Video Notes

Triumph of the Nerds 2

Video Summary - Triumph of the Nerds
"Riding The Bear"

Late 70's/Early 80's
  IBM
    Was considered the "premier" computer manufacturer in the world.
    Quality was job number 1 and being sure/safe before releasing prod-
      ucts.
    With Apples success in PC market, IBM wanted a piece of Apple's "Pie".

  IBM
    Bill Lowe was commissioned to head IBM's PC development.
    The chosen approach was to build the first IBM PC with "Off-the-Shelf"
      components, giving it an "Open Architecture".   Exception was ROM
      BIOS Chip, this was proprietary to IBM.
    With IBM's entry into the PC market, business now looked at the PC
     as being a legitimate computer....It was now "OK" to use them.

  MS DOS, the Operating System
    Once the IBM PC was well on the Way to inception, the search for an
      Operating System was Started.
    Gary Kildall and his company, Digital Research, had an operating
      System for Intel-based PCs called CPM.
    Bill Gates and his company, Microsoft, had several languages
      (including BASIC) and software packages for the PC.

  MS DOS, the Operating System
    IBM "presumed" that Microsoft had an Operating System, but they
      did not and pointed IBM to visit Digital Research.
    Digital Research refused to speak with IBM and blew their chance to
      provide the Operating System.
    Paul Allen of Microsoft, arranged and completed the deal of the
      century to purchase Q-DOS from developer Tim Patterson of SCP.

  MS DOS, the Operating System
    Q-DOS became PC-DOS and MS-DOS.
    Microsoft licensed DOS and all products to IBM.
    $50,000 for Millions of Dollars for Microsoft in selling DOS to
      Clone manufactures.

1982-ish
  The Clones and IBM's PC dominance downfall.
    Popularized the process of Reverse Engineering.  Used to develop
      ROM BIOS chips for Clones.
    One of the market leaders, COMPAQ, comes into being.  First
      highly successful clone.
    Others include AST, DELL, and AT&T.
    IBM could not compete with the Clone makers.  Costs were dropping
      fast and margins were too thin.

1985-ish
  The Clones and IBM's downfall
    SELL NOW....If you do not, it will be worth less later, but does
      more as time goes on !!
    IBM tried to re-capture the market by introducing proprietary hardware
      (short-lived....never flew) and by developing a new Operating System,
      OS/2,  that would replace DOS (they would control the licensing and
      not Microsoft).

1985-ish
  OS/2, DOS and WINDOWS
    IBM asked Microsoft to Co-Develop OS/2.
    At the same time that OS/2 was being developed, Microsoft was also
     developing WINDOWS to run with DOS to provide a user-friendly 
     graphical interface.
    IBM and Microsoft agreed to disagree and split the relationship for
     development of OS/2.

1985-ish
  OS/2, DOS and WINDOWS
    IBM kept OS/2 and Microsoft kept working on WINDOWS.
    OS/2 did not (and has not) gained wide acceptance.
    WINDOWS gained wide acceptance and set Microsoft on top
      of the PC world.
    IBM's decision to split with Microsoft, has been categorized as the
      "single worst decision in business history"....(Larry Ellison of Oracle).