🚀 go-pugleaf

Ketil Z Malde <ke...@imr.no> writes:

>Go on all you want about the technical merits of Beta vs. VHS (and let's
>not forget Philips' 2000)  IMHO, the issue was Sony's or Philips'
>marketing power compared to the combined marketing of just about every
>other electronics manufacturer.

This is exactly correct.  And why was "the combined marketing of just about
every other electronics manufacturer" behind VHS?  Because JVC (the inventor
of VHS) licensed the technology FOR FREE to any manufacturer demonstrating
that it was adhering to a certain minimum compatibility standard.

The PC enjoyed it's success for exactly the same reason.  IBM let any
manufacturer copy the architecture FOR FREE.  Had either Apple or Comadore
(Manufacturer of the Amiga) done the same thing, instead of leaving
their architecture proprietary, one of those architectures may very well
have emerged as the standard.

IBM failed to learn from this, however.  Remember a few years ago, they
came out with the Microchannel based PS/2's and kept the architecture 
proprietary.  The PS/2 was a thundering failure in the marketplace.

Sony and Phillips, co-inventors of the compact disk, made the CD technology
openly available FOR FREE.  As a result, it is now the standard medium
for distribution of recorded music AND for distribution of commercial
computer software.  Had Sony and/or Phillips kept this technology proprietary,
I am certain that the technology would have petered out by 1985 or 86 and
few of us would even remember it today.

Now as a closing thought:  The technology behind Linux is available to anyone
FOR FREE...  Makes you wonder.  It's future may be bright indeed!

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
|  Mark Sutton                 | mailto:mark....@laitram.com        |
|  The Laitram Corporation     | http://www.gnofn.org/~marksu/         |
|  New Orleans, Louisiana      |                                       | 
------------------------------------------------------------------------