IBM's BIGGEST MISTAKE!

[tolstoi]

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actually we're the one who benefited from this mistake..as well as bill gates..

In the early days of the PC, when IBM was clearly in control of the PC
hardware standard, it hired Microsoft to provide most of the core software for the PC. IBM developed the hardware, wrote the BIOS (basic input/output system), and then hired Microsoft to develop the disk operating system (DOS), as well as several other programs and utilities for IBM. In what was later viewed as perhaps the most costly business mistake in history, IBM failed to secure exclusive rights to the DOS it had contracted from Microsoft, either by purchasing it outright or by an exclusive license agreement. Instead, IBM licensed it non-exclusively, which subsequently allowed Microsoft to sell the same MS-DOS code
it developed for IBM to any other company that was interested. Early PC cloners such as Compaq eagerly licensed this same operating system code, and suddenly consumers could purchase the same
basic MS-DOS operating system with several different company names on the box. In retrospect, that single contractual error made Microsoft into the dominant software company it is today, and subsequently caused IBM to lose control of the very PCstandard it had created.

[killya]

certainly... what a blunder..maybe they were too excited on what they have created..
but eventhough IBM would have had it exclusively, other software developers might have sprung to contest microsoft in providing other pc makers.. Instead of microsoft having a foothold of the market.

[gregggy_ph]

luk at d bryt syd....naa pc enthusiasts tulad nato...hehe...cloners/customizers/modders or watever were born bcoz of that mistake...hehe..i cudnt imagine ibm monopolizing the pc market...

[seekenneth]

you gotta thank Microsoft for that :P wohoo Bill Gates

[fd]

we should be thankful to that mistake!! :_) if not then we'd be choosing only 2. the mac and ibm pc. mac already monopolized hardware and software. and as for PC, we'd be stock with intel.

plus there'd be no nvidia nor ati.. and a whole lot of others.

[rheznat]

toink!

[archille]

actually we're the one who benefited from this mistake..as well as bill gates..

In the early days of the PC, when IBM was clearly in control of the PC
hardware standard, it hired Microsoft to provide most of the core software for the PC. IBM developed the hardware, wrote the BIOS (basic input/output system), and then hired Microsoft to develop the disk operating system (DOS), as well as several other programs and utilities for IBM. In what was later viewed as perhaps the most costly business mistake in history, IBM failed to secure exclusive rights to the DOS it had contracted from Microsoft, either by purchasing it outright or by an exclusive license agreement. Instead, IBM licensed it non-exclusively, which subsequently allowed Microsoft to sell the same MS-DOS code
it developed for IBM to any other company that was interested. Early PC cloners such as Compaq eagerly licensed this same operating system code, and suddenly consumers could purchase the same
basic MS-DOS operating system with several different company names on the box. In retrospect, that single contractual error made Microsoft into the dominant software company it is today, and subsequently caused IBM to lose control of the very PCstandard it had created.

yup, i agree. bt i think its all in the past. right now they should consider licensesing their powerful PowerPC processors and let it run windows.

[tolstoi]

i think they license it solely to Apple^

[archille]

i think they license it solely to Apple^

thats going to be IBM's future failure.

[hansolo999]

i think they license it solely to Apple^

thats going to be IBM's future failure.

bitaw. but IBM now is pushing again too much Red Hat. they will have problem again later, because red hat napod ang ma ok.