The computer software market as we know it would look different
According to J. Scott Christianson, assistant teaching professor at the University of Missouri, Bill Gates single-handedly created the computer software market.
“First by providing basic and other computer language compilers for the Altair, and then an operating system and application software for the IBM PC, Microsoft defined the modern software company,” he says.
“Before Bill Gates, third party software developers had to also be hardware developers (Wang, etc.). Microsoft defined most of what we take for granted in a software company—licensing, upgrades, support, etc.—that is independent of the hardware manufacturer. And along the way, had to work through all the distribution, licensing, and regulatory frameworks.”
