[Info-vax] OT: Arun Kishan

[JF Mezei]

Neil Rieck wrote:

> On a related note, the other day I was trying to imagine what the
> world would be like if DEC had not driven Cutler (and his variable
> crew of 30-100) into the arms of Bill Gates. Would DEC have still gone
> down but only later? Would Windows (or Windows-NT) still have happened
> but only later? 


At the time Microsoft was having a hard time producing what ended up
being called Windows 95, both Apple (MacOs) and IBM (OS2) were starting
to gain market share against DOS/Wondows 3.1 beause of those delays.

Had Microsoft failed to get Windows 95 off the ground, it is possible
OS-2 might have taken off and MS would be nowhere today.

Once Windows 95 came out, OS-2 was dead and Apple spiraled down to a
point where they begged Jobs to come back to save the company.

However, it was only later that the mass market windows began to get
Windows NT under the hood. I have no idea how the current OS looks like
compared to the original early 1990s Windows NT.

Since it is only recently (XP?) that mass market Windows got NT under
the hood, it is quite possible that MS would have still managed without
Cutler since they would have had an extra 10 years to get NT "right".

And MS could have gotten OS engineers from othet failing companies.