31
General Discussion / Re: Revolutionary PC Technology
« on: January 14, 2021, 08:50:46 pm »
I think the reason why OS/2 "failed" in the market place is the same reason all other PC operating systems "failed" - you can't compete with an operating system that is free and comes already installed. i.e. Windows. Microsoft was smart enough to know that it needed to dominate marketing - and did so with its agreements with PC manufactures.
Do you all remember how hard it was to install OS/2 2.0? Now imagine your parents doing that.
IBM certainly started out not understanding the consumer market place. When I bought OS/2 v1.3 the only place to buy it was at an IBM retail store and those stores closed at 5:00PM and weren't open on the weekend.
But by the time version 2 came around I think IBM was much smarter about marketing to consumers and OS/2 became available in software and computer stores.
But you couldn't buy very many new computers with OS/2 preinstalled - a few manufactures gave you the choice, but for those that did OS/2 always cost most than Windows when preinstalled.
As long as the govt allowed these sales agreements between Microsoft and PC makers where the PC maker paid Microsoft for every PC shipped, regardless of whether Windows was installed or not, no other operating system really had a chance.
IBM certainly did pursue third party application makers, even going to far as to pay some companies to port their software to OS/2. But the preinstall strangle-hold MS had on PC makers always meant that OS/2 would never beat Windows.
Do you all remember how hard it was to install OS/2 2.0? Now imagine your parents doing that.
IBM certainly started out not understanding the consumer market place. When I bought OS/2 v1.3 the only place to buy it was at an IBM retail store and those stores closed at 5:00PM and weren't open on the weekend.
But by the time version 2 came around I think IBM was much smarter about marketing to consumers and OS/2 became available in software and computer stores.
But you couldn't buy very many new computers with OS/2 preinstalled - a few manufactures gave you the choice, but for those that did OS/2 always cost most than Windows when preinstalled.
As long as the govt allowed these sales agreements between Microsoft and PC makers where the PC maker paid Microsoft for every PC shipped, regardless of whether Windows was installed or not, no other operating system really had a chance.
IBM certainly did pursue third party application makers, even going to far as to pay some companies to port their software to OS/2. But the preinstall strangle-hold MS had on PC makers always meant that OS/2 would never beat Windows.