IBM what could have been
At one point, OS/2 could run multiple PC-DOS Windows "Better than Microsoft can" since memory was partitioned, and a crash in one window wouldn't affect the whole machine. Microsoft wrote a stub to detect whether OS/2 was installed, and killed the attempt to load PC-DOS...
Where IBM Boca missed the boat was thinking that this is a "personal" computer, and therefore, not a "commercial" one. IBM should have OWNED that market, entirely, and the competing product within the corporation that lost to Boca's product recognized that but got shoved aside by the sexiness of the PC, and all the departures from Big Blue tradition, etc.
Also, the way IBM execs got paid meant they were shortsighted about 'solutions' that included IBM Products that they didn't get paid for.
As Product Marketing Manager for IBM CICS 0S/2, (announced at Comdex '89, a Sr. VP from MIcrosoft shared with me on the show floor "That's the most important announcement in this entire show" as I handed him a press release THAT WAS NOT included in the show's press kit, since the PC division was in charge, and they kept other Division's products from being included...) I tried to get the then President of the PC division to just whisper CICS OS/2 to the management of a very large Insurance firm. He would have left with a 40,000 PC order, but, instead, chose to say nothing...IDIOTIC but true.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
