I bought an IBM PC brand new. No software was bundled with it (besides ROM Basic). There was PC-DOS and CPM/86 available in IBM boxes. I picked the far cheaper one. So did about everyone else I knew at the time.
We had both available at work, and I tried CPM/86. I thought it was inferior and awkward compared to PC-DOS. Nobody could justify paying 4-5 times as much for it, even its adherents.
I don't know who set that high price on it, but it was sufficient to destroy CPM/86, no nefarious closed door maneuvering was necessary.
I wish I had a photo of that IBM CPM/86 box, few people believe it existed :-)
Some more context: In "Computer Chronicles" memorial episode, they too did not know who set the high price.
I remember coming upon a website of someone in the industry that asked Gary Kildall, "Who set the high price?". Gary said it was him.
I don't know if the page is up. I also don't know how to find it. I'm betting it's somewhere in the Internet Archive.
Even before OSes, Gates would argue with Allen: "If we give away our programming language for free, we will have high market share!" Allen would reply, "We would also go broke." Source: Andrews and Manes' "Gates": http://www.amazon.com/Gates-Microsofts-Reinvented-Industry-H...
Grabbing market share, low prices... combined w/ Scott Oki's strategic thinking (barriers of entry, legal contracts as competitive tool, from book "Microsoft Generation" http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-First-Generation-Library-Edi...), and MSFT's motto, "We set the standard", it would make sense that MSFT would do it's best to price the OS as low as possible for long-term gain.
Also, there was a Pascal-based OS, but most people forget about that one.
We had both available at work, and I tried CPM/86. I thought it was inferior and awkward compared to PC-DOS. Nobody could justify paying 4-5 times as much for it, even its adherents.
I don't know who set that high price on it, but it was sufficient to destroy CPM/86, no nefarious closed door maneuvering was necessary.
I wish I had a photo of that IBM CPM/86 box, few people believe it existed :-)