Yes, making an OS with pre-emptive multi-tasking with a modern graphical UI that could be installed (and be fast) on an affordable family PC with just 4MB of RAM, is "software mediocrity". The stories of "old glory days" should be reserved strictly to true geniuses who wouldn't touch anything cheaper than 10K UNIX workstations.
I used to work under a CTO who's been in OS/2 kernel group at the time of their cooperation with MS. He's still claiming them all idiots and arrogant pricks, only "their" OS/2 eventually worked out, but "his" OS/2 silently died.
You can't beat at the same time the mighty gorilla (IBM) and ambitious uprising young startup (Apple) on marketing or luck alone, you'd need an engineering arm slightly above mediocre level.
So... I call BS on your comment. I bet Microsoft in the 80s was more exciting place to be than Google is today.
I used to work under a CTO who's been in OS/2 kernel group at the time of their cooperation with MS. He's still claiming them all idiots and arrogant pricks, only "their" OS/2 eventually worked out, but "his" OS/2 silently died.
You can't beat at the same time the mighty gorilla (IBM) and ambitious uprising young startup (Apple) on marketing or luck alone, you'd need an engineering arm slightly above mediocre level.
So... I call BS on your comment. I bet Microsoft in the 80s was more exciting place to be than Google is today.