“As soon as computing started to get commercialized, Value
Added Resellers (VARs) appeared, helping to integrate computers
into traditionally computer-free environments. My standard example
is a dentist’s office. The dentist doesn’t care about software,
operating or computers; he only cares about getting patients
scheduled and billed.“
“Back in the old days, meaning the 60s and 70s, operating
systems were simply necessary evils to make it possible to sell
hardware. You could get source code for the OS because, after all,
what would someone do with an OS that ran only on a $5,000,000
piece of hardware that you could buy only from one source? Even in
the 80s, getting at least a linkable version of the kernel and
source for the device drivers wasn’t uncommon. I remember getting
this in 1983 when I was starting SSC and we bought a Codata 3300
system.”
“Then along came Microsoft and, on the UNIX side, SCO. Computers
were relatively inexpensive and the OS was made by a different
company than the hardware. In order for these independent OS
software companies to pay the bills, they needed to sell their OS.
Thus, the inside of an OS became a big secret in order to keep the
money flowing.”