[aruanan]

I am recalling all of this from memories that are over 25 years old now, so I could be off in some respects, but the overall idea is valid. Apple made it very difficult to be a developer, IBM practically begged you to develop and share.

You're half right. It wasn't the developer aspect that gave Microsoft OS machines the edge because most consumers aren't developers. It was simply that the price was hundreds of dollars less. Most first time computer consumers then thought "A computer is a computer is a computer" and thought that with the hundreds of dollars in savings they could buy all sorts of software, too. They entered upon the wide path and never knew anything different until relatively recently.

[Sunnyflorida]

“You’re half right. It wasn’t the developer aspect that gave Microsoft OS machines the edge because most consumers aren’t developers. It was simply that the price was hundreds of dollars less. Most first time computer consumers then thought “A computer is a computer is a computer” and thought that with the hundreds of dollars in savings they could buy all sorts of software, too. They entered upon the wide path and never knew anything different until relatively recently.”

Half right. MSFT cut deals with the systems suppliers which forced them to ship windows on all PCs if they wanted to ship windows on any PC. It c”ame with” and any alternative OS was an extra cost marginally supported option. Even IBM could not resist this deal of the century.