On Sun, 3 Oct 2004 19:59:41 -0700, "Richard Crowley"
wrote:

But I don't know anyone who denies that hardware
(and software/OS, mostly) open-standards and the resulting
open-market competition are likely the single most significant
factor in the PC's continued, overwhelming market share.

Not denying that closed/proprietary was reputedly IBM/Boca's
original intent, but for whatever reason, they let it slip out of their
control and look where we are now (for better or for worse :-)


other well-focused comments snipped for bandwidth

It's a unique situation in Consumerland. Has there *ever* been
another dominant non-proprietary consumer standard post-war?

And secondarily, my memory of the times was that lots hinged
on the legal breaking of the IBM BIOS. The lesson of hardware
vs. software still haunts us. Down where it counts, in the
pants pocket.

Chris Hornbeck