On Mon, 2008-03-31 at 10:02 +1000, Da Rock wrote: > On Mon, 2008-03-31 at 08:25 +1030, Tim wrote: > > On Sun, 2008-03-30 at 20:54 +1000, Da Rock wrote: > > > In some ways both views have pros and cons. But consider the > > > possibilities that have opened up for humankind in general from this > > > one technology. > > > > Yeah, technical support lines, anti-virus companies, spam... > > > > I view being asked to fix someone's PC like they'd just asked me to > > unblock their loo with my bare hands. > > > > I agree (to a point), and that was hardly the point I was making. If > computers weren't as widespread, then I can bet your user base would > probably not even exist. We'd still be on mainframes with dumb > terminals, and few services actually requiring to be run- ergo, less > employment for sysadmins. > > And that is only the tip of the iceberg. Take time to consider where > life might have gone if your scenario had taken place, and be thankful > that it has turned out this way- your analogy just may have been a > literal possibility. > Actually, Microsoft was a late comer to personal computers. I own (still) an Altair 8800B, and owned a Morrow Microdecision before that, both on CP/M. And prior to that I had systems that ran various other OS's that were a bit more limited, and one straight bootstrap system for which you had to furnish an OS of your favorite flavor. Microsoft did not create, or really enable personal computers, they just got the contract to write the OS for IBM, and were able to bootstrap that into the corporation you see today. And before the but you couldn't wars start, I played games, did graphics, edited documents, wrote a compiler, wrote an assembler and created my own tape operating system on the Altair. Yes, it was slow. Yes, it did have limitations in storage (128K total, separate data and instruction memory, tape or 5.25 floppy, and other limitations of the technology of the time), but Microsoft didn't exist yet. Microsoft started in 1975. I owned these machines prior to that. Mainframes known limitations, issues with remote booting, problems with distributed software and shared databases pushed people to find better ways, and there were many software packages developed for CP/M, including compilers, IDE's, and window type interfaces prior to Windows. Regards, Les H
