Triumph of the Nerds Part II

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In class we saw a documentary called Triumph of the Nerds: Riding the Bear. This episode is the continuation of a previous posts, of a series of videos that are about the development and history of personal computers and also of the innovative, creative and risky people who were in charge of introducing this industry to the world, laying the foundations and making it grow to be what we know today.

IMB is a giant beast, like a bear. It is a conservative and well-structured company, with well-defined processes and behaviors. A well-established and respectable company had to do something with the nascent competition that the nerdy guys started. 
With the development of its own personal computer, IBM had to make a choice between Bill Gates and Gary Kildall to build the Operating System (OS). Kildall had extensive experience in the area, Bill Gates was younger and with a greater focus on computer languages. 

Bill Gates ended up being the chosen one, this meant a great opportunity for him and his company, Microsoft. The only small problem is that Microsoft did not have a developed operating system, Gates could not let go this opportunity that meant growth and a lot of money, so he looked for his friend Paul Allen, who found the operating system of Tim Patterson which was based in Kildall's operating system, CPM, which they improved and incorporated into their product for IBM. Kildall missed this magnificent opportunity. That hurts!
Bill Gates is very ingenious, intelligent, risky and decisive. He did not panic about the IBM empire, he moved quickly to find a solution to his problem and be able to give IBM what he wanted and everything worked out wonderfully. I think this would be a situation from which to learn a lot.

The triumph of IBM was resounding, now everyone wanted to produce and sell personal computers, they managed to clone IBM computers, using reverse engineering and virgin minds to avoid any legal conflict. Companies, like Compaq, did it, had excellent sales and earned very good money. You have to be smart even when copying! Microsoft as the provider of the operating systems for all these companies settled very well the foundations of their empire and grew, grew and grew.

Now IBM had even more competition, Microsoft proposed a new and innovative operating system, with new graphics and windows, IBM wanted to continue working under its standards and rejected the offer, did not imagine that this would become the operating system most commonly used in the world. Oops, that hurts even more! 

Microsoft and IBM, ended their relationship, Microsoft had a huge advance up its sleeve, Apple had to pay attention, and not especially the bear. Fear the nerd!

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