RE: [Leica] I Like Your New Cajones!

["Kotsinadelis, Peter (Peter)" <peterk@lucent.com>]

> Dan wrote:
> 
<edited>
> Back in the 80's when I was using Digital Research's CP/M I had read that
> the reason IBM had chosen Bill Gates to provide the operating system for
> its  PC was that Gates had written MS-Basic while in school, and that IBM
> had  approached him AND DR about an operating system. The story I heard
> was that  the director of DR was playing 'hard to get', or went fishing or
> something, and that Bill Gates beat DR out and the race was on. 
> 
	I believe DR was owned by Gary Kildare and he went flying in his
plane that AM leaving the IBM execs to wait.  Eventually they left and went
to see Mr. Gates and Mr. Allen (Paul Allen was Gate's partner early on.  In
early retirement, his holdings now include the POrtland Traliblazers among
other things).  Gates & Allen played to the needs of IBM and got the deal.

>  I had used MS-DOS and DR-DOS, and to be honest, MS had always come up
> with a  solution that worked better. I have used UNIX and OS/2 on my PCs,
> but MS-DOS  and later Windows did more for me and with less sweat and
> strain than other  options. I had several word processing programs, from
> Perfest Writer and  Wordstar to, now, Word 2000- I have never had to sweat
> the parameters of  envelopes or labels- with Mr. Gates software, I put in
> the label or envelope, and the printer makes a beautiful print- no muss,
> no fuss.
>  If he indeed stole the software, I would like to see if the software from
> which he stole or borrowed could do the job better. I doubt it, if  it
> worked  better, Word 2000 would not be the one I used! 
>  So, he's rich and arrogant. Big deal. He has, I think I read, more
> millionaires per captia in his organization than any other Fortune 500
>  company, and provides jobs and solutions to a myriad of people.  This big
> hoopla over him giving away his browser, and hurting Netscape's  feelings
> is the biggest bunch of sour grapes I ever heard! If Netscapes is  so
> great, let them sell an operating system that is BETTER than Windows, let
> them come up with a browser, BETTER than windows and people will flock to
> them.The nearest analogy that comes to mind is that if Henry Ford were
> under  the same type of government restrictions we have now, the buggy
> whip makers  would have cried 'foul' and all model Ts would have had a
> buggy whip  attached to the dashboard.  By the same token, to keep it on
> topic, and since Leica does not have the  market share of Nikon or Canon-
> why don't they sue, and have all Nikons and Canons sold with a Leica
> Filter, say, with each unit! Since we all know that the Japanese are such
> thieves and crooks. Jeez, why don't these people get a life!
>  
> My 2 centimes worth of opinion. The rant is free.
> 
	I agree.  Gates is an easy target since he is so rich.  He has also
donated hundreds of millions to various causes but people as they are will
always be jealous of someone that has so much.  Netscape would have died had
they not been bought by AOL.
	I like your Henry Ford analogy.  Business is business.  If one
provides a good product, at a reasonable cost, with benefits that that make
people buy it then they are better in business then others.  That does not
mean they have the perfect product, but one people want.  Case in point,
maybe that is the reason that Canon (MS?) flourishes and Leica (Netscape)
has difficulty with market share.

	Peter K