Linux in a World Where Windows 3.0 Never Happened

covertbadger writes "Larry Osterman said farewell yesterday to David Weise, the developer he credits with getting applications to run in protected mode on Windows 3.0, which led directly to Microsoft choosing to push Windows instead of OS/2. Today he speculates on what the IT world would be like if Weise had never completed this work. Windows 95 would never have existed, OS/2 would be the de facto standard, and IBM would never have put weight behind Linux because it had its own operating system to push."

Comments

Re:"What if?" can be fun

[Dogtanian]

"What if?" can be fun, especially when you apply it to wars. What if Hitler had never invaded Russia? What if he had invaded Britian earlier in the war?

What if Germany had been able to continue fighting for another 3-6 months?

Significance? Although the atomic bomb was used against Japan, it was developed in response to the threat of the *Germans* developing one themselves.

It was completed 2 months after Germany surrendered, and used against Japan approx. 1 month after that.

Although we now know that Germany was nowhere near building a true atomic bomb during WWII, this was not known at the time.

Well, bearing in mind that the atomic bomb was used against Japan, who- whatever else happened- were never a likely risk when it came to atomic weapons, I find it hard to believe that they would not have used them against Germany to bring the war to a swift conclusion.