[ros-general] Mailing lists

[Wesley Parish]

Straight from the Horse's Mouth (Bill Gates thinks that cloning someone else's 
technology is cool):

“The Road Ahead”, Revised and Updated by Bill Gates, Penguin 1996, ISBN 
0-14-024351-8

Chapter 3, Lessons From The Computer Industry
"The scalable architecture of the IBM System/360 and its successor, the 
System/370, drove many of IBM’s competitors out of business and scared away 
potential newcomers – at least for a while.  Then in 1970 Gene Amdahl, who 
had been a senior engineer at IBM, founded a competing company.  Amdahl had a 
novel business plan.  His Amdahl company would build computers fully 
compatible with the IBM 360 software.  Amdahl delivered hardware that not 
only ran the same operating systems and applications as IBM’s 360 machines 
but, because it took advantage of new technology, also outperformed IBM’s 
comparably priced systems.  Soon Control Data, Hitachi and Itel (not Intel) 
all offered mainframes that were “plug-compatible” with IBM’s machines.  By 
the mid-1970s the importance of 360 compatibility was becoming obvious.  The 
only mainframe companies doing well were those whose hardware could run IBM’s 
operating systems.
Before the 360 and its “clones”, computers were intentionally designed to be 
incompatible with those from other companies because the manufacturer’s goal 
was to make it discouragingly difficult and expensive for existing customers 
to switch to a different brand.  Once a customer committed to a machine, he 
or she was stuck with offerings from the computer’s manufacturer because 
changing the software, while it could be done, was difficult and expensive.  
Amdahl and the other IBM-compatible companies ended that stranglehold on the 
customer.  Now customers could - and did – choose systems that gave them a 
choice of hardware suppliers and the widest variety of software applications.  
Market-driven compatibility proved to be an important lesson for the 
mainframe and minicomputer industries, and later it was an important lesson 
for the personal computer industry.  It promises to be an important one for 
the Internet industry as well."
Pg41-42[…]
"IBM’s early business decisions, which grew out of its rush to get the PC to 
market, made it easy for other companies to build compatible machines.  The 
architecture was for sale.  The microprocessor chips from Intel and 
Microsoft’s operating system were available to any startup.  This openness 
was a powerful incentive for component builders, software developers, and 
everybody else in the business.
[…]
Some commentators like to conclude that IBM made a mistake working with Intel 
and Microsoft to create its PC.  They argue that IBM should have kept the PC 
architecture proprietary and that Intel and Microsoft somehow got the better 
of IBM.  But the commentators are missing the point.  IBM became the central 
force in the PC industry precisely because it was able to harness an 
incredible amount of innovative talent and entrepreneurial energy and use it 
to promote its open architecture.  IBM set the standards."
Pp52-56[…]

On Tue, 31 Aug 2004 08:16, Stephen Hodges wrote:
> If you aren't sure if its legal or not you probably are already aware of
> the shaky legal grounds, and you might as well assume it is illegal until
> proven otherwise.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Vizzini" <vizzini at reactos.com>
> To: "ReactOS General List" <ros-general at reactos.com>
> Sent: Monday, August 30, 2004 3:38 PM
> Subject: Re: [ros-general] Mailing lists
>
> > On Mon, 2004-08-30 at 14:00, Steven Edwards wrote:
> > > Well we don't have a legal team as much as one lawyer working from my
> > > end and Vizzini has another working from his end. I think Vizzini's
> > > lawyer friend is in business law as is mine and both agree that what we
> > > are doing is 100% legal.
> >
> > My guy just got back to me with additional comments, and basically said
> > "sorry, but this is getting over my head".  I'm now trying to get an
> > appointment scheduled with another firm that he recommended me to that
> > specializes in intellectual property.  And I hate that phrase too. :)
> >
> >  -sd
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > ros-general mailing list
> > ros-general at reactos.com
> > http://reactos.com/mailman/listinfo/ros-general
>
> _______________________________________________
> ros-general mailing list
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> http://reactos.com/mailman/listinfo/ros-general

-- 
Wesley Parish
* * *
Clinersterton beademung - in all of love.  RIP James Blish
* * *
Mau e ki, "He aha te mea nui?"
You ask, "What is the most important thing?"
Maku e ki, "He tangata, he tangata, he tangata."
I reply, "It is people, it is people, it is people."