> On Jan 16, 2016, at 9:48 AM, Bernardo Sulzbach <mafagafogiga...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > On Sat, Jan 16, 2016 at 12:41 PM, Alister <alister.w...@ntlworld.com> wrote: >> it was exactly the scenario described >> >> A company had developed a means of impo=roving the Fat file system (IIRC by >> using a pseudo file system on top to eliminate the wasted space caused by >> incomplete blocks & the end of files) >> >> Microsoft engaged in negotiations to include the technique in MSDOS >> the pulled out at the last minute (after obtaining all the technical >> details) & introduced their own version which operated almost identically. >> >> heck PCDos was initially written by a 3rd party who was ripped of by >> Microsoft. >> >> Microsoft are the goto example fro the three 'E' approach to development. >> >> Embrace >> Extend >> Extinguish > > Did people know this back then or it just surfaced years later?
It was known at the time. It was certainly known by the companies that were ripped off, but they were typically small to really small and couldn’t get traction for their stories in a press that was in thrall to Micro$oft. It was pretty much only mentioned by contrarian writers like Cringely, and for the most part was lost in the noise over the browser war. Bill > I > suppose that at the beginning MS was more "vulnerable" than it is > today. > > -- > Bernardo Sulzbach > -- > https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
