> MS-DOS 5.00 first version sold RETAIL
On Sun, 4 Oct 2020, Ali wrote:
Fred,I have to respectfully disagree here. 3.20 was sold in retail. It was packaged in the dark blue packaging which was the norm for MS at that time (after the green packaging of earlier products).?? I have a copy sitting up on my shelf (in fact I have both 3.20 and 3.21). 4.00 seems to be in the grey oem package but not necessarily branded (i.e. a generic rey box included with new system purchase) . I have not seen anything MS retail before 3.20.-Ali
When IBM announced 3.20, I stood in line outside the IBM retail store in Oakland for the doors to open. Support of 3.5" was important to me.
We need to differentiate between Retail Sales BY MICROSOFT, V manufacture and WHOLESALE sales by Microsoft to OEMs for them to retail. With a WIDE variety of different packagings, ranging from personalized to the OEM (Compaq, Zenith, Morrow, etc.), very generic, and even packaging that would not be out of place for a Microsoft retail sale.
I was unaware of DOS Retail sales done directly by Microsoft prior to 5.00.
Although MANY OEMs would sell to anybody with money, most vendors at shows, and even stores, were acquiring their inventory from OEMs.
They wouldn't really be called "GRAY MARKET" unless Microsoft's terms with the OEM had precluded that.
But, if you have reason to believe that your copies came directly from Microsoft, not through an OEM, OR came through a retail store that had no affiliation with an OEM, then I need to revise my perception of when Microsoft started to retail DOS. Has anybody ever seen a retail price list or RETAIL SALES (V product) ad? (write/call to purchase) YES, I can be TOTALLY WRONG. I felt the elephant's tail and smelled the region, but did not have the big picture.
I had even previously speculated that the 1991 date of 5.00 might reflect 10 year non-competition terms in the original IBM/Microsoft contract(s).
Microsoft certainly did have capability of retail, at least for SOME products. Did they RETAIL the Softcard, or only Wholesale?
In 1979?, Lifeboat (that Microsoft had redirected me to) had repeatedly failed to fulfill an urgent need for multiple copies of the new Microsoft Fortran for TRS80, On the way back from the eclipse in Montana, I made a stop, and a friend (Bob Wallace) who worked for Microsoft handed me the very first couple of copies in the Seattle airport. The handoff WITHIN state of Washington should have prevented sales tax exemption for interstate commerce. It could still be exempt due to being FOR RESALE (although THAT should have required me to fill out forms with the WA state taxman), so they might have written it up as being interstate (legal if they called me a courier, rather than the customer?)
-- Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
