BeOS: The Alternate Universe's Mac OS X

Re:BeOS: The Alternate Universe's Mac OS X by beagle3 on Thursday January 09, 2020 @11:38AM (#22002640)

Microsoft, the incumbent, offered OEMs cheaper Windows licenses as long as there was no dual boot, or a windows license was paid for every machine sold regardless of what it ran.

Under these terms, it was suicide for OEMs to offer anything except “only Windows”. I was actually working for another company whose software was killed by Microsoft by a similar “or else” threat from Microsoft at the time.

Microsoft was a bully doing (likely) illegal things, except the FTC wasn’t doing its job.

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Re:BeOS: The Alternate Universe's Mac OS X by ulfw on Thursday January 09, 2020 @12:09PM (#22003058)

And what would have stopped OEMs to offer the same device with a different SKU with BeOS AND Windows for say x USD more?

(kind of like Dell does with their Linux lappies)

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Re:BeOS: The Alternate Universe's Mac OS X by loeg on Thursday January 09, 2020 @05:19PM (#22006515)

More SKUs cost more in manufacturing, QA; choice paralysis may drive away customers. All for a relatively niche offering that might piss off their big product. Little upside. It's even a bit surprising Dell sells Linux laptops, considering.

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Re:BeOS: The Alternate Universe's Mac OS X by beagle3 on Thursday January 09, 2020 @12:17PM (#22003154)

Lack of demand (for BeOS at an extra cost; or for Windows by people who wanted BeOS)

Also, some of the time Microsoft simply forbade dual booting as a condition for OEM licensing.

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