Steve Ballmer

I mean, truly incredible they pulled it off.

IBM was right that it was by far and away the most successful personal computer on the market as soon as they released it.

IBM was right that it was by far and away the most successful personal computer on the market as soon as they released it.

It's fascinating. And you know what? To give them a little bit more credit too, they did try to enforce that there's some amount of lock-in to the IBM PC. And they did that in two ways. One is, we're simplifying and calling it DOS. It was PC DOS, which is different than MS-DOS, which would get licensed to other computer makers.

It's fascinating. And you know what? To give them a little bit more credit too, they did try to enforce that there's some amount of lock-in to the IBM PC. And they did that in two ways. One is, we're simplifying and calling it DOS. It was PC DOS, which is different than MS-DOS, which would get licensed to other computer makers.

I don't know exactly what happened, but it basically seems like it just wasn't different enough to... to be meaningful to application developers. So that's one piece of it. The second is IBM did actually have proprietary BIOS. So that was another part where they kind of thought that that might provide them some protection where they could stay a linchpin in the ecosystem.

I don't know exactly what happened, but it basically seems like it just wasn't different enough to... to be meaningful to application developers. So that's one piece of it. The second is IBM did actually have proprietary BIOS. So that was another part where they kind of thought that that might provide them some protection where they could stay a linchpin in the ecosystem.

And it wasn't just all off the shelf. They actually did have something that was theirs that was proprietary.

And it wasn't just all off the shelf. They actually did have something that was theirs that was proprietary.

Oh, do you know the story of the Compaq BIOS?

Oh, do you know the story of the Compaq BIOS?

It is basically why Compaq worked is what it comes down to. So Compaq was formed basically to clone the IBM PC. They saw the market opportunity and they realized they could buy from all the same equipment vendors. So let's go eat their margin is basically the plan. However...

It is basically why Compaq worked is what it comes down to. So Compaq was formed basically to clone the IBM PC. They saw the market opportunity and they realized they could buy from all the same equipment vendors. So let's go eat their margin is basically the plan. However...

The one thing that was not off the shelf is the BIOS, the basic input-output system, which is effectively the thing that decides to load the operating system when you turn the machine on. And so there's some proprietary magic that happens to call upon the operating system to do its thing.

The one thing that was not off the shelf is the BIOS, the basic input-output system, which is effectively the thing that decides to load the operating system when you turn the machine on. And so there's some proprietary magic that happens to call upon the operating system to do its thing.

So, Compaq reverse engineered the BIOS, and the way that they did it was very similar to Trip Hawkins and the story that he told us about his reverse engineering at Electronic Arts.

So, Compaq reverse engineered the BIOS, and the way that they did it was very similar to Trip Hawkins and the story that he told us about his reverse engineering at Electronic Arts.

Yes. So Compaq had two engineers and one engineer went in and fully dissected the code for the IBM PC BIOS and basically saw all the proprietary calls that it made and documented each of those calls without writing the implementation steps. Then he handed, hey, here's what the BIOS needs to interface with over to the other engineer.

Yes. So Compaq had two engineers and one engineer went in and fully dissected the code for the IBM PC BIOS and basically saw all the proprietary calls that it made and documented each of those calls without writing the implementation steps. Then he handed, hey, here's what the BIOS needs to interface with over to the other engineer.

And the other engineer, on their own, just went through and thought of an implementation. And they have no idea if it's the same implementation. So it's not breaking any sort of infringement. They're basically saying, I'm just seeing the requirements for this product, and I'm coming up with my own implementation of that product.