/// Commentary by Robert Niles



A few days ago I was driving up to the mountains for a bit of 
fishing when I heard on NPR (National Public Radio) the problem 
with Microsoft's hold over the DOS market. I'm talking about DOS 
as in Disk Operating System.

On the IBMs and even in the "Clone" world, these platforms are 
ran with Microsoft's MS-DOS. The DOS is the fundamental part of 
any platform, and any developer for the clones MUST adhere to a 
DOS when developing programs and hardware. And they NEED to use 
MS-DOS to make sure that their programs reach the largest part of 
the market.

It is projected that if the sales of MS-DOS increases as it 
currently has, then in the next 10 to 20 years there will be no 
other disk operating around for the IBM (and it's clones).

Possible? Who knows, but I understand what they are trying to say 
here. UNIX is a strong player, as with the MacIntosh, and even 
the Amiga has found a niche in the market, but we can already see 
what is happening with Apple now. You think CBM displayed 
problems here in the last months, look over to the Mac platform.
There's even some chunks being taken out of THAT apple!

The past shows that at anytime someone succeeds in monopolizing a 
market, that market stagnates, and new technologies come to us 
slowly if at all, even then, prices increase. The break up of Ma 
Bell hurt a bit in the short run, but the competitiveness brought 
to us services and technology that we now use for granted, with 
prices we can afford. WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO PICK AND CHOOSE!

Apparently there is an attempt to possibly break up Microsoft, 
who not only produces the most used DOS, but business software to 
boot. In doing so they are able to create products easier 
(because the are most familiar with the DOS) and cheaper, putting 
other developers at a disadvantage.

Break Microsoft up! I think it's right! This affects the IBMs the 
most, but in the long run it will affect each and every operating 
system out there. Keeping things as they are will strangle 
development on the IBM, and squeeze the rest of us even further. 
And it is counterproductive to the growth and technology of the 
computer market that we have all been witness to in the last 
decade.

Amiga users are quite loyal. BUT having other companies to 
compete against is the crucial point in bringing us such a wide 
range of platforms, hardware, and software. It's what makes this 
market grow and hopefully continue to achieve such potentials 
that we only could dream of. Remember 10 years ago, then look at 
what you have now.

See what I mean?