Opinion Windows 1 and 2 flopped almost as badly as OS/2 did. How did Microsoft stage one of the greatest comebacks ever with Windows 3?
Earlier this month, we took a look at how Microsoft learned important lessons from the failure of OS/2, even though less than a decade later, it had already started forgetting what went wrong and why. Such organizational amnesia has a long history. For instance, in the middle of the 1700s, the Royal Navy worked out how to cure scurvy, but by the end of the 1800s, it had forgotten again.
Windows actually had some decent competition until windows 3.1. There was GEOS and GEM for example. There were even competitors to Office like WordPerfect and Lotus 1 2 3.
I’m guessing Windows 3 finally had a decent set of APIs for app manufacturers to take advantage of. Or maybe Microsoft was better at including drivers by then or something.