Comments on: Five Things Microsoft Bob Got Right – Fifteen Years Later http://blog.utest.com/five-things-microsoft-bob-got-right-fifteen-years-later/2010/03/ Software Testing Community Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:18:02 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Stanton Champion http://blog.utest.com/five-things-microsoft-bob-got-right-fifteen-years-later/2010/03/comment-page-1/#comment-15039 Stanton Champion Thu, 01 Apr 2010 18:47:51 +0000 http://blog.utest.com/?p=4886#comment-15039 I don't discount time sharing at all. Unix systems had allowed multiple accounts for over two decades. What was innovative was to bring this to the PC world on a mass market scale. At this point, most PCs ran Windows 3.1 and those PCs did not support giving multiple users different experiences based on their preferences. In 1995, the vast majority of people did not use time-sharing computers or even know what one was. As for monopoly tactics, I don't think that's relevant here. Besides, in 1995 there was still debate about whether the future of desktop operating systems would be "Chicago" (AKA Windows 95) or IBM's OS/2. I don’t discount time sharing at all. Unix systems had allowed multiple accounts for over two decades. What was innovative was to bring this to the PC world on a mass market scale. At this point, most PCs ran Windows 3.1 and those PCs did not support giving multiple users different experiences based on their preferences. In 1995, the vast majority of people did not use time-sharing computers or even know what one was.

As for monopoly tactics, I don’t think that’s relevant here. Besides, in 1995 there was still debate about whether the future of desktop operating systems would be “Chicago” (AKA Windows 95) or IBM’s OS/2.

]]> By: Dan Gawarecki http://blog.utest.com/five-things-microsoft-bob-got-right-fifteen-years-later/2010/03/comment-page-1/#comment-15038 Dan Gawarecki Thu, 01 Apr 2010 18:36:13 +0000 http://blog.utest.com/?p=4886#comment-15038 I think you give too much credit to Microsoft - e.g., "Microsoft Bob solved this problem early – in the time of Windows 3.1 – long before anyone else was talking about multiple people sharing PCs, applications, and websites." Is it really so brilliant to suppose that different people would want a different environment when using the same hardware? You seem to discount, even forget, that people have been time-sharing computers for decades before MS Bob came along. MS was employing monopolistic tactics during this time frame, that might have had as much to do with their success too, no? I think you give too much credit to Microsoft – e.g., “Microsoft Bob solved this problem early – in the time of Windows 3.1 – long before anyone else was talking about multiple people sharing PCs, applications, and websites.” Is it really so brilliant to suppose that different people would want a different environment when using the same hardware? You seem to discount, even forget, that people have been time-sharing computers for decades before MS Bob came along.

MS was employing monopolistic tactics during this time frame, that might have had as much to do with their success too, no?

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