Wetlook World Forum

And XEROX DID sell a product which used the Windows concept: the "Star". I know... I used to work for a company which owned a couple of Stars - they used them for authoring product documentation.

Also, long before Windows, there was the Apple "Lisa". Again, same company had purchased a Lisa too. The Lisa was my first exposure to a "Windows"-like GUI. If anyone saw the potential for Windowing GUIs, it was Steve Jobs of Apple. He just got overtaken by the Microsoft steamroller. And, I think Windows was initially a bit of a tough sell on what was then "DOS" platforms. Early versions of Windows were slow, unstable, and riddled with limitations. I think Apple has held a technical lead over Microsoft for many years. It's only been with NT and its derivatives (2k and XP) that Windows has become a serious contender, and it's only because Windows was offered as THE ONLY migration path for what had become a vast installed base that became the market leader it is today. It's not Bill Gates we have to thank for it - it's IBM's product strategy for the PC. By publishing all the technical details on the PC and pricing it on the high side, they stimulated the clone market which eventually almost pushed them out of the PC market entirely, and made the PC the most popular platform on the planet. Not that I think it deserved to be. The first generation Apple was a far superior product to the first (or even second-generation) PC. Apple's tight control over the product limited the number of third-party hardware and software developers working on the Apple platform; the PC was much more developer-friendly. That allowed the PC market to grow extremely rapidly. I don't think even Bill Gates could have seen it coming. He just happened to be in the right place at the right time with DOS, and struck the right licensing deal with IBM. The only reason Gates nurtured Windows was because of the huge DOS user base which could have defected to more advanced platforms if they didn't do something to catch up. The threat is still present today with Linux. Vision? I doubt it. If Billy had any real vision, he would have seen the rise of the hacking and virus-writing communities and could have ensured that Windows was properly hardened BEFORE any threat could emerge.