M$'s future OS market share [ was Re: [Talk] Some thoughts on AUUG, LUG's and their future ]

[david.newall at auug.org.au]

David Bullock <db at dawnbreaks.net> wrote:
> I don't believe [Microsoft] will have as much of the desktop OS
> market as they would like ( given that they would like 100% )
> but I think they will always hold a significant place in the
> market.

Once upon a time, CP/M was almost 100% of the hobby/micro OS market;
and VisiCalc was 100% of the spreadsheet market; and WordStar was easily
the dominant word processor.  Then along came Apple, which begat DOS and
MacOS, and Microsoft bought a CP/M-like operating system which became
MS-DOS; and VisiCalc lost all to Lotus; and WordStar subsided to the
behometh that was Word Perfect.  Now Apple struggle to retain market
share and MS-DOS has been replaced by Windows; Lotus is an also-ran to
Excel's market dominance; and Word Perfect is fast disappearing while
Microsoft Word rules supreme.  Even IBM ain't what it used to be.

One can hope and dream...