and they held onto it.
Microsoft intro'd three generations of GUIs before anybody cared, and
nobody has mentioned the real reason for the success of Windows 3.x:
Solitaire. Just as sex videos made VHS a standard, Solitaire is the one
thing that kept users from simply deleting Windows 3.0 after the standard
"OK, what are they up to now?" evaluation. OK, virtual memory, multiple
MS-DOS boxes, and 3-D icons helped too, but I remember the real reason I
left Windows on my hard disk: Solitaire.
-- Doug