The Software That Failed To Compete With Windows

harrymcc writes "When Microsoft shipped Windows 1.0 back in November 1985 — it turned 25 on Saturday — it wasn't clear that its much-delayed windowing add-on for DOS was going to succeed. After all, it was a late arrival to a market that was already teeming with ambitious competitors. A quarter-century later, it's worth remembering the early Windows rivals that didn't make it: Visi On, Top View, GEM, DESQview, and more."

Comments

Re:OS/2

[eln]

They seem to be referring to competitors of Windows 1.0 specifically, not just any old Windows. OS/2 wasn't a competitor of Windows 1.0, if was supposed to be the successor to Windows, developed by IBM and Microsoft jointly. OS/2 didn't really become a competitor to Windows until around Windows 3.0/3.11 after IBM and Microsoft parted ways on the project.

Re:OK. I'll speak the truth and take the hit.

[bluefoxlucid]

Actually he marketed a concept. When he sold DOS to IBM, IBM already had Commodore... who was delaying their IBMPCOS project heavily. Lots of promises, lots of nothing to show for it. Gates convinced IBM that Commodore's PC operating system was ages-off vaporware and that he could do it faster.