On Sun, 19 Nov 2006 17:06:52 -0500 in OSDEBATE,
Adam spake unto us, saying:

 A> IBM created most of the fundamental "IP" in the world of computing
 A> including the "non-destructive cursor".

Yes and no.  They may have the most patents, they might be the largest
surviving creator of IP in the computing world, and their IP might be
dominant in today's market, but many of the smaller players back in the
1960's and 1970's (especially Sperry UNIVAC, Cray, Burroughs, and also
Control Data) were fairly innovative in their own right in both the
hardware and software areas.

 A> If IBM had been able & willing to "enforce it's IP"
there'd still
 A> only be IBM.

In some large industries it has *never* been "only IBM" -- a surprising
percentage of the mainframe transaction systems in the airline industry
(for example) are still Unisys Clearpath mainframe boxes using TIP or
HVTIP, and while those numbers are shrinking, at least two of the major
carriers (UAL and NWA) still have a lot of stuff on those boxes.

Disclaimer: I used to work for Unisys, and I've worked on Unisys 2200
mainframes in the airline industry for 18+ years, so my view is likely
somewhat biased.  But I know what I've seen in the trenches, and it
ain't always IBM.  :-)

-- 
 -Rich Steiner >>>---> http://www.visi.com/~rsteiner
>>>---> Mableton, GA USA
    Mainframe/Unix bit twiddler by day, OS/2+Linux+DOS hobbyist by night.
       WARNING: I've seen FIELDATA FORTRAN V and I know how to use it!
                   The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.

--- slrn/0.9.8.0 (OS/2)