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Re: [News] Recurring Pattern in Microsoft Operating Systems

Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> Microsoft's penultimates
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| A penultimate version is the second last one - and Microsoft's
>| penultimate operating systems have generally been their best ones.
>| 
>| There was an MS-DOS 4.0 - but it's 3.2 that everyone remembers as the
>| best of the MS-DOS versions. 
>| 
>| [...]
>| 
>| Look at the history: Microsoft buys or copies something: makes a 
>| commercially successful version, starts an internal adaptation and redesign 
>| project that becomes a long running feud...
> `----
> 
> http://blogs.zdnet.com/Murphy/?p=828

MSDOS4.0 was a complete dog.  I recall that MSDOS3.31 was probably the
best of the Microsoft DOS series, but DRDOS6 and DRDOS7 were so far
ahead it's difficult to describe to people who weren't around and using
them at the time.  

The closest comparison I could give would be that MSDOS3.31 is a bit
like the internet explorer which came with Win2k, mostly adequate for
most jobs, nothing really special, I suppose "good enough" would be an
apt description.  DRDOS7 was like Firefox 2.0 by comparison;
phenomenally functional, making far better use of system resources,
offering possibilities and capabilties beyond anything which could be
imagined for MSDOS3.31 or IE on 2k.  IE7 is supposed to compete with
Firefox 2.0, but aside from having tabs (well, Firefox has had them for
years now), it appears to have no merit at all.

At this point, Microsoft's standard approach has been to "tip the
board", so that whatever the successful competing capability is cannot
continue in the same way.  For DRDOS, Microsoft released a version of
Windows with code specifically designed to FUD DRDOS users.  It worked.
It was illegal, but it worked.  

What can Microsoft do for Vista?  Well, unless they have a /really/ new
capability hidden in a darkened corner, probably not much.  The
"singularity" project, I've always imaged it named such in order to be
a single-user Unix clone, has gone very quiet, and overall the desktop
PC market is in its death throes.

As I've said a few times, I think it's all over for them.

-- 
| Mark Kent   --   mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk          |
| Cola faq:  http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/   |
| Cola trolls:  http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/                        |

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