The History of GeoWorks, Microsoft Windows’ Upstart ’90s Competitor (2016)
Back in those days, Windows had an absolute lock on the industry for several reasons:<p>1: it was the incumbent<p>2: there were no hardware drivers for any other operating system<p>3: there was software for Microsoft operating systems, and no useful software for any other OS<p>4: Microsoft has legal contracts with the hardware manufacturers which required that a icense fee be paid regardless of whether or not Windows shipped with each machine.<p>5: probably more reasons<p>As an outcome of the above it turned out to be impossible for any other OS to get a foothold on the PC. It&#x27;s hgard for people to understand now, but there was still an opening for some other OS to get a foothold.<p>In the end, another OS turned up and started making major headway on the PC.  It succeeded against Windows in the way that such battles tend to be played out - by playing to a different set of rules.  That OS of course was Linux and its rules were to be free, to have a collaborative development model, to be server focused, and to have the fortunate timing of being at the start of the era of connected computing. I remember being startled that I could get a free operating system by buying an issue of a computer magazine at the newsagent with a CDROM on the front containing Linux.<p>Eventually the seemingly impossible happened and an OS came along that beat Microsoft on the desktop, or at least competed effectively with Microsoft Windows - and that of course was OSX.  And OSX against succeeded by playing to its own rules.  No need for hardware drivers for every device under the sun because they it only ran on Apple hardware.  It had applications from the Macintosh user base (and Microsoft), and turned out to be a really nicely integrated and functional OS (IMO).<p>Its a pity GEOS didn&#x27;t make headway, at the time I really wanted SOMETHING, ANYTHING to give Microsoft effective competition because it looked back then like it was going to be 1,000 years of Microsoft in first place with no second, third or fourth place runners up.<p>BeOS also gets points for having a try at competing with Microsoft.