Denys writes:

> I wanted to see what some of the long time chroniclers of the IT industry
had
> to say about this.  One of the ones I used to read faithfully is Jerry
> Pournelle.  He had been writing a monthly column in Byte magazine for as
> long as I could remember, 20+ years.  Byte folded last year.  However I
> discovered that Byte is back on the web at byte,com.  Jerry has a weekly
> column in it.  I hoped that he had published some thoughts on this, in
> light of his long, as I mentioned earlier, writing and chronicling
experience.
> He has.  Here it is: http://www.byte.com/column/BYT19991108S0001

I'm old enough to have associated with Microsoft before they were even called
Microsoft, and I remember when Bill Gates was the scrawny kid at the back of
the room and Jerry Pournelle was the large guy at the front. I too wrote for
Byte Magazine during its first few years of existence. My reason for
mentioning all of this is that I read Denys' recommended article and I agree
with virtually all of it.

Microsoft may have been aggressive, but they won most of their early battles
simply because no one was paying attention to them -- or their competitors
greatly underestimated them. Perhaps surprisingly, Bill Gates became the
richest man in the world by pricing his products at minimal cost from day
one, from the very earliest days of Microsoft. Their stuff has never been
expensive. That's the farthest thing from predatory pricing. They had no
giant bankroll or backer. Rather, they worked all night, ate pizzas and
doubled and tripled up in motel rooms, just like any other driven geeks
without a social life that you might know. It's difficult for me to see the
harm to consumers in that.

Wirt Atmar