Microsof falls to third place, new tech giant rising to 2nd

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24 May 2011, 8:13 am

Who's on first: Apple
Who's on third: Microsoft

Who's on second: IBM

Microsoft is now the third-largest U.S. tech company by market value:
http://es.reuters.com/article/companyNe ... 5220110523

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Mack27
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24 May 2011, 9:18 am

If I was the stock-buying type I think I'd buy Microsoft right now, the stock is undervalued when you look at profits.

zer0netgain
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24 May 2011, 9:25 am

I'm amazed Microsoft even counts. IBM makes hardware. MS by and large only makes software. Apple makes hardware and software.

If IBM didn't contract MS for its software back in the 1970s, Bill Gates would have never gone anywhere.

Orwell
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24 May 2011, 10:36 am

Mack27 wrote:

If I was the stock-buying type I think I'd buy Microsoft right now, the stock is undervalued when you look at profits.

Based on experience of the past 15 years, that would be a terrible investment. Also, Microsoft really has no room for growth. Everything they make already mostly dominates the market, so the only way to go is down.

Better to invest in Apple stock. Steve Jobs will come out with something shiny, stupid people will buy it, and you get money.

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ruveyn
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24 May 2011, 12:54 pm

zer0netgain wrote:

And if my grandmother had balls, she would be my grandfather.

ruveyn

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24 May 2011, 1:08 pm

Orwell wrote:

Better to invest in Apple stock. Steve Jobs will come out with something shiny, stupid people will buy it, and you get money.

W O R D !

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computerlove
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24 May 2011, 9:39 pm

GoonSquad wrote:

Orwell wrote:

Better to invest in Apple stock. Steve Jobs will come out with something shiny, stupid people will buy it, and you get money.

W O R D !

I need new Apple® stuff! *runs to write it down on calendar*

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leejosepho
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24 May 2011, 9:50 pm

zer0netgain wrote:

If IBM didn't contract MS for its software back in the 1970s, Bill Gates would have never gone anywhere.

A story I heard from a man who used to work for Digital Research (CP/M) is, according to him, the inside scoop on this:

Quote:

MS-DOS takes over

In 1980 IBM approached Digital Research to license a forthcoming version of CP/M for their new product, the IBM Personal Computer, but on their failure to obtain a signed non-disclosure agreement, the talks failed, and IBM instead used Microsoft to provide an operating system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP/M

According to my long-ago friend who had since gone to work for the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority (Water Department), that "failure to obtain" had happened when somebody at Digital Research had missed/skipped a lunch date with IBM!

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Cornflake
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25 May 2011, 7:11 am

leejosepho wrote:

True, apparently: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Kildall
And as it turned out, Microsoft simply bought QDOS (86-DOS) from Seattle Computer Products which was itself based on CP/M. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/86-DOS
I doubt Microsoft has actually originated anything at all, despite the trumpet-blowing about innovation.

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zer0netgain
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25 May 2011, 7:21 am

Cornflake wrote:

leejosepho wrote:

And because IBM made a cheap PC (only 1 part was IBM's design and it was quickly reverse engineered) from off-the-shelf parts, and because Microsoft retained ownership rights to the software, when everyone started cranking out cheap copies of the IBM PC, Microsoft's market share exploded overnight. Apple made everything proprietary. Better quality, but more expensive and harder to copy.

leejosepho
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25 May 2011, 9:51 am

zer0netgain wrote:

Cornflake wrote:

leejosepho wrote:

Yes, and all of that shows Bill Gates to have been "innovative" as a "hacker" (in the original, respectable sense* as opposed to any kind of destructive activity).

*Back in that day, "hackers" were people who worked to simplify (expedite) things with "Bucky keys" (macros and the like named after "Buck" somebody) and actually helped for everyone's sake in the overall sense.

And then after "windows" had been brought onto the scene, Gates eventually turned them into "Windows".

Note: I already had "windows" (all lower case) on my Commodore computers while Microsoft was still developing 3.11 on a 286.

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pakled
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27 May 2011, 10:50 pm

As I recall, the original story (apocryphal or not) was that the competitor to MS for the original PC was kept 'busy' on a plane until MS could ink the contract. The fix may have been 'in'.

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leejosepho
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27 May 2011, 10:57 pm

pakled wrote:

As I recall, the original story (apocryphal or not) was that the competitor to MS for the original PC was kept 'busy' on a plane until MS could ink the contract. The fix may have been 'in'.

I vaguely recall "Bob" saying something along that line now that you have mentioned it ...

... and now life continues on, eh?!

I first met that guy while he was conducting some BASIC classes in a church fellowship hall.

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